"looking to metaphors like the zombie"

I suppose it's the sign of the times. A zombie is "US" or our former selves. To see a zombie as our enemy is an apolitical enemy that doesn't point to a particular country or religiion or belief. We are our own worst enemy mutated by some outside force so that we are coming back to harm ourselves.

Back in the '50s, we had all kinds of killer beasts that walked the earth in movies. A good deal of them were created out of simple ignorance but also from the general fears created by atomic weapons. These weapons created Godzilla and a whole host of other deformed and fantastic creatures. The zombie is our present day "beast" borne out of our general fears about everything from the economy, Y2K, politicians, environmental distress, terrorism, wayward comets, et al. What started from a low budget flick in '68, the zombie craze and interest is widespread with even manufactures getting in on the marketing by offering zombie protection kits and even zombie bullets.

While essentially a harmless but widespread interest in zombies, it is nevertheless a very interesting mass psychological development in our society -- don't you think?