Safe Haven

  I think I may have hit upon a solid reason from my upbringing that could explain why I love zombie stories so much.  When I was in the 2nd grade, my dad was stationed on an army base in Taegu, South Korea.  A TV station for English-speaking people was put out by the military called Armed Forces Korea Network (AFKN).
  Instead of commercials for products like we're used to here in America, AFKN had public service announcements about such things as Operational Security (OPSEC) and fire safety.  One of the fire safety announcements advised families to have an escape bag, which would be a bag full of important things to have should you have to flee your burning house.  Being seven years old, my important things were my toys so I had a bag that I kept under my bed, containing my favorite toys.
  Over the years growing up, I kept that bag updated with things as they became important to me with my changing ideals.  Also, over the years, my parents became more and more disappointed in me as a failure at school.  When I couldn't take the yelling anymore, I opted to stay in my room more and more.  I started to bring secret stashes of food and beverages into my bedroom.  It had become my safe haven.  I was eventually able to stay in there from as soon as I got back from school until dinner time and then until the next morning when it was time to go back to school.  I had music, books, magazines, toys and food, plus my escape bag.
  When I saw George Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' for the first time, it connected with me in some deep way that I didn't understand at the time.  Looking back on it now, I realize that the people in that movie and in most zombie movies are stuck in a confined space and struggle to make sure that they have everything they need to survive in their safe haven isolated against overwhelming opposition.  In other words, it's the story of my life.

Thriller

  I don't know if I ever told you how I got into zombies in the first place.  Well, when I was in the 2nd grade, a music video came out on MTV called, Thriller by Michael Jackson.  I was so enamored by the zombies, it stuck with me throughout my youth.  I didn't know there were movies, books and songs about them.  They were just something from a Michael Jackson video to me.  I think the first zombie movie I ever saw was Dawn of the Dead.  From there, I was hooked!  They were more than just decomposing thespians, they were flesh-eating menaces to society.  I can dig it.
  Over the years, I've seen some clunkers of zombie movies.  If you're a zombie fan, I'm sure you have too.  Zombie Nightmare, anyone?  Seemed like for a while, people were just trying to come up with any reason to have people become zombies or at least, zombie-like.  Even the first Naked Gun movie had one.  There was The Stuff, which actually not that horrible of a movie.  In my opinion, George Romero was one of the only people using a zombie apocalypse as the background for tales about people.  The characters were not just cardboard cutout victims, they were the crux of the story.
  Being always fascinated by people and life, that is what pulled me in.  I've always studied the people around me to see what makes them tick.  Everyone has their own ways of looking at life, dealing with stress, interacting with other people, communicating with God (or not) and having fun.  I think that's also why I loved Star Wars so much.  It wasn't just laser guns and robots.  There was a very human story at its heart which touched on faith, love, betrayal and redemption.
  On a side note, my first album ever was Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' on cassette.  That same day I also bought 'She's So Unusual' by Cindi Lauper.  My musical tastes have evolved much since then, there are still some excellent songs on both of those albums in my opinion. 

Alive Again

  One of my favorite movies is Alive.  It's about that sports team from (I think it's) Brazil whose airplane crashes in the Andes.  They run out of food and have to resort to cannibalism to survive.  Anyway, one day, I rented this movie called Flight of the Living Dead.  It wasn't all that, but it was okay.  The good thing is that it sparked an idea en mi loco cabeza.
  I thought, what if there was a zombie outbreak on land at the same time a group of people is stranded in the middle of a mountain range?  They would have the same moral dilemma about cannibalism as in Alive, but would have the added question of their humanity vs the zombie's humanity.  What makes us any better than them?  The perfect name for this new story was of course, Alive Again.
  I love the moral dilemmas that come along with having monsters that we can each become.  More on this subject can be found in the books: The Undead and Philosophy edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad, and Gospel of the Living Dead by Kim Paffenroth.  As they said in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, "We're them and they're us."