--- title: Colson Whitehead’s Favorite Pop Culture Zombies | TIME description: Author Colson Whithead talks about what movies inspired his latest book, the zombie horror novel 'Zone One' canonical: https://time.com/video/NDDTV9dO/ og:title: Colson Whitehead’s Favorite Pop Culture Zombies og:description: Author Colson Whithead talks about what movies inspired his latest book, the zombie horror novel 'Zone One' og:url: https://time.com/video/NDDTV9dO/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NDDTV9dO/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colson Whitehead’s Favorite Pop Culture Zombies twitter:description: Author Colson Whithead talks about what movies inspired his latest book, the zombie horror novel 'Zone One' twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NDDTV9dO/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Colson Whitehead’s Favorite Pop Culture Zombies > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Colson Whitehead’s Favorite Pop Culture Zombies [Watch (HLS stream): Colson Whitehead’s Favorite Pop Culture Zombies](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NDDTV9dO.m3u8) (3:53)  _Published 2011-10-14. Author Colson Whithead talks about what movies inspired his latest book, the zombie horror novel 'Zone One'_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:18 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Colson Whitehead on Reading and Writing](/video/2mxG7ivn/) ### Colson Whitehead on Reading and Writing [Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Trailer](/video/LMqFbLwZ/) ### Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Trailer [Colson Whitehead on Summer Reading](/video/6l4aWhpr/) ### Colson Whitehead on Summer Reading --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] You know, the books and films that made me wanna write, make up stuff, were horror and science fiction. I'm Coleson Whitehead, the book is Zone one. Its a autobiographical tail about my time cleaning up zombies in NYC. If you will that something has gone terribly wrong. The apocalypse is receding, and the powers are trying to repopulate downtown Manhattan. I remember encountering Night of the Living Dead. When I was in sixth grade PBS was showing it for Halloween, and being struck one by the complete nihilism of the movie. Mass hysteria? What do think, we're imagining all this? Shut up. And then two the fact that it had a black protagonist outside of blacksploitation movies. Being committed by creatures who feast upon the flesh of their victims. I think the first movie I remember seeing in a theater was The Devil's Rain. There's never been anything like The Devil's Rain. I was like six, it was set in 1975. [ INAUDIBLE ] And that was our, you know, our family outing. I saw Dawn of the Dead, I saw it in the theater with mom and dad and brother. [ NOISE ] Even though it was rated X. And, people under 18 weren't allowed to enter. It is a horrible, hauntingly accurate vision of And, so, no, we had a nice dinner and saw dawn of the dead and did some family bonding. That's alright, just keep a stiff upper lip. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. That's early 70's and it's done by, Bob Clark. And I think that was, you know, my first You know, the first zombie movie I saw I think it sort of took a hold of my consciousness with Romero. But I remember just being you know, completely disturbed by the final image which is the zombies sort of taking boats to a big city in the distance like Miami or something. It's unnamed. But the fact that, that the, you know, all the protagonist die and the monsters, sort of, lumber towards the rest of us. For me that's a, you know, very sort of tense moment. This is the story of a man who decided to clean up the most violent town in the world. In terms of the city, you know, I grew up in the seventies watching movies like. [ SOUND ] Death Wish, the Warriors, Escape from New York, where people roamed a ruined New York City. New York, 1997. The entire city is a walled maximum security prison. And that's sort of, you know, sometimes the image I carry around with me. The, image of New York in those. Post apocalyptic film. So, I had a, a large store of images to draw. We must not be lulled by the concept that these are our family members or our friends. They are not. They will not respond to such emotions. The zombies tap into a big fear of mine, which is At any instant, everyone you know, your friends, your family, your neighbors, could become the kind of monsters you sadly, secretly always suspected they were. They must be destroyed on sight. So a switch goes off then and suddenly the whole world is changed, and all your. Private fears have been revealed. 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