











































Zombies Say More Than
“Uungh”: A Walker’s Social 
Commentary

From 1975 on, there has been 
a significant spike in the 

production of zombie films. Annalee 
Newitz, an American author and 
journalist, used her in-depth research 
to create a graph illustrating the 
correlation of this trend with the 
rise in violence and social anxiety 
in our current society. In short, 
the graph makes the statement 
that, throughout the last 50 years, 
zombie cinema has both reflected 
and commented upon the cultural 
anxieties of the time. Most recently, 
the television series The Walking 
Dead (TWD) has drawn attention to the current violent state of society and to 
how our society reacts to this new societal norm. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s article, 
“Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” delves into an exploration of what does, and does 
not, define a monster. While all seven of Cohen’s theses provide useful insights, this 
paper will focus on the two theses, “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body” and 
“The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference.” These theses explore the idea that 
monsters both embody “pure culture” (Cohen 4) as well as the idea that monsters 
“call horrid attention to the borders that cannot – must not – be crossed” (Cohen 
13, emphasis original). The characters in TWD, particularly the prominent villains, 
each provide an accurate illustration of both theses explored by Cohen. This paper 
focuses specifically on how the directors and writers address to what degree evil 
can emerge from new social norms through their development of violent, malicious 
villains, how our society is reflected in these reactions, how these villains dwell on 
the border of human and monster, and what that means in regards to our current 
societal state.

ABSTRACT
The spike in zombie cinema in recent 
years is thought to be due to the fact 
that cultural and social anxieties are on 
the rise. This paper explores how zombie 
film and television comments on these 
anxieties and forces its audience to 
think about the world around them. It 
specifically focuses on The Walking Dead 
and how this famous television show 
utilizes villains and villainous behaviors 
to comment on our current, violent, and 
desensitized state of society.

Shannon Walter, Ball State University

1Digital Literature Review, vol. 4 (2017).     Ball State University. All Rights Reserved.
Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu.



A HISTORY OF THE LIVING DEAD
 To best understand the commentary provided by zombie cinema, it is 
important to first understand under what context the “living dead” came to be. 
Zombie culture can be dated back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
deriving specifically from Haitian culture. At this point in history, Haiti was under 
French rule and was inhabited by African slaves working on sugar plantations. The 
idea of the zombie originated from the combination of slavery, Haitian culture, and 
the accompanying casualties:

The original brains-eating fiend was a slave not to the flesh of others 
but to his own. The zombie archetype, as it appeared in Haiti and 
mirrored the inhumanity that existed there from 1625 to around 
1800, was a projection of the African slaves’ relentless misery and 
subjugation . . . . After the Haitian Revolution of 1804 and the end of 
French colonialism, the zombie became a part of Haiti’s folklore. The 
myth evolved slightly and was folded into the Voodoo religion, with 
Haitians believing zombies were corpses reanimated by shamans and 
voodoo priests. (Mariani)

While zombie culture began in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it became 
popular in America beginning in 1932 with Victor and Edward Halperin’s White 
Zombie and continued with iconic zombie films such as George Romero’s Night 
of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Throughout the years, and with the slew 
of zombie cinema that has been written and produced, the spike in production of 
these films correlates with times of high social anxiety such as the Vietnam War or 
the events of September 11, 2001, among others (Dendle 50, 54). 
 These correlations are important to note because they point directly at 
Cohen’s first thesis, that a monster is born from a cultural moment (4). Zombie 
cinema not only aims to thrill and frighten but also to provide its audience with 
a horrific reimagining of the society in which they reside. Kyle Bishop, author of 
American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular 
Culture, observes that “since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, zombie 
movies have become more popular than ever, with multiple remakes, parodies, 
and sequels. The renaissance of the subgenre reveals a connection between zombie 
cinema and post-9/11 cultural consciousness” (17). While the idea of the “living 
dead” has been around for centuries, so has the connection between zombie 
commentary on societal happenings and the anxieties that accompany them. These 
connections begin with the projection of misery in Haitian slaves and continue on 
to the acceptance of violence in our media and the desensitization to violence in 
everyday life that is reflected in today’s zombie cinema.

