Zombies: Mob Mentality

I decided for this week to carry on with my discussion of zombies. I was thinking about the comment on last week's blog post that called zombies "cuddly," which is something I would never think to call them. Zombies are different from other monster things, like vampires or werewolves, because I think, they are scary by being less than human. Vampires and werewolves are both stronger, faster, and overall more powerful than humans. Zombies on the other hand, are stupid mindless creatures whose ferocity comes from their lack of thought, rather than super strength. As far as speed though, that just depends on the story. Now-a-days, more and more zombies can run, but even in old movies, slow zombies still end up corning victim after victim until half the population is drooling for brains.

The zombie horde

Thinking about it more, I realized, zombies have a mob mentality. They don't think for themselves, but attack those who are different. They are humanity at its absolute worst, rotting, mindless killers, who will turn against even family and friends. The cannibalism is important too, I think, but is a slightly different issue than the mob mentality so for the sake of length I'll save that topic for later.

Some of the appeal of zombie games in particular may be that contrasted against such a bleak incarnation of humanity, the human characters are extraordinary by continually avoiding becoming part of the mob through ordinary human wits, speed, and strength, whereas being human isn't enough when it comes to vampires or werewolves.