Dawn of the dead- title sequence analysis

1Q) How is the genre of the film (zombie) (horror) constructed?

·         There are short cuts to the ‘zombies’; this shows and suggests to the audience that the genre of the movie is horror. Also the make-up and actors performance help construct the genre.

·         Furthermore, there are short cuts to people screaming and running in the title sequence. The army shooting down the zombies, suggest that they are out of control and need to be killed in order to stop them tearing(eating and spreading the virus) other people apart.

·         The beginning establishes this is a horror from the cuts between the interview and the un-dead (zombies).

·         People (soldiers and civilians) are being killed and eaten by these zombies and this also indicates to the audience that the genre of this film is horror.

·         Lastly the lyrics from the backing track, communicate to the audience that this is a horror of some kind; even though the beat and rhythm of the music is very light. For example, the song speaks of ‘viper’, ‘people screaming, people crying’ and ‘there’s a man running round asking names, to see who is to blame’; these are all things that contribute to the construction of the genre that is horror.

2Q) What do the opening titles show visually? How is narrative enigma created here?

 ·       Visuals (typography) – the titles seem to trickle away like blood; this may connote that the titles are made up of the blood from the victims, which have been killed by the zombies.

·         There are a lot of civilians being killed by the zombies, as shown shown visually in the opening titles.

·         Also there are flashes of the zombies going crazy, which have been shown throughout the title sequence.

·         Enigmas – is it a virus? Can it be cured? Biggest enigma – are they alive or dead? And how did this virus come about? These are questions that that pop up when watch the title sequence and build the audiences curiosity.

3Q) Why has Kyle Cooper chosen to use news footage?

He has chosen to use news footage in order to get us updated with what has happened. He also used the news footage to create a sense of realism, that we are a civilian within the film and this is currently going on outside the place that you’re in at that moment in time. It also gives a POV from the camera man to show how scary and frightening it is and to show just how savage the zombies are in reality.

4Q) Where do these shots position the viewer?

The shots position itself is very clever, as it makes the viewer feel that they are to a civilian living in this world, where the zombies are eating people. This frightens the audience as they feel like they are going to have to run and hide in order to survive the virus, which seems to be spreading like wild fire. The shot position can be seen in two ways, from either the viewer watching the news at home, or it can be seen from the camera mans view which makes the audience feel like they’re the ones being torn apart by the savage zombies.