2Shannon Walter



SOCIAL COMMENTARY & ZOMBIE CINEMA THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
 While there is a vast inventory of zombie film and television to explore, two 
specific works are the best representation of zombie commentary in relation to this 
argument: 28 Days Later (2002) and Night of the Living Dead (1968). These two 
films provide an abundance of social commentary and illustrations of societal fears 
during the timeframe each film was written and produced. To understand where 
TWD fits into this conversation, it is important to first understand what has already 
been contributed to zombie commentaries.
 To begin, Romero’s choice of an African American protagonist, Ben Huss, 
for Night of the Living Dead provides a crucial example of the use of zombies as 
social commentary in relation to race: 

The originality of this movie . . . is correlated precisely with the absence 
of any explicit reference to Ben’s race in the course of the film. The 
absence does not of course mean that Night of the Living Dead escapes 
in any sense the imaginative constraints of contemporary racism. 
Rather, the zombie-image opens onto racism’s genocidal violence in its 
own terms. (McFarland 24, emphasis original)

This movie provides its audience with the original zombie trope, without explicitly 
referring to the films’ monsters as “zombies.” Night of the Living Dead has a 
stronger, subtler theme of the effects of violence and racism in the context of 
the Vietnam War, which took place during both the production and debut of 
this film. This theme further illustrates Cohen’s first theory, in that the monster 
is a projection of its cultural surroundings (4). The societal anxieties during the 
timeframe of this film accurately depict the “monstrosity” that is racism in this war-
time era. The most obvious aspect of racial commentary in the film is the ending, in 
which Ben, after surviving a hoard of zombies and watching the rest of his group 
perish, is killed by a group of all white men that closely resembles a lynch mob. This 
not-so-subtle ending hints at a racist society and forces the audience of the film to 
consider the inherent racism in the film as well as the world that they live in. 
 While Night of the Living Dead has a strong focus on the racism in and 
around the Vietnam War era, 28 Days Later focuses on the effects of violence 
on a more current society. This film addresses the idea of a “zombie” in a unique 
fashion. They are represented as being infected with what is described as a “rage-
virus” and are therefore not, for all intents and purposes, dead but are still defined 
as a “living dead” character. Thus, embodying Cohen’s second thesis, the monster 
walks the line of what is possible (5). The “monsters” defined in this film walk the 
border between what it means to be alive and what it means to be dead, causing the 
audience to question what it means to truly be a monster and, in the case of this 

3Shannon Walter



film, how violence plays into that definition. The opening scene of 28 Days Later is 
a collection of violent video clips from across the globe being played on an endless 
film loop, depicting the chaos and brutal state of society. The overarching theme of 
this film is the correlation between violence and its influence on the masses through 
the idea of the “rage-virus” that overcomes the globe. This film provides the most 
direct relationship between the use of rage-infected zombies in the film and their 
commentary on our violent society. 
 As in many zombie films, as well as TWD, the villain in 28 Days Later is 
revealed, to be not the zombies, but the human beings who rise to power in the new 
world order set by the “zombie apocalypse.” In the case of 28 Days Later, the villain 
is none other than the country’s own military, the very people employed to protect 
the country and the citizens residing in it. This “villain” plays into societal anxieties 
surrounding war and military presence itself. This film was released in 2003, only 
two years after the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City, while tensions were 
running high over the war in Iraq, happening across seas. This is not the first, or the 
last, commentary on the correlation between war, violence, and society’s reaction to 
the chaos of its surroundings.

THE WALKING DEAD
 Whereas Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later each put forth 
important commentaries on the state of society as well as the people who make it 
up, The Walking Dead provides a current perspective on how the undead are used 
to force audiences to question society and their reactions to it. TWD has taken 
the American society’s pop culture by storm through its engaging characters and 
continuous commentary on violence, specifically through the increase in brutality 
with each subsequent villain introduced throughout the past seven seasons. 
While the two previous examples of zombie film and their corresponding social 
commentary had only a few hours to make a point, TWD has aired 99 episodes 
as of April 2, 2017, each of which work to touch on various societal happenings, 
and has had the opportunity to grow alongside our society and culture. The writers 
have reflected the growing unrest in our society through the villains introduced 
throughout the course of the series over the last seven years of production. 
Although both the academic and popular culture realms have conversed over the 
social commentaries put forth by the abundance of zombie cinema, TWD has not 
been added to the ongoing conversation in a significant and meaningful way. 
 It is important for TWD to be addressed as valuable cinematic work. The 
show provides an ongoing commentary on the state of violence and unrest in 
our society using a “zombie apocalypse.” The depiction of a zombie apocalypse 

