You may see zombies and vampires as little more than cultural fodder for your horror-filled delight. But for centuries, undead creatures have been used to represent social anxieties, reflect political upheaval and reinforce burial rites. Anthony and Nadine meet a scholar who says the undead aren’t really monsters at all - they’re us. What can the walking corpse or the bloodsucking temptress tell us about ourselves and our relationship with death and the afterlife? And can zombies ever be hot?
Scientists say we’re fascinated with the experience of being hunted because it is hard-wired into our brains; that the push-pull of horror films is that they conjure ancestral memories of snakes and saber tooths lurking in the forest of our psyche.
Meanwhile, critics argue that zombies and vampires stalk our imaginations because they offer a lens to examine the big, complex questions we face as humans.
What separates the undead from a lot of other different types of monsters is that they were once regular, living humans.Dr Emily Zarka
In this episode, we delve into the spine-chilling world of the undead.
What can we learn about dying from creatures who can’t? Ever wondered why zombies and vampires loom so large in our cultural imaginary?
Dr Emily Zarka has spent much of her adult life answering these curly questions so we don’t have to. With a PhD in Gothic Literature, she is a public scholar and digital educator who knows a vampire from a vrykolakas, and a dybbuk from a draugr. Through a tour of undead history and lore from around the world, Emily shows us that there’s more to these monsters than meets the eye.
A lot of great horror and great undead stories actually come from marginalised communities...that's how zombies began as a whole.
Emily’s List of Unmissable Undead Content
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- Train to Busan (2016)
- Dead Space (2023)
- The Last of Us (video game and TV series)
- Resident Evil 4 (2005, 2023)
- The Walking Dead (comic book)
- 30 Days of Night (comic and movie)
- Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- The Night Eats the World (2018)
- Shaun of the Dead (2004)
- REC (2007)
- What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
- Blacula (1972)
- Daybreak (2013)
- Ronin Island (2019)
- Red Leaves (2022)
Grave Matters is an SBS Audio podcast about death, dying, and the people helping us do both better. Find it in your podcast app, such as the SBS Audio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or LiSTNR.
Links
- Monstrum | PBS
- www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/07/08/3795976.htm
- www.theconversation.com/more-disease-than-dracula-how-the-vampire-myth-was-born-167482
- www.globalsupport.harvard.edu/travel/advice/go-bag-checklist
- www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jul/17/george-a-romero-director-night-of-the-living-dead-zombies
- www.thechinaproject.com/2018/10/31/film-friday-beautiful-ghosts-and-hopping-vampires-pt-2/
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43971/christabel
Credits
Hosts: Anthony Levin and Nadine J. Cohen
Producer: Jeremy Wilmot
Writers: Anthony Levin and Nadine J. Cohen
Art and design: Karina Aslikyan
SBS team: Joel Supple, Max Gosford, Bernadette Phương Nam Nguyễn, and Philip Soliman
Guest: Dr Emily Zarka
Helplines
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