Move Over 'Twilight,' Zombies Are Creeping Up as the New Horror Obsession

Oct. 29, 2011— -- That glazed look in their dead eyes, the stench of rotting flesh, their hunger for fresh human brains -- zombies seem to be everywhere.

The fascination with the undead has been creeping up on the sexy vampires of the "Twilight" dynasty. Over the past decade, movies such as "Resident Evil," "I Am Legend " and the spoofy "Zombieland" -- not to mention the vast array of zombie DVDs, video games and accessories -- have brought in $5 billion.

Seven million people watched the premiere of the hit AMC series "The Walking Dead" last week. Greg Nicoterro, the co-executive producer for the TV show said people have become "really obsessed" with zombies.

"You know vampires also have this huge following, they're sort of been made sexy by the Twilight movies," he said. "I honestly believe it's the fact that as people grow up being fans of the horror genre that there's something about zombies that are iconic."

It's arguable that Nicoterro is responsible for this most recent zombie contagion. He has created about 400 zombies for just season two of "The Walking Dead," and his professional life has been dedicated to transforming regular-looking people into an army of flesh-feasting, blood-slurping ghouls.

Typical zombies prefer brains, but in "The Walking Dead," they'll attack anything with a pulse. Such was the case played out in a scene where the actors had to attack a horse.

"They were so excited and so into it," Nicoterro said. "I loaded it with fake guts and all this blood and they were like, 'Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

Come Halloween, roughly 2.6 million zombies will lurch toward your front door in search of candy. It's one of the trendiest costumes, and tens of millions of dollars are spent to look dead, according to the National Retail Federation.

So-called zombie walks -- massive parades of people dressed as the undead -- have gone global, with annual events in Dublin, Prague, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Grand Rapids, Mich.

Need to escape? There's an app for that. It's a game called "Zombies Run," where the walking dead groan and growl in your ear while you sprint to collect supplies to survive.

And should you ever be attacked by zombies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a zombie apocalypse survival guide -- a 40-page, illustrated novella, spelling out how to avoid getting eaten alive.

For Nicoterro, the appeal of zombies is aesthetic, for others it's more primal.

"Even the whole concept of humanity is lost, the idea of just something that can physically match that has that hunger and drive and instinct is pretty interesting to pit yourself against in a survival situation," he said.

For some, the fascination for horror is something that seems unborn.

"You have two kinds of people when you're growing up," he said. "You're either with a hairbrush singing into a mirror or your practicing zombie walk. That's it. No other kinds of people in the world."