4Shannon Walter



highlights the effect of this event on the characters throughout the series because 
it provides the American people with a chance to question why our society is 
violent and why we have become desensitized to violence. While many aspects 
of the show provide a commentary, the villains in the series contribute the most 
controversial commentary on violence throughout the series. In addition, TWD 
and its accompanying villainous characters provide a detailed and exemplary 
example of Cohen’s two theses that have been previously discussed. The Walking 
Dead television series is based upon an ongoing series of graphic novels created by 
Robert Kirkman. In the introduction of the graphic novel series, Robert Kirkman, 
who is also a writer and producer of the show, makes the statement, “[g]ood zombie 
movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in 
society and our society’s station in the world. They show us gore and violence and 
all of that cool stuff too but there’s always an undercurrent of social commentary 
and thoughtfulness” (The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone By). This insight from 
the creator of The Walking Dead depicts the importance he puts on illustrating the 
problems in our society through this apocalyptic zombie television series. 
 Keeping the underlying commentary on our society’s faults in mind, the 
three most important villains to touch on throughout this series are as follows: 
Shane, the Governor, and, finally, Negan. Each villain gains relentless, vile behaviors 
and an indifference towards cold-blooded murder. When this show began, the 2010 
murder statistics were cited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 14,748 and 
have now risen to 15,696 (“Crime in the U.S.”). This data further illustrates the 
corresponding increase of violence in our society alongside the increase in violent 
villains introduced throughout the series. Each character, with their own specific 
attributes and villainous tendencies, works to illustrate the frightening realities of 
our society and how its members react to societal change.
 The first villain, Shane, did not begin as a villain at all but as protagonist 
Rick Grimes’s deputy and best friend. He was an upstanding citizen and a law 
enforcement official, and was presented as a character with strong morals. He 
protected Rick’s family when the world as they knew it fell apart and protected 
Carol, a member of their post-apocalyptic group, from her violent husband. While 
Shane begins the series as an arguably decent human being, he does not remain 
that way for long. In the third episode of the second season, “Save the Last One,” 
Shane takes a very clear turn to the dark side when he shoots an innocent man in 
the leg to save himself (“Save the Last One”). This moment is a turning point in 
the series, as it is the first instance of a character being overcome by this new world 
order. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Robert Kirkman defends Shane 
by saying, “He is one of the most nuanced characters on the show. It’s really a 

5Shannon Walter



tragic story for him because he really is trying to do good every single time he does 
something that seems to be crazy and irrational. He is really just a scared individual 
trying to feel his way through this insane world” (Goldberg). Through Kirkman’s 
thoughts on Shane and the struggle Shane goes through, it is clear to see the show’s 
commentary on the effect a major societal change has on a human being. Kirkman’s 
words regarding Shane’s complexity and terror imply that his reactions are natural 
and that Shane is simply succumbing to the pressures of the new world order.
In direct relation to Cohen’s theory regarding a monster representing a cultural 
moment (4), Shane’s reaction to this major societal change reflects the effect on our 
population due to dramatic changes, such as terrorist attacks like 9/11 or natural 
disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Upon discussing his thesis further, Cohen states, 
“[t]he monster is born only . . . as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment – of 
a time, a feeling, and a place . . . . Like a letter on the page, the monster signifies 
something other than itself ” (4). These dramatic events in our society, much like 
what happens to Shane, cause people to think, feel, and act differently, thus creating 
a monster such as Shane, who transforms into a cold-blooded killer because of 
his new surroundings. He is a representation of the monster that comes from a 
significant cultural moment, one that elicits fear from those affected and one that 
has the potential to create cruel, destructive monsters in its wake.
 We now move down the apocalyptic road to Woodbury, where the audience 
is introduced to Philip Blake, more commonly referred to as the Governor. At first, 
he seems like a normal human being, as he is the leader of a sort of “safe haven” 
in this apocalyptic new world and introduced as a fair leader, a widower, and a 
father. The audience soon comes to realize that Woodbury is anything but a safe 
haven. The audience’s hopes and dreams of the Governor being a kind-hearted new 
character come crashing down when he shows his true colors, i.e., keeping severed 
heads in fish tanks stowed away in his closet, hosting gladiator-esque battles with 
walkers pitted against human beings, and two main characters being held captive 
and tortured in the depths of this so-called “safe haven.”
 The Governor works to represent Cohen’s thesis regarding monsters 
“dwelling at the gates of difference” (7). As the audience is initially introduced 
to the Governor as a “good” character and soon finds out that he is anything 
but “good,” the connection is then made with the fine line between human and 
monster. Cohen states that a villain “moves between Monster and Man, [and] the 
disturbing suggestion arises that this incoherent body, denaturalized and always 
in peril of disaggregation, may well be our own” (9). This idea that a human being 
has the potential to constantly walk the line of good and evil, monstrous versus 
human, is well represented through the Governor throughout his time on TWD. 

