"Danger Word"

Part of what characterizes the “Fantastic” is the tension created when having to decide if a particularly strange occurrence follows the natural laws of our reality or those of a world unfamiliar to us. In “Danger Word” and the movie clips shown in class this characteristic of the Fantastic is used to create tension for the characters and the audience members. However, the characters indecision or uncertainty when addressing the potential reality that a family member may be using the danger word not to signal everything is safe, but rather as a means to trick a former loved one into becoming breakfast, ultimately results in the demise of the human character while in other Fantastic texts such denials just drove the characters to insanity. What separates the zombie stories from the earlier discussed fantastic texts is that when a character is forced to accept that their reality contains creatures that do not follow the natural laws of their world and are given the chance to either accept and embrace this truth or deny it, if they choose denial they choose to be ignorant and die. Ultimately that is what differentiates humans from zombies, an ability to think and make decisions based on our own thoughts and feelings, our intelligence. As seen in “Danger Word”, it was Mike’s ability to speak seemingly coherent sentences that made Joe believe all was well as it made it seem that he was still in control of his mind. Most other zombies were driven purely by instinct, knowing only that they wanted to eat humans and not really thinking about what they were eating, lacking all humanity. Therefore, “Danger Word” suggests that part of what makes us human is our ability to control our own thoughts and actions as opposed to letting animalistic instincts turn us into flesh eating monsters.