Popular Culture Review 30.2
turns to life as her eyes suddenly burst wide open . Laurene ’ s return from the dead may be somewhat ominous particularly if one considers this uncanny , supernatural , even grotesque phenomenon within a pantheon of movies and TV shows that have been influenced by the zombie craze . Italian director George Romero ’ s films The Night of the Living Dead , The Dawn of the Dead , and The Day of the Dead have been credited with inspiring the countless flesh-eating zombie shows that have found an enthusiastic acceptance in Western culture . With the possible exception of Jesus Christ ’ s Resurrection , people who return from the dead as zombies are generally the ghastly effect of a post-apocalyptic disaster , like a worldwide nuclear war . Beyond this , it is difficult if not impossible to determine what Missoffe had in mind beyond providing viewers with a shocking ending intended to carry them to the next season .
Missoffe thus combines the grotesque and the abject to capture the horrors of the continuing victimization of women not only in Villefranche but , by extension , in the Western society for which the village is a microcosmic caricature . Indeed , the central cultural crisis�or social evil--that Missoffe calls special attention to in this series is the continued abuse of women . To further emphasize the horror of this continuing victimization , Missoffe also incorporates into the first season scenes that depict women in bondage : thus , considered “ grotesque ” because she amputated two of her fingers , Laurene is punished for an unnamed infraction by being chained her to a mountainside for three days and nights for a crime that is never revealed ; later , Laurene seems to discover a hysterical Marion Stein ( likely a projection of the sheriff ) bound to a stone wall and terrified nearly to the point of insanity by the demonic Windigo ; even later , Laurene ’ s daughter Cora , tied to a chair , suffers kidnapping , abuse and humiliation at
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