Citation:
Muntean, Nick & Payne, Matthew Thomas. “Attack of the Livid Dead: Recalibrating Terror in the Post-9/11 Zombie Film.” The War on Terror and American Popular Culture: September 11 and Beyond. Edited by Andrew Schopp and Matthew B. Hill. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2009: 239-258.
From the anthology’s Introduction:
“Nicholas Muntean and Matthew Thomas Payne’s ‘Attack of the Livid Dead: Recalibrating Terror in the Post-9/11 Zombie Film’ interrogates post-September 11 zombie films, and the significant changes in this genre’s formula, as they reflect a cultural tension between affirming traditional American ideals and challenging our contemporary social and political practice … Their study emphasizes that while [28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead] diverge from predecessors in common ways, especially by depicting the zombie as a ravenous, swift threat that cares for nothing but itself and attacks rabidly and indiscriminately (i.e., terrorism) rather than the slow, almost moronic figures of tradition (i.e., the Cold War), they diverge from each other in terms of what they reflect about post-September 11 culture and how to function within that culture.” (pp. 34-35)