Frankly, my dear, I don't understand your zombie obsession

I found the above photo on the P-C online archive. Its accompanying caption reads:

Zombies along with numerous other variations of the undead attack innocent drivers and pedestrians alike through downtown Iowa City during the 5th annual Zombie March on Saturday, September 18, 2010.

It is unfortunately ironic in light of what happened Tuesday: a participant in RiverFest’s “Humans versus Zombies” game was struck by a car. The incident prompted festival officials to cancel the remainder of the game, which is apparently a role-playing version of “tag.”

There are very few details about what happened, and I have seen nothing to indicate whether the victim was playing a human or zombie. However, here’s the point I want to make: if you dress like a zombie and playfully threaten pedestrians and motorists in the haunting, slow motion way of the undead, you’re asking for it. Personally, I do not think it is particularly wise to act like a reanimated corpse in public, especially since popular perception is that zombies can be “killed” by incapacitating the brain.

But that’s just me.

Frankly, I don’t understand the zombie craze. Though the B-movie appeal of zombies has been a mainstay of horror for decades, I think the current obsession started when I was in college, around the time 28 Days Later came out and the Living Dead franchise was, fittingly, brought back from the dead. Around 2004 it seemed zombie movies were hitting theaters hard and heavy, and they obviously attracted quite a following. Or, perhaps, the following was already there and it attracted the movies. Either way, Iowa City now has an annual Zombie March and the “Zombies versus Humans” thing. (In one of the more memorable moments of the painful, two-hour Creative Writing classes I took at Iowa, someone had a zombie short story workshopped. It was almost a complete plagiarization of Night of the Living Dead.)

I just don’t get it, which is okay. Everyone has their own interests, and I am sure a few zombie people would not understand my love of beer (which, honestly, has gotten in the way of my novel and post writing recently). But I cannot help scratching my head at it, especially with a zombie prom scheduled at the IMU Saturday.

Zombie prom. Seriously, people.