Zombie

It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
…
In your head, in your head,
Zombie

-Cranberries

Jack Donovan comments on the Zombie meme, but I just cannot shake there is a larger twist. 

While Jack lamentably searches out the positives if from a more consumerist perspective in this case, I find a reason to miss the old anti-heroes of my youth.  We had slashers who enforced the old Purtian morality, well stated in Scream about what happens to “minorities” and fornicators, and its rival, the Zombie picture, which had leaned leftist since Romero established the genre as a commercial success.  (Monster movies were a different Cold War genre, but after the wonderful Jaws, it would take an Alien to get post-modern.)

Jack, to his credit, demonstrates that the those who identify with the zombies seem rather lame.

In 1981, Mel Gibson became an American star on the back of the sequel to Mad Max.  Road Warrior was an American hit.  No doubt, American audiences recognized the Western in the film, but Mel’s character in the movie was something evolved.  It was man amongst the ruins, only with Man, siding to defend civilization against the hordes of barbarians--this might be relevant.

Pro-wrestling observed as much and created a heel tag team, the Road Warriors who rivaled, and surpassed, the Confederate minded heels, the Freebirds.  The Road Warriors, as a wrestling team, took the look of the bad guys, the raw and real nature of the bad guys, Road Warrior outlined.  The Road Warriors, against the rules of kayfab wrestling, gradually became fan favorites.  (Where are they now note:  Hawk died in ’03, but Animal lives, and his son made the NFL in ‘09.)

Mel Gibson became a movie star in the United States, with all its troubles, and the bad guys of Road Warrior became an archetype, beloved by those fans of a certain folk-theater genre.

Says something I think, about threading the needle.  Something zombies will never offer.