The Washington Post reports the new University of Baltimore course "Media Genres: Zombies" is a visceral exploration of viscera-eating undead fiends. Taught by Arnold Blumberg, author of Zombiemania
, the course joins similar ones at Columbia College, Rice University and Georgia Tech. Blumberg's book discusses 85 definitive zombie movies, but the course only covers 16 that run the gamut from Early African zombies, Cold War zombies and "Millennial" viral zombies.Blumberg tells the Post that, "Right now we're in a massive surge of zombie entertainment" which includes urban zombie satires (Shaun of the Dead
, Zombieland), comics and dramatic adaptations (The Walking Dead
) and metropolitan zombie walks.The professor postulates that, "On the most basic level, zombies are probably one of the most potent horror icons, one of the closest to us in terms of identification factor, in terms of reflecting ourselves ... the zombie is, simply, us."