Analyse genre conventions of zombie horror

Dawn of the dead

The initial setting of dawn of the dead (1978 version) is within the modern urban Philidelphia, USA which goes from a radio station to a random mall which suggest how they wanted to show of the chaos through how the society is ruined due to zombie ravaging the grounds and survival becomes dominant within the scenes instead of goverment and money. This could be similar to zombie land however this it's more of a world wide scale compared to dawn of the dead since they show only the infection within just USA.

The characters within typical zombie horror movies are hero the character who guides the group of survivors through the movie and keeping his senses focused and makes less mistakes than most of the group. For example within dawn of the dead they use the character of peter who keeps control of the other 2 men who get reckless and cocky gradually throughout the movie. The heroine is the feminine character who produces who and encourages the other characters but also contributes to the structure of the group by within dawn of the dead they use the role of francine at first as a innocent and quite useless character who is just dragged behind by the other of the group however gradually she retrieve the confidence and sense of independence within the front lines of the survival group which the male character don't like however grants respect within the fight and sense of command of the female character. This could compare to the heroine of 28 days later since this character start off as the hero as the key factor of survival but then through out the movie becomes more innocent and fragile due to the male main character who become dominant role within the ending scenes.
The false hero is a character who through out the film becomes a rival for the role of the hero to the main character however screw the peace from reasons such as greed and jealousy which corrupts the group sense of hope, this would be an example of the character Stephen due to at the start he was the only pilot who has a idea on how to fly the helicopter which could be seen as the saviour of everyone flying them to a safer more secure place so that they can actually survive as far as they did within the movie.The villain is someone who isn't the zombie due to they only use them as objects of destruction for the villain but the main villain would be some type of group or organisation who would be surviving through the use of  and the expert.

The chain of events that happened within the movie of the dawn of the dead (1978) was that they show section of chaos within starting scene in the radio station with a crowd of people shouting suggesting the organisation in normal society and how in the end theres no difference between start and after the incident and prepare the characters and the audience for the zombies spreading. The police are then shown raiding a flat which criminals have been harvesting drugs then find unknown problem of zombie present within a room which then gives the first site of zombie activity. The group gradually meet up at the helicopter platform through the police officers finding the 2 lovers being attack by a group of men and so help them survive longer within the film. This is effective to compare to the short film cargo which isn't necessarily the about a group however start off with chaos through the mother being a zombie and attacking the father whilst he's unconscious, this is more about a ,man who goal within the zombie apocalypse is to use everything in his power to protect and send his daughter to a safer place in a sense for a chance for hope in the next generation of the human kind.

The use of uniforms suggest to both the audience and the characters that they have experience and specialize in in survival field such as fighting and coordinating as a team which suggest a slight ease from the couple that they could trust the officers decision with a smoother journey within the survival aspect of these scenes. A convention of zombie horrors are the use guns gun to suggest the audience of power and authority which lead to the collapse on society which they don't anticipate the political aspect in society no more they lead life through survival no matter what.The other weapons such as melee weapons are used as showing normal daily items of society having to be used as weapons to suggest a ephasis on the collapse of society. This is a strong and key item of most zombie horror movies due to the use of no ammo which relieves stress to characters t find more ammo for guns
which suggest guns being a luxury in survival. Other than finding safe house or solution to the zombie apocalyse the objective is mainly to find food and supplies due to giving a purpose to the characters but also giving more to the scene like applying greed on who get the most of the food another person might have more than the other which think to the scene in dawn of the dead where the bandit coming to take most of the stuff they have however the greed from roger overcomes him and start a gun fight and lead to the death of many. However this is different within zombie lands since once the two male characters go into the supermarket they were there more for the selected food instead of thinking about grabbing as much food as you can and get tot he next step and when the group is becoming more familiar with themselves they go to the suvenier scene where they trash up the place to present the true objective of the survival world to show no restriction or limit and it's mainly about fun by destruction this link to distrupting one of the convention dawn of the dead created.

The key attributes within the themes of the convention in zombie horror genres are the aspect of death not being the last resort/stage in the world and applies fear to the survivors way of life and thought. For example within dawn of the dead they show the consequences of the character Roger's cockiness through being bitten by losing focus on survival and more of the pleasure of killing as much zombie in different method as possible. Which gives 3 days worth of worry to the group on when he will be converted into a zombie which also give caution and worry from the audience perspective and pressure to what will happen next if this might ruin the peace and sanctuary they had within the mall. This movie also shows how they emphasis the change within the roles of men and women since this film was produced right after the segregation and the start of the human rights of women which is presented when the heroine was arguing not wanting the typical washing and cooking role within the survival group while the men do the dirty part of applying the safety within the mall, however, within dawn of the dead it shows how the heroine changes in character to survive through the changes of society and maybe even classified as the most calm minded and strongest heart within the group under of course Pete the hero who carry's out what happen in the group with careful planning. For example, when they were using the truck as a way to block out some opening where the zombies could come from Francine was left behind to take care of the safe place while the men do all the work however she decides to take matters to her own hands and so she grabs a guns and soon after killed a zombie who would've made problems even worse for the others in the group. This is different within Shaun of the dead since it show the hero gradually become a true hero after the stages of survival where he has to make decision and become the icon of hope the the zombie genre but also have the right of passage to be Liz's lover. Finally within dawn of the dead they use a black man who works as part of the swat team to fit the hero which suggest how they are showing how everyone is equal within this society and how everyone needs to works together.

