It is a rare era in the horror world where creatures from genre pictures have invaded pop culture. In the past we have seen particular characters recognized as pop icons (i.e. the possessed Regan, Freddy, Jason, etc.) but we are now living in an era where entire subgenres are red hot. Zombies have been at the forefront of pop culture for several years now. Shaun of the Dead, arguably, ushered in the zombie invasion by introducing them to comedy and vice versa. I would also credit the highly stylized 28 Days Later. George Romero, in a sort of paradoxical turn of events, used the popularity of the zombie satire to introduce more of his own zombie films. Since then, of course, we have seen countless low budget zombie films of all genres; some great (Fido), some not-so-great (pretty much all of the others). Shaun of the Dead and Fido even pioneered a new subgenre–the romzomcom–romantic zombie comedy.

The real testament to the popularity of the zombie is the successful books that have been written. The reason I say this is because zombie films are quite conducive to low budgets. It doesn’t take CGI or much money to creatively make-up an actor and have him walk slowly whilst moaning. Therefore, the prolific amount of zombie films makes sense. Max Brooks gives us his best-selling book The Zombie Survival Guide and its follow-up, World War Z. Titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Breathers have helped sustain the popularity of the living dead. There are still many more movies on the horizon, most notably Zombieland–part horror, part comedy, part action/adventure.

Within the last year or so, vampires have shot to the forefront of pop culture as well. As I write this, in every country surveyed except for New Zealand, the word vampire is being searched on Google /em> more than zombie. The Twilight Series has had a lot to do with this resurgence. The Western World also has a long, rich history of vampire movies and this trend has popped up at several times in the last couple of centuries. It is, however, the film of Twilight and the inevitability of the rest of the series being made into movies that has all but promised that this blood-sucking trend will be around for a while. Piggy-backing off the new found popularity, HBO has just finished its second season of True Blood, an absolutely exemplary series that captures all of the gothic creepiness that the South has to offer. Anne Rice has even decided to resurrect her vampire series to exploit the trend.