'Science on Screen' Reanimates the 'Living Dead'

Every now and then—perhaps in the midst of a bout of insomnia or perhaps with premeditation—we might indulge in the gory, campy, low-budget magnificence of the zombie movie. Ever since George A. Romero’s release of “The Night of the Living Dead” in 1968, the zombie movie genre has attracted a cult following all its own. Over the years, the slow-moving, heavily made-up zombies of the classic black and white horror films have transformed into the disease-crazed, CGI-enhanced undead of modern-day thrillers such as “28 Days Later.” Though zombies have become progressively more physically complex throughout film history, the mystery hiding behind those ashen complexions in the mind of the undead still remains unclear. However, Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Science On Screen program will address this bloodless brainteaser on April 13 when it reveals an empirical explanation for zombification.

The Science On Screen series focuses on films and documentaries that have a distinct, intriguing, or comical connection to areas of scientific inquiry, and it invites noted scientists and other academics to explain the science behind the screenings’ subjects. Next Monday, the theatre will screen “The Night of the Living Dead” with an introduction given by Dr. Steven C. Schlozman.

Schlozman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education, is interested in links between the medical field and pop culture, the humanities, and the arts. In his introduction, Schlozman will explain the zombie in terms of neuroscience to answer some of the many pressing questions about zombies: why the uncoordinated movement? Why the lack of cortical function? And, most importantly, why so hungry?

Using his own “brilliant formula” for zombie movies, Schlozman says he can predict the plots of most offspring of “Living Dead.” The similar trajectories of these films tend to begin by introducing “the motley crew of survivors” as an unlikely bunch of heroes. They coincidentally meet in some benign location—a mall, a house, a hospital—after which they “wall up” in order to protect themselves. Bored with their surroundings, the characters enter a downward spiral to violence; this “descent” is characterized by tension within the group, which manifests itself in aggression far more intense than that exhibited by their undead counterparts. At the “throw-in-the-towel” phase, the survivors risk death to escape their confines; in the process, they attempt to kill as many zombies as possible. At the film’s conclusion, the remaining characters are “rescued” by some government agency or army.

Schlozman suggests that what makes the zombie genre so alluring is not just its fantastical elements, but also its ability to question the human experience. Zombie movies, he says, confront the natural propensity to empathize with human-like figures. “They address the big existential questions: what makes one human? Not human?” he explains. Schlozman also notes the moral lessons implicit in these movies. They warn of radiation risk and the dangers of conducting experimental tests on diseases; they offer a satirical commentary on governments that stand idly by in the midst of an apocalypse; they blatantly attack the emergence of materialistic tendencies even under dire circumstances.

While Scholzman seeks to interpret the psychology of why viewers keep watching zombie films, he also gives thought to the neurology of zombies. According to Schlozman, because the hypothalamus stimulates the drive to forage, zombies’ eternal appetite and fleshy diet should be related to a problem with this part of the brain. Those exploding heads probably indicate that the zombies must suffer from a condition that induces severely increased intracranial pressure. And though they make for entertaining movies, the same cortical defects that would likely cause their lack of coordination and mindlessness also cause the zombies to be devoid of emotion—just in case there was any doubt that they would make bad movie-watching partners.