We’ve talked a bit about the nexus of Zombies and religion here on the ZRC blog before; it’s hardly our forte, but the fairly obvious significance of the fact that Jesus (in the Christian religion) not just came back from the dead himself but raised one of the first Zombies described in Western literature is hard to overlook.

Clearly, Christianity as a religion should be Pro-Zombie, but that’s true of all major ideologies I think.

However clearly not everyone sees it that way:

According to Fangoria it looks as if Eric Balfour will be sitting in the director’s chair for the guaranteed to be a cult classic from being based on a comic film known only as Jesus Hates Zombies. No, this isn’t an angst film about how Jesus hates himself for being one of the first documented zombies, returning from the dead, spreading himself into others, the whole drinking of the blood and eating of the flesh bit. This is a story about Jesus hating (and slaughtering) hordes and hordes of zombies who have infected the population. (Who, oddly enough, has a zombie for a sidekick.)

Great. Not only is a film adaptation of a comic book coming out that purports to show the Son of the Lord Almighty murdering Zombies, but he even has a Zombie token as a sidekick. Could this get more offensive?

Well, perhaps, given that the religious overtones are intended somewhat seriously and baked deeply into the production:

“My guess is that it has been so well-received because we set out to do the exact opposite of what the title suggests: being sacrilegious and all shock value,” he continues. “Instead, without being preachy or overtly religious, the core message is actually about the power of faith. I was raised Catholic and Jason is Baptist, so it was easy for us to write Jesus as an action hero because, if you think about it, he really was. Of course, we know we aren’t going to win with the religious right no matter what, but we aren’t trying to; we just want to tell a great story, and this may very well be ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told.’ Right now we’re in talks with living legend Bruce Dern to play God. If this comes together, not only will it be the best casting ever, I’ll take it as a sign from actual God that this movie is meant to be.”

Yes, this movie is all about the power of faith, and how, apparently even God disapproves of the Differently Animated.

Make no mistake about what this movie represents folks; this is religious warfare as entertainment, incitement to sectarian violence, to killing in the name of God.

Despicable and loathsome in the extreme.

Tags: Comics, Movies, Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.