Voodoo - Horizon

As with the past and present, i have also researched on what is happening in the near future that will continue the media relations.



After finding different media in the past and present for Voodoo, i have determened by clear evidence that Voodoo in media is not anywhere near as bold and apparent as the off-shoot of Voodoo being Zombies which i have seen is right in the heart blood of media at the moment in all media forms as Voodoo is only scattered more scarcely in only small forms.



In early 2012, a new resident evil is to be released called "Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City". This game is set inbetween the 2nd and 2rd Resident Evil games which where some of the leading pionears of zombies in recent media. In the game you work with up to 3 other people as you work to either cover up the Umbrella company's involvement or reveal it. This game follows pretty closely to the game Left 4 Dead developed by Valve which also has the 4 player style zombie survival combat.

Sneak peak screenshot of ingame footage

I feel this is a good example of Zombies continued through media into the future as the first Resident Evil game came out in 1996 and thus 15 years since the first game with the main theme of zombies and still there is another one of the series coming out in the near future with no sign of ending.




There is also the film adaptation of the book World War Z to be released later on this month, which will bring the best selling book onto the movie screens as it shows the aftermath of a massive zombie infestation. The film rights where placed inbetween a bidding war between Leonado Decaprio and Brad Pitt's production companys untill eventually Brad Pitt won and thus he has the main role of interviewer in the film.

Movie poster

This is a very good example i feel of the fact that zombies are a big hit in media at the moment because not only did the book do well enough to become a big feature film, the rights to the movie where the start of a bidding war between two big name movie stars and there production companys, showing that they must too think that zombies are a media hit, wishing to also get in on the theme 




The hit Tv show The Walking Dead based off the comic is set to be continuing third series. This was announced just two episodes into there second season. The series continues to tell the story of a band of survivers as they try to live out there life safe from the threat of zombies.

Promotional advertisement for the second series

This TV series shows how well Zombie themed media can do on TV as the second season premiere recently broke records for how many viewers tuned in, which in turn caused the producers to announce that they would make a third season so soon after showing the very start of the second. This easily shows how well the theme handles mainstream TV.




The success of the TV series has also lead there to be a Wii game version of the idea to be in development. This game is set to be episodic with small parts to be released at a time making it a interesting way of publishing the game making it simular to comics. The game is about a different person in the same area as the main charicter as he trys to survive. The gameplay style is to be different to the normal games in the genre as its not about action and fast pased shooting like most but instead about survival and hard life choices to make. Even the style of the game is portrayed a lot more like a comic with the textures and visual styles matching those of the comic book origin.

First early released screenshot of the game.

This is a good example of the genre of zombies spreading into new diverse forms as even though it is another zombie game like so many before but in this one it is determined to break the mold and form a more involved story style like the comic and emmerse the player in the horror of the post apocolyptic world that zombies have create which i feel is mearly the first in many different types of media to push the idea of zombies to new places.






At the same time as the success of the TV series and video game adaptions of The Walking Dead, the comic of which it is all based off, is still seeing published copys today showing that the mainstream media success of the adaptions has done nothing to slow down the source of it all with no sign of the comic sales falling and infact rising due to new people seeing the Tv series and decided to read the origin of it.

Promotional illustration

The fact that still the series is going on strong in comic book form easily shows how the success of zombie themed media is nothing but on the rise showing comic books of which started to fade out of more mainstream view after the main real start in the 50's, have brought mainstream viewers back through the zombie themed comic.




Recently there was a book released also based on the series named "Rise of the Governer" as it regails the story of one of the main villians of the series. This is meant to be one book in a larger book series telling the tales of the backstorys of many other charicters in the series.

Book Cover.

This is a good example of how form of the media can spread to other as the theme gets a grip on people, thus making producers want to be on top of the theme of the time. This book is only one of many to come detailing the theme in more books.






Final media example on The Walking Dead is the figures that are soon to be released in early january which will modeled off the major charicters of the first season as well as some of the zombies featured.

Shambling dead figurine.

This i feel is a good example of the media theme spreading to more commersial products as these figures that are to be released. This is a good step as figures are often collectables which show that there will still be a market in the future of mint condition verstion of these figures.





Now you may notice that i have gone on a lot about The Walking Dead franchise. This is due to the fact that The Walking Dead is massive at the moment being the centre of media attention which is the biggest the theme of zombies has gotten in mainstream media so i feel The Walking Dead franchise is of great importance as it believe it to be a new herald of the theme of zombies in media not typically portrayed by fast paced action and guns but instead as a much more serious media form which will continue to rise in popularity.





Also there are a good few calanders for 2012 with the theme for zombies such as the one shown in the picture from forbidden planet.

Zombie calander for the year 2012

Although to be fair the calanders have already been released, the idea of themed calanders is that they last a whole year filled with the images of which you want to see each month as you go through so they are made with long lasting in mind with themed that people will still enjoy through out the next year.