Film studies professor James Udden was quoted in an October 22 article on InYork.com about the role of zombies in the cinema.
From InYork.com:
Even before Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead" comic book became a popular television show, which just started its third season on AMC, movies such as "Shaun of the Dead" and "Zombieland" began a rise in zombie popularity. The undead even made its way into literature, with Seth Grahame-Smith's parody novel "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."
This sub-genre of horror began with a low-budget film -- "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968 -- said James Udden, professor of film studies at Gettysburg College.
"What I find fascinating is that zombies in particular have real staying power," Udden said.
He added that he is surprised that even his smartest students would theorize about what they would do if a zombie apocalypse could occur.
Udden said the horror genre, which is only a couple hundred years old and began in the Age of Enlightenment, is about a violation of the scientific. Zombies violate the world between the living and the dead.