Zombie Films with Todd Platts

Episode 71 - July 23, 2021
Dawn of the Dead Cover

Todd Platts (Piedmont Virginia Community College) joins Merle and Lee to discuss his work on zombie films over the past half century. He begins by offering a history of zombie movies and the changing features and definition of the zombie. Todd points to a few key films – in particular George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead which eventually resulted in the explosion of zombie-related material in the 21st century. The conversation then moves to discuss disease movies more broadly and in particular in the context of Covid – why did these disease movies become so popular at the beginning of Covid? And what purposes did they serve for their viewers?

Further Reading
Our Guest

Todd Platts,

Associate Professor of Sociology
at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Todd Platts