A Point of Little Hope:Hippie Horro Films and the Politics of the Ambivalence

The reading of A Point of Little Hope : Hippie Horror Films and the Politics of Ambivalence took a different turn on looking at the horror genre. The way of looking at it as a way to rebel against establishment and other hippy like things is rather interesting. It is important to look at the horror genre in different ways, but I never would have thought to look at it at this angle. The post apocalyptic world overrun by these undead creatures usually sparks just fear and terror, but when taken at the angle talked about in the reading it can be looked at as a way to get attention. The hippy movement with these kinds of works can be looked at ways to show just where the world can be headed with the way things are run with the government. However it isn’t just a cry for help, but a way of victimizing the creatures in the films. Again this is a good way to look at these films and works because people don’t usually see the creatures in this light. Most of the time they are objects of ridicule because of how they are portrayed and therefore are the “bad guys” when it comes to how the works of fiction are laid out. The way that zombies are they really don’t have a choice in the matter and looking at them as a different kind of victim other than those that become the victims of the creatures can help people analyze the works and possibly enjoy them further than they may already. In a way the victims of the creatures are actually the victims of what caused the creatures to come into existence in the first place. While having a sympathetic like view of the zombie we can see that they are not always the villainous evil thing that they are usually laid out to be. This alone is important to keep in mind because that may have been what the makers of these works were trying to go after. After all in the reading it mentioned that Craven wanted to show that America was not always benevolent in its forgiven affairs. Looking at what should be something that we know as something that is evil and something that should be good and reversing the roles can help others to think critically about the works not just with zombies but with other things to. After all zombies are just doing what they know, and that doesn’t seem to be much with how the zombie is normally shown. How can others just label zombies as something bad, but that has just become the norm in terms of them. To understand the zombie as a whole I feel that they should be looked at in different aspects and angles. If this is done then when the zombie becomes the focus of discussions different views will come up while talking about them, therefore if you have already looked at them in a different way then you will be able to understand where they are coming from even if they may have a different view then what may be normal for the topic.