6Shannon Walter



For example, in the final episode of season three, “Welcome to the Tombs,” the 
Governor commits what is, arguably, his worst villainous act: the brutal massacre 
of his own people. This act of brutality illustrates the rising acts of violence in our 
society. Just three months before this episode aired, twenty-seven people were killed 
in Newtown, Connecticut, in the tragic mass murder of multiple children and 
teachers. This connection between the mass slaughter conducted by the Governor 
and the murderous rampages happening in our own society folds seamlessly into 
the research exploring the correlation between zombie cinema and moments in 
history that create chaotic, societal anxiety, as well as Cohen’s thesis that human 
beings will always have the capability to walk the line of monster versus man (9).
 Finally, the most recent, and villainous, character is introduced to the world 
of TWD – Negan. This barbed-wire-covered, bat-toting sociopath enters the show 
in a manner described by Slate Magazine as “remarkably gory – the bloodiest 
deaths in the show’s history and perhaps television’s as well” (Adams). In his grand 
entrance, Negan dismantles the skulls of two beloved characters on the show with 
a baseball bat, and what is more disturbing is his lack of remorse or even second-
thoughts for his incredibly violent actions. Upon bashing the skull of a major 
character, Glen Rhee, Negan states, “Buddy, are you still there? I just don’t know. 
It seems like you’re trying to speak but you just took a hell of a hit! I just popped 
your skull so hard your eyeball just popped out… and it is gross as shit!” (“The Day 
Will Come When You Won’t Be”). This brutal villain jests at the horrific death 
he produced, putting forth the implication that he feels no sympathy or remorse 
for his murderous actions. The overwhelming violence portrayed in this episode of 
The Walking Dead ties frighteningly well into the current state of society today – a 
society in which its inhabitants have become numb to violence in an incredibly 
appalling way. 
 Our society is suffering from a lack of compassion due to the mass amounts 
of violence we see each day, and the writers and directors, of The Walking Dead are 
working to show our society the ever-growing level of inhumanity towards violence, 
death, and cold-blooded murder through characters such as Negan. He works to 
provide a social commentary on the violence that is displayed non-stop in our real-
world media, which has been found to desensitize our population. In a study done 
by Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman, they found that, “violent media make[s] 
people comfortably numb to the pain and suffering of others” (273). This research 
further illustrates the mirrored implications between TWD and our society today. 
In TWD, we are shown a society in which its inhabitants are challenged with a 
new world order that is extremely and necessarily violent at times. The audience 
witnesses the rise in violence among the living characters, but it is not until 

7Shannon Walter



Negan arrives that we get a strong taste of the desensitization that has occurred 
throughout the series thus far. 
 Much like TWD, our society has been changing drastically. While we have 
progressed in some ways, we have regressed in other, very important aspects such 
as the aforementioned desensitization to violence. We see our society mirrored in 
that of TWD through Negan. He is a distinct representation of the outcome of a 
drastic change in the societal norm – namely that of our increasingly violent society 
and our growing lack of empathy towards the violence. While audience members 
were shocked to witness the extreme violence occur in Negan’s grand entrance, they 
should be just as shocked when watching the evening news and hearing about the 
endless shootings and other acts of violence that are happening across our country 
at an alarming rate. The brutality portrayed by Negan is a direct, albeit extreme, 
outcome of how desensitized a person can become when exposed to a new world 
order.

