Living deadcast examines role of vampires and zombies

Those groans and shrieks heard around campus had nothing to do with exams, but rather an invasion of vampires and zombies.

On Wednesday, the University of Alberta Unitarian Campus Ministry hosted an evening fireside chat, exploring the bloodsuckers and brain-eaters that haunt popular culture. Arts journalist and self-confessed "horror nerd" Gilbert Bouchard took an in-depth look at the role the undead play in cultural expression. And Julie Rak, professor in the U of A Department of English and Film Studies, also weighed in for our camera.

What do these creatures of fiction have to do with our daily lives? Plenty.

Zombies, says Rak, are nothing but trouble.

"They are the 'other' in popular culture. They represent all the things that a society does not like about itself that are threatening it...zombies are a problem, in every possible way."

In popular fiction zombies represent contemporary fears: terrorism, racism, contagion.

"Zombies are interesting to me because they show us that fear," says Rak.

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