Victorian values: necrophilia and the nineteenth century in zombie films

Victorian values: necrophilia and the nineteenth century in zombie films

This essay examines the perverse twist on the ornate mourning rituals offered by zombie films set in the nineteenth century. In actual Victorian society, ornate mourning rituals kept the memories of the dead alive. In these historically set zombie films, the dead themselves come back to life. This essay examines those few but notable films that locate zombies in the nineteenth century and proposes a number of theses about them. Zombie films set in the nineteenth century create a Victorian world where the dead have a clear ontological status: although they are elaborately mourned, the reanimated dead also become objects of sexual lust. That lust has further historical implications. Female bodies were subject to masculine control in Victorian society. Such exertions are iterated in these films via male characters' attempts to subjugate undead female sexuality. The fact that these women are both undead and desired opens up a liminal space that explores popular understand­ings of Victorian sexuality.

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