CONCLUSION
 The greater implications of the social commentary put forth by the 
creators, directors and writers of The Walking Dead insinuate that our society is 
heading down a violent, inhumane road. Through the growing brutality with each 
succeeding villain throughout the series, we are shown a new perspective on the 
society that we are residing in. Through both an over-dramatization as well as, at 
times, an extremely accurate depiction of the violence and desensitization in our 
society today, The Walking Dead forces its audiences to reconsider their perceptions 
of violence and our society’s treatment of human beings. The ongoing commentary 
regarding American society through the use of zombie cinema provides our 
population with a new viewpoint with which to view our current station in society. 
 While there are ample amounts of specific correlations between zombie films 
and moments of cultural anxiety, the overarching theme is that, through zombie 
cinema, audiences are able to grasp that zombies are not the true monsters: human 
beings are. As a whole, the zombie is only a representation of a drastic change in 
society, such as a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or tragic mass murder, and the 
true monsters rise from this overwhelming change, or new world order. As Jeffrey 
Cohen stated, “a monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, 
and fantasy” (4); therefore, the “living dead” are a physical representation of our 
cultural fears and anxieties, and the characters living in these apocalyptic worlds are 
portrayals of every human being that walks the Earth. Cohen’s theses are accurately 
exemplified when villainous characters of TWD are closely analyzed. The writers 
of TWD further support the theses that monsters both represent cultural anxieties 

8Shannon Walter



as well as walk a fine line between man and monster through characters such as 
Shane, the Governor, and Negan. Using these characters and ideas, the directors 
and writers address to what degree evil can emerge from cultural anxieties and 
grand societal changes, how these villains, and consequently our society, react to 
these fears and transformations, and what this means for our society’s future. 

9Shannon Walter



WORKS CITED

Adams, Sam. “In Its Season Premiere, The Walking Dead’s Brutal Violence 
Finally Went Too Far.” Slate, 24 Oct. 2016, www.slate.com/blogs/
browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_
violence_finally_went_too.html. Accessed on 24 Jan. 2017.

Dendle, Peter. “The Zombie as Barometer for Cultural Anxiety.” Monsters and the 
Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil, edited by Niall Scott, 
Editions Rodopi B.V., 2007, pp. 45-57.

Goldberg, Lesley. “’The Walking Dead’ Dissection: Robert Kirkman Says Shane 
Isn’t a ‘Dastardly Villain’.” The Hollywood Reporter, 19, Feb. 2012, www.
hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-
triggerfinger-spoilers-292648. Accessed on 18 Jan. 2017.

Mariani, Mike. “The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies.” The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 
2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-
america-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/. Accessed on 18 
Jan. 2017.

McFarland, James. “Philosophy of the Living Dead: At the Origin of the Zombie-
Image.” Cultural Critique, vol. 90, University of Minnesota Press, 2015, 
pp.22-63.  JSTOR, doi:10.5749/culturalcritique.90.2015.0022.

Newitz, Annalee. “War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie 
Production.” Gizmodo, October 29, 2008. io9.gizmodo.com/5070243/war-
and-social-upheaval-cause-spikes-in-zombie-movie-production. Accessed 
on 24 Jan. 2017.

Night of the Living Dead. Directed by George Romero, Image Ten, 1968.

“Save the Last One.” The Walking Dead, created by Frank Darabont and Robert 
Kirkman, performance by Justin Bertha, season 2, episode 3, American 
Movie Classics, 2011.

10Shannon Walter

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_violence_finally_went_too.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_violence_finally_went_too.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_violence_finally_went_too.html
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-triggerfinger-spoilers-292648
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-triggerfinger-spoilers-292648
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-triggerfinger-spoilers-292648
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-america-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-america-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/


“The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” The Walking Dead, created by Frank 
Darabont and Robert Kirkman, performance by Jeffery Dean Morgan, 
season 7, episode 1, American Movie Classics, 2016.

“Welcome to the Tombs.” The Walking Dead, created by Frank Darabont and Robert 
Kirkman, performance by David Morrissey, season 3, episode 16,  American 
Movie Classics, 2013.

28 Days Later. Directed by Danny Boyle, DNA Films, 2003.

11Shannon Walter


