Look beyond the zombie imagery...

Great Summary! I agree entirely.

Quite an accurate synopsis of the subtext, and I agree with it as I drew the same conclusion from the beginning.

It was a nice metaphorical film, overall: Replace the zombies with people on welfare, low-income earners, and other "undesirables" and you get the whole "Us Vs. Them" story again, where the Bonies are the true criminals, the rest of the zombies are just the unmotivated but otherwise basically decent masses who are "consumers" and incapable of free thought, stuck in their own world.

Nice Analysis! I think this was also the lesson in Shaun of the Dead, which had similar themes with less romance. In that movie, society actually uses the remaining zombies at the end to do menial jobs like be shopping cart attendants and stuff. The hero, Shaun, continues to have almost the same relationship he had his video-game playing friend even though this friend is a zombie. Anyways, I think the point was made more obviously in Shaun of the Dead but I liked both movies.

The zombie apocalypse is a metaphor for the dehumanization of our society.

Good post, good thread, and I totally agree this movie is allegorical/metaphorical. It can be taken at face value and also for all kinds of alternative meanings/social commentary. I love it.

I also think it has very little in common with Twilight aside from falling in love with someone who isn't one of your own kind. That's about all for comparison -- in everything else it's a lot different.

I already liked the originality of the movie, being from the zombies' perspective. Also, I liked the sparks of humor in it.
However; your analysis, your way of interpreting the movie is brilliant. If the movie producers, or the director, or the writer thought of that, I applaud them from the deepest corners of my heart because like you said, it's genius.
As a teacher aged 27, I feel so sorry for the new generations and the children (and the adults) of today's world. It's so pathetic the dead "world" they're in. You explained that supposed life very well. You (us) can be one of the few that can see the reality as it is but you (this few) alone aren't enough to save them. It hurts.

When I watched the film, I was certain that the zombies were some kind of metaphor, but I wasn't thinking of them as "normal apathetic people" that were like "teenagers today". I would think of them as some kind of social outcasts - people that for some reasons were avoided and even ostracized by the rest of society. That might be for reasons of age, religion, race, ethnicity, or politics, etc. In all cases, including yours, I doubt the parallel could be complete. For example, teenagers might looked apathetic, but normal teenagers don't usually kill people or commit violent crimes. The closest case in my opinion might be people who are physically ill or (especially) mentally handicapped. They, like the zombies are usually shunned by society. People who had been committed to mental institutions are often ostracized: who could be certain they might not suddenly get "crazy" again and harm people, just like those zombies? But mental illness could be cured, and like the zombies in the film, they can be brought back to normal life in society. Or take the case of people who had gone to prison. Employers usually avoid hiring such people, but just like "R" and the others (who had "eaten" people before) could reform and be brought back as part of society. Those that could not be reformed, like the bonies, would have to be eliminated.

that was beautifully written.

and I agree this movie is much more than meets the eye :)