“Zombieland” is a film where a lot of stylistic choices were made. Especially the opening scene says a lot about the film and the characters. Mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound shape the film’s effect on the viewer.
The film begins in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The first shot is unbalanced to prime our expectation that something will change position. The shot is of the American flag, which is focused while the background is unfocused which means it indicates that the flag is of importance. From the close-up of the American flag we get a handheld panning shot of a car crash, this shows us a deeper meaning: America has fallen. While the actor stands up with his body-mounted camera it creates an illusion of a point of
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For instance Columbus; we see the world mainly through his eyes. Columbus narrates the entire story. Herewith we built up a relationship with this film character. We feel sympathy for him. Big motifs in the film are his rules of survival and a parallelism where Columbus is talking about the death (of a zombie) of the week with Tallahassee. Columbus mentions these things quite a few times in the film.
Sound is also a big part of the film. There is a non-diegetic soundtrack used throughout the title sequence, which is rock music and when the American flag appears, the music changes to the American anthem, which is slightly lower pitched and distorted. This adds to the whole imagery of the film. Then you also have Columbus’s observations and comments that run throughout the film as well. Director and editor also used diegetic sound, which is mainly used for the growling of the zombies when they are attacking people. The sound of the zombies growling is low pitched and the amplitude of the vibrations is loud.
Another big part of the film is mise-en-scene. For instance the setting; throughout the film the filmmakers made use of a lot of local areas like on location settings. “Zombieland” was filmed in Atlanta, GA so they used a lot of practical locations like the grocery store and the amusement park in which a big fight between the living and the undead played out. The settings the director and producer have chosen are not typical for a horror film
What makes us alive and what makes the zombies dead or undead? Well it all has to with neuroscience and most importantly the brain. The biggest question is what the requirements of life are? The requirements are the process to maintain homeostasis and the ability to adapt to changes. Do zombies maintain homeostasis for the undead couldn’t cause of the decay wouldn’t be able to because it couldn’t respond to change in the environment and don’t the ability to heal or repair. Unlike the livening dead would be able to adjust to the changes also could maintain the in the internal environment.
The article “Dead man still walking: Explaining the zombie renaissance” by Kyle Bishop is about the revitalization of the zombie genre. The article talks about the inception in the late 1960’s, the category of zombie films has had its roller coaster ride of ups and downs, starting with its decline in the early 1980’s with the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. Furthermore, during 1990’s, due to the shift in the cultural consciousness that came with the Clinton Administration and the countries isolation from global tragedies, the popularity of these films continued to decline. Cultural consciousness refers to the understanding and awareness a shift in feelings, sensations, thoughts, of not only our own culture, but adjoining cultures.
To start off, Quentin Tarantino gave much attention to detail in his diegetic sounds. By including crickets chirping, floorboards creaking, bullets ricocheting off multiple surfaces, and, of course, blood splatter, Tarantino truly brings his audience into the old American west. Another example of diegetic sounds in the film is when Dr. Schultz is waiting for Mr. Candie to sign the papers
The play, Night of the Living Dead, really was a new dose of irony horror inside an abandoned farmhouse; the display is taken from a classic film. It interprets the story of zombies’ events. The script is filled with all the scare tactics, such as lights, sounds, costumes and music.
Night of the Living Dead follows this story line. George A Romero saw zombies as what they were, the living dead, meaning that they were dead, and dead things cannot talk. Instead, he developed the zombie communication of grunts and groans. These were effective in such a way that it made the film so much more realistic.
Reading through the whole essay, there are many appealing strategies found in order to strengthen the essay academically. Brooks attracts the audience with a pathos-style strategy, giving specific movie examples to straighten up the essay. The movie Night of the Living Dead resonates the viewers with an image of a flesh-eating and harmful zombie figure instead of a harmless voodoo-created zombie, which makes the notion of zombies transformed into a horrifying figure, provoking the sense of fear of audience with emotional appeal. The revolutionary creation of zombie film was led by George A. Romero, the father of the entirely new horror genre. In his work, zombies are characterized as a form of undead
The day started like that of any other these last couple of weeks. Mysterious incidents kept popping up in the news, of small groups going mad and becoming savage. Life was like that in Lampeter. Very little going on in town, whilst the whole world around us lives with a constant stream of danger. Some people were getting worried, afraid it was some sort of virus going around, but that happens all the time. One small case of a disease and the world’s in an epidemic. Happened with bird flu, E-coli, and we had just got over the joys of swine flu. Now this. Some people were becoming wary, uneasy around other people, fears of catching this mystery virus afflicting the nation and forcing its way into people’s minds. The unfortunate thing was,
Imagine, if you will, a brisk night wind coming fast across a lake carrying a pungent smell, something you can’t quite identify, but is nonetheless familiar enough to send a shiver up your spine. As it hits the trees, they creak out a somber call in the still night air. Or was that groan something more…human? You notice, for the first time, the absence of tires humming on pavement and you wonder if it’s that late, or maybe just a slow night. The soft tapping of your shoes on the sidewalk is the only accompaniment your slow breathing has as you move towards the warmth of your home, holding thoughts of a warm bed in the palm of your hand to keep the chill away. You don’t notice at first, perhaps because the reality of what you’re hearing is
The foundation of horror genre was set by monsters that not only haunted your dreams but also conveyed rich themes found deep beneath the surface. Vampires are considered a symbol of seduction and sophistication while Frankenstein monsters represent misunderstanding, oppression, and rebellion. Some of the strongest symbolism is found in standard films of the horror genre does not come from the frequently updated relics. Utilizing fear and horror as mechanisms for subtext, social commentary, and symbolism, George Romero created a new horror genre, one that scares and shines just as much as great horror classics. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead revolutionized the once stagnant zombie film and made into something unstoppable, still to this day zombie movies rake in millions of ticket sales at the box office while remaining culturally relevant.
