'World War Z' Author Max Brooks Is Gripped By 'Zombiemania'

Zombies. They're kind of a big deal these days. The release of "Zombieland" this week is only the latest example. The past few years have seen a surge in popularity for the mindless flesh-eaters, with films ("Shaun of the Dead") comics ("The Walking Dead," soon to be a TV show) and video games ("Left 4 Dead").

Books too: in 2006, Max Brooks published "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War," one of the most unique and original takes on the shambling movie monster popularized in the 1960s by George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." The author added his voice to a number of others -- Romero included -- for a discussion of zombies in the present-day cultural zeitgeist on the Starz Inside documentary "Zombiemania," which airs on October 13 at 10pm. Brooks, who was kind enough to take some time out yesterday for a chat, believe there's a very specific reason for the current zombie trend.

"I think its been gathering steam throughout the [George W.] Bush years," he explained. "We live in some really uncertain times and I think people are being just bombarded with so many problems and so many fears and so many anxieties, it's kind of hard to keep track of them. And I think zombies, because they're so apocalyptic, are a great way for people to coalesce their anxieties into one threat."

Brooks is well aware of the popularity other movie monsters are enjoying these days, thanks particularly to the vampires and werewolves of "Twilight." There's something unique about zombies however, something that sets them apart from any other bogeyman you can imagine.

"Vampires can walk among us and so can werewolves and other creatures you actually have to go out to the fringes of our planet to go find," he explained. "Zombies come out swinging for the whole human race. They're an apocalyptic threat. They don't take on individuals... they take on the species, they take on the world."

Brooks, who describes himself as "a big history nerd," understands that there's a background here, a pattern to follow for understanding exactly what has put zombies back into the limelight. "If the financial system doesn't melt then the whole planet will melt [under the threat of global warming]. Then throw in war, terrorism, energy crisis... pretty much everything. Ironically, we haven't seen this kind of global upheaval since the 1970s, which was the last time zombies were incredibly popular."

It's an interesting point, and it puts a detectable end date on the current wave of popularity. Zombies will always have their followers of course, but the culture explosion that's been happening is bound to die down in time. "I think when things start to calm down, as they did during the [Bill] Clinton years... when the economy gets better, terrorists fade away, the wars end, I think people aren't gonna want to know about zombies anymore."

For more from Brooks, Romero and their contemporaries, tune in to Starz on October 13 for "Starz Inside: Zombiemania."

What do you think? Do zombies, the current wave of intense interest in them, have a shelf-life that ends with a more peaceful society? Does the open-ended nature of an ongoing "War on Terror" mean that that shelf-life is somewhat indefinite?

Tags max brooks, world war z, Zombiemania