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Vampires. There's a media frenzy around bloodsuckers - Just look at True Blood on HBO (Max for Singaporeans), Twilight part deux coming out in the theatres and the Vampire Diaries. In fact, just not too long ago, Buffy was traipsing around on our television screens gleefully staking them in cheerleader outfits and cheesy lines.
Even if we move away from the blood sucking spectrum, we're still looking at flesh eating zombies in Zombieland. The latest offering from Hollywood features a lone nerd surviving the zombie infested plaguelands of the former US of A.
Wherever we are, it appears humanity has a morbid fascination with the undead - just look at Hollywood's latest horror (pun intended), Paranormal Activity.
Perhaps the truth is closer to the surface. Vampires never eat, they're eternally youthful, wrinkle-free and we've never seen an ugly vampire- isn't that the stuff of fashion fantasy?
Death simultaneously attracts and repels us. We spend billions to erase signs of aging and even turn to organ replacement to extend life. If there's a chemical or alchemic concoction for it, society will spend its energy making, advertising, and consuming.
What of zombies? A zombie apocalypse gives us the benefit of a fresh start. A powerful time to remake one's identity, not to mention opportunity to allow our ids to surface in a land of lawlessness. A thief can become the gun-toting saviour who rescues trapped survivors from meat eating chompers and a saint can become a satanic survivalist who would do anything for self-preservation.
Ultimately, whether you like zombies, ghosts or vampires, it all falls back to the human condition- we're all looking for a sense of self unrestrained by social norms and mores, and that’s really creepy.
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