We here at OBS came across some interesting articles recently about the rising popularity of these flesh eating creatures that seem to be giving vampires a run for their money.

Dan Compora in his article Zombies, Zombies Everywhere says:

In Romero’s original “Dawn of the Dead,” Ken Foree utters the line, “When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.” This is one of the most haunting lines I’ve ever heard in a horror movie. The implications that Hell could run out of room, forcing the damned to walk the Earth is both pessimistic and depressing. Notice that no provision is given that if Heaven gets full, the righteous will walk the Earth.

Peter Rowe posited in his 2008 article With Obama Election Comes the Return of the Vampire that with Bush leaving the White House so too would zombies leave pop culture.

Whatever its challenges, the Bush White House has presided over a period of robust health for a genre that – if history is any guide – will soon fade: the zombie movie.

I think it’s pretty obvious that this particular trend does not hold true for this year nor the coming one. With the popularity of films like Zombieland, the upcoming television adaption of the hit comic book series The Walking Dead and various bestselling books such as The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks by Max Brooks and Ibraim Roberson, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith zombies are “alive” and well. There’s even an anthology of zombie poetry, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes published by Coscom Entertainment in August of this year (and featuring poems by yours truly I might add).

What about you? What flavor of undead do you prefer? Zombies or vampires?