But that trope, too, is difficult to wholeheartedly embrace now. What if our characters had stumbled upon a cable channel that, say, actively downplayed, and even denied the zombie outbreak? We can no longer watch movies about any virus without accepting the fact that misinformation, and the politicization of that misinformation, will be an integral part of the media landscape. They may even attempt to completely divert the zombie narrative, claiming the zombies are looters or rioters -- which is something we see playing out in the background of the South Korean blockbuster Train to Busan.
But while Train to Busan ticks a lot of these boxes, it is very much an allegory tailored for South Korean culture, aimed at a government that lied to its people about the spread of MERS and corporations that routinely devalue human life. Like the best zombie movies, the villains are not the zombies, but rather the rich businessman who, not unlike George Costanza, callously sacrifices others in order to protect himself.