Dawn of the Dead (2004) Analysis

 This shot from the opening credits of a mosque gives the suggestion that the zombie virus has spread from the Middle East. It links in terms of historical context to Al Qaeda creating the ‘evil’ in the world. It is a contrast in context to the 1979 version because it needs to keep up with the relevant fears in society at the time of release. The long shot enables us to see the vast amount of people praying, which could connote the masses of zombies that appear later in the film. The low-key lighting makes the prayer look more sinister and suspicious, which reflects societies’ views on these types of people after terrorist acts of 9/11. It also suggests that religion is a reason for the dark in the world. However this is the only time in the film that this is suggested and is not always noticed, as sometimes people don’t pay much attention to opening credits, and this subtle use of connotations helps avoid creating too much controversy.

This shot reinforces the horror stereotype of the screaming female victim, who traditionally has a good figure, wears skimpy clothing and dies after having sex. This scene has a sense of humour to it because Monica is not killed intentionally; she is killed because the van goes round a corner and Glen slips and inadvertently kills her. The chainsaw, as with many other weapons, could be a phallic symbol to represent men’s power over women. The use of body horror is shocking, realistic and hard to watch because killing somebody isn’t fun or easy. This also shows how far horror has developed over time, and that development is due to the audience becoming gradually desensitised because of what they have seen previously, so horror just has to keep pushing more boundaries to keep up with them. This medium close-up enables us to fully see the expression of pain on Monica’s face, which forces us to imagine ourselves feeling the pain she is in.

Here we are shown an example of why Anna is the female ‘survivor’. She doesn’t look like a typical female horror survivor, who would normally be more edgy and dark-haired, so we are confused at the start about what her role is going to be in this. However, as shown in this shot, she is not afraid to fight the zombies and this shot reinforces the fact that she is definitely not a female victim who screams at the sight of gore. This is also shown through the fact that she is a nurse  so she helps others and is calm under pressure, while she also shows she is smart by figuring out that the infection is spread through bites, and she stands up to Michael and Kenneth. Unlike zombies in previous horror films, this one moves faster, again  due to the fact that the audience becoming desensitised to slow zombies, so in modern horror the monsters need to move faster,  which is shown in films such as Cloverfield and The Hills have Eyes.