Zombies and the uncanny valley

This weeks theme of zombies can be very easily connected to our earlier discussion of the uncanny for many reasons. Some of the obvious reasons include that zombies have human appearances and some are even capable of walking and talking in a way that resembles an animate human being. Along these lines, one of the most terrifying instances of a zombie encounter is when the zombie is someone you know, or someone you knew at least. Even in the few zombie stories we have been exposed to in class thus far, we have seen this plot line used multiple times. For example, in  "Danger Word," this happens when Grandpa Joe goes to rescue 'little soldier' and has an encounter with his deceased daughter in zombie form. It takes him a long time to realize that it was actually her, however the idea haunts him throughout the story. Also, Grandpa Joe has an encounter with a zombie version of his long time friend who owned the convenience store, and little soldier is forced to face his own grandfather in zombie forms. This idea that the zombies seem to be other versions of people we feel that we know and love makes zombies the epitome of the uncanny. It turns the monsters in the stories into something far more terrible.