On Sept. 18, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” opened in theaters. It is the sequel to “The Maze Runner,” and one of the most entertaining parts of “Scorch Trials” is the zombie apocalypse aspect. Apparently, the boys have escaped the labyrinth and entered “the scorch,” a wasteland of devastated civilization (or what’s left of it), struggling humans, and zombies. The boys are classified as “immunes” (as in immune from becoming zombies), but the rest of humanity is going to need a cure to prevent the spread of the zombie disease.
As frightening as the undead may seem, the zombies can also serve as a good security measure. When the boys travel through the scorch, they find a group of people who have zombies chained inside their building. The zombies are there to deter intruders and are similar to guard dogs.
Over in Buena Park, “zombies” do not have guard dog status. Knott’s Scary Farm’s zombies are going to be hunted down by trained squad leaders who are suited to lead a squad of zombie hunters (guests of the theme park) against a zombie apocalypse. This attraction was created last year and has been resurrected for this year’s Knott’s Scary Farm, which will be open between Sept. 24-Oct. 31.
For this year’s zombie hunt, which revolves around killing zombies in order to save certain uninfected people, OC Register states there are twenty-five squad leaders employed by Knott’s and almost half of them have actually served in the military. They should be the perfect people to lead guests through the maze of zombies that Knott’s has cooked up out of Halloween spirit.
However, just because zombies get a bad rap over at Knott’s, that doesn’t mean “The Scorch Trials” can’t influence how locals use zombies. Guard dogs can be effective, but an out of control zombie guard can be even more frightening. Scarecrows are effective against crows, but could something that appears to be a hostile humanoid deter crime?
Crime is not unknown in Anaheim, and on Sept. 21 a strange crime—like a thoughtless zombie attack—resulted in gunshots. Three people, two men and a teen girl, were sitting in a garage in Anaheim. They were all sitting on a couch together when a man with a gun suddenly appeared. He opened fire and shot them all in their legs. The victims were taken to a hospital and all are expected to be fine. The details of the crime are still unclear. It is still unknown how the man fled (foot or vehicle) or if he was the only person involved in committing the crime.
While we can’t have real zombies, it would be interesting to see if makeshift zombies that resemble vile humans would deter criminals. Even just the presence of security guards can act as a deterrent to crime, no matter how effective or ineffective they actually are. Rather than scarecrows, our security zombies could be scarepeople. Given that they would be mannequins, their eery stillness would be all the more menacing to potential intruders.
