By Sims, Cody
Period 3

Sims 1
What is a common genre in horror movies and games? Zombies, also known as an infection. Many types of horror or survival games have some sort of zombies or infestations. For example, the first person shooter, Half-Life has a species of aliens called “headcrabs” that use a person’s head as a host to control their body. The “headcrab” makes the person behave like a zombie. There are a lot of movies based on zombies. Some infestation movies were even around in the 1980s, for instance; The Return of The Living Dead , and are still being made today, such as Zombieland in 2009. There are even non horror types of multimedia that have some sort of infestation such as; the ever popular first person shooter, Halo which has the Flood (a type of parasite), the kids game, Plants V.S. Zombies , and cartoons like Ed, Edd, and Eddy where their cul-de-sac becomes flooded with rabbits that won’t stop breeding.
What are infections and what are its characteristics? Infection is a term used to describe when a parasite or a pest (such as rodents or even rabbits) take over an area and drive the inhabitants out, like the example with Ed, Edd, and Eddy , where the rabbits overpopulate the culde-sac. An infection can also take over the inhabitant. For example, a parasite may take over a human and live inside of it as a host (thus becoming a zombie) or on it so that it can spread faster and easier (like a cold). (“Archetypal Symbolism”: 2010) In 1348 to 1350, the disease known as the Black Plaque infects Europe by using the people as hosts to spread the disease. However, then it had not been known as an infection. One of the first references to the living dead comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh , which states “ I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld , I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down , and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!” describing how zombies ate living people and often urround them. In 1932, the first feature-length film depicting zombies was called White Zombie ,

Sims 2 followed by its sequel, Revolt of the Zombies, in 1936. Then came the first zombie videogames
The Evil Dead and Zombie Zombie , both in 1984. (“ZombieMovieList.com”: 2010)
How are infections part of multimedia, and what do they do? Infections in movies, games, or even books are usually created through some sort of disease or experiment gone wrong
(or in some cases gone right, if a person wanted to create the infection). The disease or experiment becomes part of a person and uses them as a host. This is when the first infection starts to roam (either still a regular human, or zombie-like) and interact with other people. This spreads the infection to other people, creating either a mass army of zombies, or causing many people to die (for example: the Black Plaque). Infections most often want to eat humans, or infect them to join the masses. The basic behavior of an infection is to walk, limp, or crawl around aimlessly. Some infections are able to run, climb and jump to be able to catch their prey.
But all infections want to eat any living creature. (“Monstrous.com”: 2010)
What kind of “infections” are there? There are many types of infections in multimedia, but most of them are zombies. There are a few types of infection that are similar. They all have the form of a small parasite, and take control of something larger (usually a human) to make them a host. The movie Alien has a type of parasite called a Facehugger. A face hugger does as its name implies, and attaches itself to a person’s face. The parasite then plants an embro in its host to create an Alien. This is one of the only infections to not actually turn a person into a zombie. In the videogame, Halo there is a parasite known as “Popcorn Flood”. These little creatures attach to a host, and grow over their body, creating a Flood zombie. Lastly, is Half-
Life , were head crabs take over a person’s body and becomes mutated.

Sims 3
Why are multimedia pieces about zombies made? The main reason why people make multimedia about zombies: destruction. People love to see a world get flooded and destroyed by a army of zombies. Another reason is because some people like to kill, or watch someone kill/ be killed, and not be ridiculed about it. Since infections are either not human, or the human host is already dead, a person receives joy from killing these creatures and also release any stress. Some people like to be scared, and what’s something to be scared about? Zombies. A person enjoys playing zombie games or watching movies about them because they like to be scared. A possible reason people like zombies, is because a lot of people act like them. They may not be the living dead, no, but like zombies, people often obsess over something, or go through everyday life doing the same exact thing every day. These people are often called “social zombies”. Others may have their own reasons for liking zombies too. (“Why do we like zombies?”: 2009)
How is the videogame Half-Life related to the infection archetype? In Half- Life , and its sequels, one of the main enemies is a type of infection. They are called “headcrabs”, which are aliens that take over a person’s body and use it as a host. But where do they come from?
Headcrabs and the other aliens in Half- Life come from a world called Xen, which is composed of floating platforms. In the first game of the Half- Life series, Xen is first accessed through a malfunction in an experiment. The player, as Gordon Freeman, is assigned to push a specimen cart into a testing device. The device blows up, opening portals to Xen. This is when all the headcrabs started to appear. This is the start of the infection.

Sims 4
How are headcrabs considered infection? Headcrabs infect people by jumping on the victim’s head, and attaching itself to them. This causes the person to mutate and become a zombie. The different mutations depend on the type of headcrab, normal, “fast”, or poison. The mutations of a normal headcrab on a person consist of making the victim grow long claws, their chest burst open, and have a zombie like state. A fast headcrab can take over a corpse, and it mutates it by giving it large claws, and the ability to run faster than other zombies, and even jump and climb objects. A poison headcrab’s victim receives large claws, and enhanced strength.
Unlike the other zombies, the poison zombie carries three to four poison headcrabs on its back, and is able to throw them at a victim. The intentions of headcrabs are unknown, rather than just wanting to take over a person. (“Headcrabs – Combine Over Wiki”: 2010)
Why is infection important to the series Half-Life? Besides Gordon Freeman and his crowbar, the source of infection: headcrab zombies are a iconic symbol of Half- Life. Zombies are one of the main enemies in the game. In fact, they are so common; they are in almost every level and in all of the Half-Life games. Heabcrab zombies add a lot of the gameplay to Half-Life.
Without it’s unique zombies, Half- Life would just be an ordinary shooter game. The zombie symbolizes the desecration of a world, and in Half- Life, that’s exactly what is happening. If zombies were taken out, the game wouldn’t be as fun to play. Headcrabs/ headcrab zombies are even used as a weapon by another enemy, the Combine in Half-Life 2 (and its add-ons).
Headcrabs are put into artillery shells and fired at places where people still live in order to take over an area easier.

Why do we like zombies? From:
Nick. "Why do we like zombies?" 137design. N.p., 2009. Web. 22 Dec. 2010. <http://137design.com/
blog/7-why-do-we-like-zombies>.
Information on headcrabs/ headcrab zombies:
CombineOverWiki.com. "Headcrab." CombineOverWiki. N.p., 2010. Web. 23 Dec. 2010.
<http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Headcrab>.
Information on zombies from:
Monstrous.com. "Definition of zombies ." Editorial. Monstrous.com. N.p., 2010. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
<http://zombies.monstrous.com/definition_of_zombies/>.
Zombie Archetype info from:
Suidoo.com. "Archetypal Symbolism." www.squidoo.com. suidoo.com, 2011. Web. 12 Jan. 2011.
<http://www.squidoo.com/zombie-archetype#module3432661>.
Zombie movies from:
Zombiemovielist.com. "ZombieMovieList.com's List of Zombie Movies." Editorial.
zombiemovielist.com. N.p., 2010. Web. 23 Dec. 2010. <http://zombiemovielist.com/ list-of-zombie-movies.htm>.