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The zombie film as a sub-genre of horror comes with its own lists of conventions and iconographies. The most prominent, even today, is the "the bite". While other ways of transferring the disease have been created, the bite remains the primary method of destruction. Romero uses the human body as its own convention in his films. The body is seen as the root of the infection and also as a means for the infection to spread. Even more so, it deals with the concerns that people have over their own bodies. While the audience is aware that they are watching a movie, they become primarily concerned with the state and safety of their own bodies. Postmodernism is obsessed with the concept of the ruined body, as "the dismembered body, the body in bits and pieces, occupies center stage" (Pinedo). The dehumanization of the zombies leads to another convention, "the moan". A character will be alone on screen and a faint while a faint moan can be heard from a short distance. Without cutting to a different take, the audience already knows a zombie is near and a chase will ensue. The last two concepts, "the chase" and "the fall" rely on each other in order to be effective. In every zombie film, there is a single character being chased by a single zombie. Although the character is capable of running at a normal pace and the zombie cannot exceed a brisk walk, she (almost always a female) cannot seem to distance herself from the ensuing zombie. With the chase comes the fall. The character trips and falls, seemingly over nothing, allowing for the zombie to close the distance. .
The 1960s provided one of the darkest times ever seen in our nation. Not only were we at war thousands of miles away, but a battle was also being fought at home. We were a country divided, and with very little direction. Naturally, directors in the modernist era began to voice their opinion through their films.