Zombie-Themes Outbreak Films and World War Z (2013)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2022.499

Keywords:

Zombie, outbreak, horror, World War Z, Covid-19

Abstract

There are many subgenres and a diverse range of creatures in horror cinema. One of these creatures is the Zombie. The Zombie character in cinema has evolved through eras. The Zombie which, in the past, was presented as a creature resurrected after death in horror cinema began to be associated with virii and the apocalypse afterwards. Nowadays, the Zombie in the cinema are beyond the figure of a horror. As a matter of fact, many zombie-themed movies are presented as allegories of apocalypse or as outbreak-themed movies. What is the meaning of the zombies which are the subject of outbreak films? What cultural codes do zombies represent in outbreak-themed films? What does the changes in different adaptations of this myth mean in outbreak-themed movies? Zombies in epidemic films can be likened to slaves that are reprogrammed after a resurrection process. From this point of view,  we are to evaluate the movie World War Z, and the data obtained is to be interpreted in our conclusion section.

Author Biography

Barış Tolga Ekinci

He was born in Istanbul in 1980. He completed his undergraduate studies at Maltepe University Communication Faculty Radio-TV-Cinema Department, master's degree from Marmara University and doctorate education at Maltepe University. Between 2002 and 2010, he worked as editor and assistant director for various televisions and production companies. He passed to the academy in 2010. He received the title of Associate Professor in Cinema in 2017. Since 2015, he has been working as a lecturer at Beykent University, Faculty of Communication, Department of TV Journalism and Programming.

References

Akser, M. (2020). Cinema, life and other viruses: the future of filmmaking, film education and film studies in the age of covid-19 pandemic. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 8(2), 1-13.

Aşılıoğlu, Emre and Işık, Mehmet. (2020). “Ideology in Epidemic Films: A Review of Tehdit (Outbreak) and Salgın (Contagion), “Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Journal of Social Sciences, 2020; 2 (22), pp.342-362.

Atayman, Veysel and Çetinkaya Tuncer. (2016). Popüler Sinemanın Mitolojisi. Istanbul: Ayrıntı Publishing.

Baldwin, R. Gayle. (2007). “World War Z and the End of Religion As We Know It”, Religions Encounters, Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 412-425.

Bishop, K. W. (2009). Dead Man Still Walking: A Critical Investigation into The Rise and Fall and Rise of Zombie Cinema. (Doctor of philosophy Thesis). The University of Arizona. Arizona.

Bordwell, D. and Thompson, K. (2017). Film Art: an introduction 11 the edition. McGraw-Hill Education.

Cardin, Matt. (2017). Horror Literature Through History, Santa Barbara and California: Greenwood Press.

Crook, R. James. (2018). “Zombies! They’re Us!”, The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 30:3, Fall, pp. 165-177.

Ekinci, Tolga, Barış. (2013). “Analysis of Disaster Films and Changing Dominant Structures in Hollywood Cinema in the Context of Planet of the Apes Films”, Gümüşhane University Faculty of Communication, Electronic Journal, 2(1), pp.215-233.

Ekinci, Tolga, Barış. (2015). “Fears of Society: Zombie Films and an analysis of the series Resident Evil”, Global Media Journal TR Edition, 6 (11), pp.220-239.

Filho, Reis, Lúcio. (2020). “No Safe Space: Zombie Film Tropes during the COVID-19 Pandemic”, Space and Culture, Vol. 23(3) pp. 253-258.

Höglund, Johan. (2017). “Eat the Rich: Pandemic Horror Cinema”, Transtext(e)s Transcultures Journal of Global Cultural Studies, pp. 1-14.

Jusue, R, Itoiz. (2017). “The Politics of the Zombie in World War Z: Discourses on Invasion, Security and Heteronormative Resilience in Neoliberalism”, MA Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths University of London, pp.1-11.

Kord, Susanne. (2021). “Pandemic Movies: What Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys Tells Us About the Future”, Academia Letters, pp.1-3.

Lynteris, Christos. (2020). Human Extinction and the Pandemic Imaginary. London and New York: Routledge Press.

Pappas, Georgios and Seitaridis, Savvas and Akritidis, Nikolaos ve Tsianos, Epaminondas. (2021). “Infectious Diseases in Cinema: Virus Huntersmand Killer Microbes”, Infectious Diseases in Cinema, pp. 939-942.

Reyburn, Duncan. (2017). “Love in the Time of the Zombie Contagion: A Girardian-Weilienne Reading of World War Z”, Studies in the Fantastic, Number 5, pp. 47-77.

Sconce, Jeffrey. (2014). “Dead Metaphors/Undead Allegories”, Screening The Undead: Vampires and Zombies In Film and Television, (Ed. Leon Hunt, Sharon Lockyer and Milly Williamson), London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, pp. 120-139.

Şimşek, G. (2013). “Globalization as an Example on the Axis of Localization: Island: Wedding of Zombies”, The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication: TOJDAC. April, Volume:3. Issue 2. 29-37.

Vervaeke, John and Mastropietro, Christopher and Miscevic Filip. (2017). Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.

Wood, Robin. (2002). Hitchcock’s Films Revisited. New York: Columbia University Press.

Downloads

Published

2022-12-19

How to Cite

Ekinci, B. T. (2022). Zombie-Themes Outbreak Films and World War Z (2013). CINEJ Cinema Journal, 10(1), 150–186. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2022.499

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2022): Fall 2022

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.