Zombies!

I have an amazing affinity for zombie movies, especially those of George A. Romero. I'm not sure exactly why I find them so enjoyable, maybe it's because of the guilty pleasure I get from watching massive carnage and chaos. Maybe it's because zombies are the only scary things in the world nowadays. But maybe, just maybe, I love these movies so much because they show man in the state of nature. All society has fallen into anarchy, chaos. Man finds himself with a small group, cut off from others, with little news coming in about the outside world, their friends, their family. They must find in themselves the will and the power to survive.

It's interesting how zombie movies play out. The movies are always chock full of philosophical and moral questions. When does death occur? When a person turns into a zombie, are they no longer themselves? Knowing that at death a person turns into a zombie, if your friend is bitten and death is imminent, when do you blow their head off before or after they turn into a zombie? Though these questions seem ridiculous, they have an interesting undertone. What makes a person who they are? When does self-preservation take precedence over the humanity of another person. What is humanity in the first place?

I guess that is really why I love zombie movies. They show people struggling with these questions in crises with actual stake in the answers, not just theoretical.

On that note, I recently found out that Night of the Living Dead, the first movie in the living dead series by Romero, has lapsed into public domain. This means it can be LEGALLY download and shared since there is no copyright on it. Amazing, no? How crazy is that? Unfortunately for Mr. Romero, he only owns the copyrights to one of his original 4 Dead movies (Dawn of the Dead is owned by him. It also happens to be my favorite). But lucky for me, I can obtain his movie for free.