They’re cold, mindless and on the hunt for blood. No, I’m not talking about your most recent ex, I’m talking about zombies – and they’re taking over.

Remember when vampires were the trendiest monsters of the year? Whether they sparkled, those fanged devils were everywhere. But with “Twilight” officially finished —whew — and “True Blood” losing its edge and sense, “The Vampire Diaries” is the only culturally relevant vampire entertainment left. And poor “TVD” isn’t even a Top 100-rated network show.

Although Hollywood tried its hardest to make werewolves work, the plan failed miserably. “Teen Wolf” survives because of its campy appeal and pretty faces. Benicio Del Toro’s “The Wolfman” was immediately forgotten about in 2010, and indie-lesbian werewolf flick “Jack and Diane” was totally ignored last year.

But somehow, zombies have become the monster to reign supreme. This Friday, zombie romance “Warm Bodies,” starring Nicholas Hoult, hits theaters. It’s like “Zombieland,” but without Jesse Eisenberg and from the perspective of an actual zombie.

A half-hourlong series based off of 2009’s “Zombieland” was created for Fox, but the network unfortunately passed on it. Luckily, Amazon.com has begun talks to acquire it for its streaming service. If the deal works out, the “Zombieland” television show will be the website’s first original show.

In less than two weeks, critic and viewer darling “The Walking Dead” will return to finish its second season. The recent teaser trailers promise a gory, violent and dramatic season end.

And a true trend wouldn’t be official without its summer blockbuster. Brad Pitt’s “World War Z,” a zombie apocalypse-drama, is scheduled to hit theaters in June 2013.

It’s not just that Hollywood wants to make these zombie stories, it’s that people genuinely want to see them. But what’s the draw? Unlike magical creatures like werewolves and vampires, an international medical emergency that looks like a zombie outbreak seems a bit more plausible.

Every movie or television zombie epidemic starts with an infectious disease that goes horribly wrong and horribly global, leading to a zombie-eating-human dystopia. In “Zombieland” for example, the problem started when mad cow disease mutated into “mad person disease,” which then mutated into “mad zombie disease.”

In real-world news, we hear about epidemics, infections and weird zombie bath salt attacks. Right now, we’re all pretty paranoid about getting the flu from someone in class or a winter cold from this horrible up-and-down weather.

Instead of playing to our sillier and unnecessary fears — you’re not running into a wolf in the woods every day— zombies fit more closely to our actual anxieties.

The “apocalypse” of 2012 only added to the mystique of zombies. If the world were to end, the idea of a human-eating-human zombie epidemic was as good of an explanation as anyone else’s. The idea of no school, work or actual responsibilities other than survival can seem exciting.

If Jesse Eisenberg or zombie-Nicholas Hoult can find pretty paramours like Emma Stone or Teresa Palmer, a Zombie apocalypse might not be so bad.

But since we survived the end of the world that never happened, it’s time for zombies to prove their re-animated fame is here to stay.

Ariana Romero is a junior magazine journalism and political science major. Her column appears every week. She can be reached at akromero@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @ArianaRomero017.

Published on January 31, 2013 at 2:20 am