Of all the monsters in all of the world, you had to go and pick zombies. Why? WHY DAMN YOUR EYES?
That there is an imaginary question I’ve just asked myself in my head. Mainly because Greg kindly invited me to partake in his October of AWESOMENESS. It’s a simple question, and one I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about since his email.
For one, the zombie genre at the moment is as jam-packed as your entrails, living untouched within the safety of your flesh and bone. Barely a week goes by without another slew of zombie films being released, most, straight to DVD. In the main, this is because they’re all so very samey. The media too, operate a cyclic approach to reporting on the genre which veers from ‘ZOMBIES ARE DEAD. AGAIN’, to articles on how they are stronger than ever. Surely it can’t be both?
I’m rambling, I guess the point I’m trying to make, is that there are as many reasons to write about something else entirely, as there are about writing zombie fiction. I could’ve gone with trying to reinvent Vampires, take them back from the glittery malaise they currently reside in. Or even try and poke some life back into werewolves. Kaiju, narcoleptic ancient horrors, wraiths, psychopaths, good old fashioned cults, anything but the undead surely?
For me, there was only one choice. The minute I first saw the tenement attack in the original Dawn of the Dead, I was hooked. Since then, with every new little nugget I saw or read, whether it was Return of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Wyrmwood, The Battery, Dead Rising, The Walking Dead, all of it has just contributed to my love of the sub-genre.
Yes, let’s be brutally honest, for every five zombie films, only one is probably worth it, but that one film will usually show something pretty cool, or focus on an angle which hasn’t been explored before. The same with fiction, though perhaps the ratio there is even higher. So what compels me to write about them?
The simple reply is, that I love it.
I had the opening scene of my debut book, Class Three, percolating in my head for eight years before I finally wrote it. I planned to cram everything in there that I wanted to cover, get it all out of my system, and move on to other ideas and projects.
Yet, as I sat down to write the book after, I could not stop thinking about the apocalyptic world I created. With every non-zombie word I wrote, my brain kept wandering back. When people started to say that they enjoyed Class Three and asked if I was going to continue the story, it was all the encouragement I needed.
But…I wanted to make sure that I had something in my books that stood out, that set me apart. I didn’t want to be in the clump of titles which people would dismiss as ‘just another zombie book’. For one, the focus is predominately on the survivors, the zombies are part of the background almost, all pervading, but not the main draw.
So I wanted to make the interactions realistic. One thing that bugs me is that in a lot of zombie books and films, people don’t know what the undead are, which is utter nonsense. You ask anyone how to kill a zombie, and they’ll tell you to go for the head, it’s like the wooden stake to a vampire. This has infected popular culture to the degree that for a character to play dumb, is utterly unbelievable. When I wrote Philip, one of the main characters in Class Three, he is a self-confessed zombie geek. Admittedly, that person might very well be me.
A zombie book will only be judged on the undead though, and I’m a Romero purist, mine shamble, not run. When I was a kid, it was the slow moving pack closing in on you inexorably that scared me. I think the modern way of making them run, is more symbolic of the times we live in, and perhaps at an attempt at diversification. Whilst they have their place, in my world, they don’t exist.
In addition, I want to mess around with the undead, try and be a bit creative. Aside from some special zombies in Class Three, I think it’s the menagerie I brought out in the first book in the Class Four trilogy, Those Who Survive, who are real nightmare fuel.
Ultimately, I write about zombies because I want to give something back to the genre that has entertained me for thirty years. If, along the way, I can entertain people too, then that makes everything worthwhile.
Duncan Bradshaw - October 9th, 2015
October Month of Horror - Guest Post
About Duncan Bradshaw
Duncan lives in the south west of England, with his amazing wife Debbie, and their two feline life-partners, Rafa and Pepe. When he isn’t inventing new ways of having guts pulled from their rightful home, he likes to drink tea and eat biscuits. From time to time, he has been known to prance around the house whilst wearing nothing save a pair of ladies underpants and a smile. He also likes to write silly bios, and sells them to the highest bidder on e-Bay.
2 Book Lovers Reviews
2 Book Lovers Reviews
2 Book Lovers Reviews