We all have that one irrational fear we can’t let go. It could be being forever alone or showing up to class naked. Or, maybe it’s a mass virus or parasite spreading across the world and infecting all of mankind to spur the beginning of the apocalypse.
All are about as likely as a bee stinging twice, but scary nonetheless.
There are a plethora of reasons I can think of to counter fears of living life without love or accidentally leaving the house in only your birthday suit. You know what I can’t make an argument against? The zombie apocalypse.
Let’s face it, there are a lot of potential scientific explanations for the impending plague, all of which I have gathered from completely refutable sources. And by sources, I mean horror movies, which I base many of my fears on.
Let’s start with one of popular culture’s best known zombie examples, “The Walking Dead.” The show never explicitly states the reasoning behind the outbreak, but fan theories are ever abundant and Redditors have done their research.
Many speculate these undead horrors were infected by an airborne virus, which was essentially confirmed upon the first season’s finale and the discovery that everyone, whether currently craving the taste of flesh or not, was affected and would become walkers upon death.
These viruses usually come about due to scientific interference, aka the government forgetting Murphy’s law in their quest to uncover what makes humans tick. Ultimately, our result is something along the lines of “28 Days Later” and the Rage Virus.
In this early 2000s film, two Cambridge scientists were meant to identify the neurochemicals behind anger and extreme aggression. Upon discovery, these geniuses decided to attempt to cure the world of two basic human emotions and mixed the inhibitors with Ebola Virus for one fast-spreading, mutating zombie creating pandemic. This particular strand moves through human-to-human contact, and the ever-famous zombie bite is the key.
On the flip side, the Wesker Project in “Resident Evil” was based around the Tyrant Virus, which was essentially created to improve the human race through military means. Once again we see the brains of the operation trying to defy human nature, which results in a virus that slips into the world’s drinking water and tears down the exact species they were attempting to make impenetrable. That’s horror movie karma, my friends.
While my bet is on a virus, whether it be airborne, water based or through physical contact, there’s no shortage of explanations as to how it all begins.
“Zombieland” offers a more comical approach, with a mad cow burger being the infector of the first zombie as a mutation of the original disease.
“The Night of the Living Dead” features a moment where the background noise consists of radio commentary depicting the potential source as radiation from a Venus probe that returned and exploded on government property.
Many scenarios offer little explanation as to how it all goes down because horror films are more about preying on the fear of the undead than wasting precious viewer minutes on expository. These stories don’t need to tell you how; they just need to exploit your fear of the aftermath.
You can take precautions to combat most irrational fears, but you can’t stop the zombie apocalypse. For all we know, it’s already begun.
