The Cinema of the Zombies and the Mythology of the Christian Resurrection

From Classic Horror to the “Zombie Jesus Movie”

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the figurative and thematic intertwining between Zombie cinema and Christian dogma regarding the resurrection of the dead. Using the methodological tools of zombie studies and a formal analysis of the film contents chosen as case studies, a system is described, of violations and re-appropriations of the sacred, a system which has nourished and continued to revive the cultural figure of the zombie since its origins. Observing the dynamics with which it overturns the images of Christianity, the Zombie emerges as a complex conceptual metaphor allowing for the construction of critical perspectives on cultural and political systems rooted over time. The analysis concentrates on the figurative and metaphorical transformations that cut across the history of the cinematic zombie, and which can be schematised, in general terms, in three paradigms: the (post)colonial zombie; the post-modern zombie; the post-zombie. These variations are approached through analysis of a triptych of films identified as representative of the interrelationships between Christianity and zombie films: White Zombie (1932), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and the short film, Fist of Jesus (2012). The formal and thematic analysis of these film texts aims to provide an overall picture of the processes of secularisation of religious symbolism and the Christian function of the resurrection of the dead through the metaphor of the zombie. Continuing from a diachronic perspective marked by the different films, the analysis focuses on certain significant symbolic constructions: the confrontation between historically conflicting religious systems (White Zombie); the lessening of power of control over death and its elaborations (Dawn of the Dead); the repositioning of the sacred in contemporary aesthetics, which can be seen in certain parodic uses of zombie mythology in the contemporary world (Fist of Jesus).