Apocalyptic Visions of the Present: the Zombie Invasion in Post 9/11 American Cinema
Published 2015-01-01
Keywords
- 9/11,
- zombie apocalypse,
- otherness,
- capitalism,
- George A. Romero.
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2015 L'Atalante. Journal of film studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The 9/11 attacks triggered a change in America’s conception of its own national reality, mainly as a consequence of the social trauma and collective paranoia experienced by its citizens. This change is reflected in the films produced in the US in the twenty-first century, and particularly in the horror genre and in the zombie subgenre. Apart from the proliferation of apocalyptic settings that evoke the chaos of New York City after the attacks, these new films reflect a radical conception of the other instigated by the picture of the enemy presented by the Republican government of George W. Bush. On the other hand, the zombie motif has also been used as a vehicle by some filmmakers to elaborate a macabre critique of the capitalist system and of Republican neoliberal policy.
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