From video games like Fortnite, to social media apps like Instagram, to search engines like Google, modern day technology has become readily accessible to people of all ages. By relying on technology every day for the smallest of reasons, people have become brain dead and unable to think for themselves. In response to this growth of technology, Chuck Klosterman in My Zombie, Myself attempts to convince his audience that to fight against the wave of technology, just how one would fight against a wave of zombies. Klosterman claims that the reason why zombies are attracting so much attention is because of how relatable they are to modern day lives, where killing hordes of zombies is similar to deleting hundreds of emails or following social media
Fleischer is the director of Zombieland, a film about surviving the zombie apocalypse to get to Los Angeles. Zombies overtake California and its picture-perfect suburbia lifestyle in both Zombieland and Santa Clarita Diet. The show has the drive to exist in a world without politics because it only allows us to see the lifestyle of Shelia, Joel, and Abby. However, following the typical zombie storyline, the living want nothing to do with the undead and are willing to commit genocide to save themselves. When Anne finds Joel and Shelia in the desert and points a gun at undead Shelia, her willingness to shoot is questioned by Joel but she proves that she is willing to shoot Shelia because she is a zombie, forgetting that they are friends. It creates a vivid parallel to a present-day Donald Trump. Within the first few episodes, an obvious change in color palette can be seen throughout the show. Before Shelia’s transformation, the show was muted and bland. Vibrant color accompanies Shelia’s skyrocket of energy and her sudden peak of sex drive, all products of becoming undead. The color palette allows the audience to visually see the change in Shelia just by the atmosphere of the
The fast-paced humor and physical comedy (most notably the fence gag) are obviously elements of screwball and slapstick comedies, respectfully. Additionally, typical focal points of zombie movies are refused or defied as well. The zombies are prominently not referred to as zombies. A decision was made and kept to not reveal the origins of the zombie apocalypse, an element noted to be one of interest after fear of radiation was exploited and used as the reason behind the rising of the undead (Altman, 218). The hero of the movie, Shaun, isn’t much of a hero to go with; he defies narrative ideas of a hero, as pointed out with the line “for a hero, you’re quite a hypocrite!” Finally, the so desired and so expected happy ending is bittersweet; the road to this ending being difficult in and of itself. Many people close to Shaun die (such as his mother), relationships are bared down to their harsh realities (for instance, between David and Di), and even though his best friend technically survives, he exists as a zombie. Though, considering the way Ed was living, one could equate him as already acting like a zombie and surmise that his fate didn’t ultimately change much of who he was. Yet the fact still remains his state of undead isn’t an ending one would picture as being happy; it’s more like the best outcome,
Survival and disaster preparation are relevant in the stories in the novel. Several interviews, especially those from the United States, focus on policy changes designed to train the surviving Americans to fight the zombies and rebuild the country. For example, when cities were made to be as efficient as possible in order to fight the zombies, the art of using real places and locations to describe these disasters, or when the ultra-rich hide in their homes, which had been turned into fortified compounds, they were overwhelmed by others trying to get in, leading to mass slaughter. Throughout the novel, characters demonstrate the physical and mental requirements needed to survive a disaster. There were so many disasters that can be related to the outrageous earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcano eruptions, etc. Zombie apocalypse can most likely be a reality through the spread a deadly virus. Brooks described the large amount of research needed to find optimal methods for fighting a worldwide zombie outbreak.
Also, the book was so descriptive I literally felt as if I was watching a movie every time there was an action scene. Just the way Jonathan Maberry describes the zombies, gives you an incredible insight and image in your brain as to what they look and sound
One would have to say that one of the most notable features of the film would have to be its soundtrack, which incorporates no music but only diegetic sound, from the preliminary noise of the river flowing under the bridge through the even louder sounds of the forthcoming American tanks to the quaking clamors of the ending battle scenes. A prodigious example of sound transpires within the middle of the film. It is when the boys are woken from their cots and called into combat; the sequence features electronically distorted sounds that together equally insinuate the boys’ disorientation as well as the disorientation of the viewers.