Shaun of the dead 

The setting of Shaun of the dead is more restricted around 4-5 scene within a small town in Britain within reduces the intensity to the audience of how much the chaos has spread and how drastic is the situation. This also allows the hybrid genre of the romantic comedy aspect since it a shorter platform for the audience to focus on so that they still see the love and romance between Liz and Shaun more importantly how much problems in the relationship Shaun has to deal with.This manipulates one aspect of the conventions in a zombie horror movie of one placing another genre with it to apply a mixed story within one film but also restricting the chaos of the zombie outbreak just so the audience could still see the relationship aspect of the movie between Liz and Shaun.

The character of the film familiarizes themselves within  romantic comedy however soon converts and manipulates there roles so they could be introduced later on as a zombie survival group. For example, within shaun of the dead they use the couple of the romantic comedy liz and shaun to be convert and have a quick change as the heroine and hero of the zombie genre film which shows how they used the main character for both genres to harmonies in the movie and fit the storyline and lead the group to winchester. Also the friend the the hero who is shown as the border between the main couple within the romantic comedy who is ed convert himself as a short hero who uses his life to both allow the relationship to continue but also to save their life so that they can be together after this is finished. However breaks one of the conventions of the thought of having more than one hero which links to zombie land where they use two male actor who each fit the hero figure however have different characteristic of the wimp and the masculine which harmonies them both to work well together within the group. The false hero who would be seen as the character david who within the romantic comedy is seen as the jealous rival who would do anything to get liz to love him which emphasises the danger of the zombie horror aspect since they apply the thought of survival within the jealous which can represent the greed to cause the problem of a zombie outbreak. This is shown in the scene where shaun is out of the picture he step up as the hero and orders to barracade the doors so zombies wouldn't come in but also to impress liz so that she would forget about shaun and go for him, however once shaun comes along they used fast pace to suggest how drastic david is thinking through the greed that he threaten shaun's life with a shotguns which results to his death and a zombie attack inside the winchester. The villain is less obvious within the film however could be seen as the boundaries between him and his way of life from ed who is the friend who shaun has to carry through life but also pete who he doesn't like but his mum is restricting him to leave his life which in the end carries out loosing pete as a cause or chain of event of his mother dying in the end which forces shaun to become more independent which emphasises his role as the hero. This would be different to dawn of the dead due to breaking a convention of the villian being thought of people within the romantic comedy genre who are trying to seek back into the story however is corrupting shaun life even further other than using greed as the overall villian which forces and manipulate human to cause their own chaos, for example how they show the bandit ravaging through the mall. The scientist is scene as not a clear singular expert who tells the main character on what is happening, instead it shows how they use a mixed media format where shaun actually shows us whats happening by changing the program on section which makes the information more humorous due to how obvious the information to the audience it is however frustrates us due to how shaun cant see it since he too caught up in the romantic comedy and blind of whats going on around him this also makes the audience impatient with shaun on realising the zombie horror aspect from the romantic comedy which makes the hybrid more aspect more effective. This breaks one of the conventions of zombie horror of using a narrator to present the information as a expert or scientist who would present it within the media such as a radio or TV.

The story consist of the overall chaos convention which relates to dawn of the dead continuous use of fast pace action. However, shaun of the dead starts off as daily life which would be more linear from beginning tot he end of a start being the romantic comedy genre and the zombie horror genre gradually seeping into the background which is seen within the walking scenes where shaun goes out to the shops.

These shows how the scene are similar in positioning of shaun however, just compares the background which is shown for example within the first walking scene they show the beggar walking his dog and asking shaun for money which present the society's chaos at the start of the zombie aspect. But within walking scene two they present the barking of a dog within the background at the walk to the shop and then once he's walking back presents the beggar within a zombie form and silence in the background of the dog and that the dog has disappeared from sight. Also shows him within the near by shop which he end up in every walking scene and shows within the first scene he get a diet coke but put it back and get a normal coke instead they show him looking at the newspapers at the till with a mid shot fast pan to the left to suggests importance and should look out for a similar scene the next walking scene they make. The next walking scene they present him in the shop with sirens in the background warning the audience of whats coming up, they show shown in the similar shot of him picking up coke but then converting his sights to diet coke which suggest small change to get liz back which suggest he still blinded on how to fix his relationship that he doesn't know his surrounding is becoming more zombie horror. After this scene he slips on some blood still being clueless but then once he gets to the till the similar scene of fast pan to mid shot of where the newspapers used to be however theres no new newspapers which suggest how the media cant get to shaun enough to make him open his eyes and realise he's not in much of a romantic comedy no more and should get safe within the zombie horror genre that's right in his door step. This is a different thought process within the short movie of cargo where he has to change his decision to not survive through the chaos since the father was already marked to death so he uses his life to save his baby to head out to safety and allow the symbol of hope which is the baby to move onto the next generation. Which suggest the thought between cargo and shaun of the dead because shaun has to change his life in a short amount of time so that he could be together with liz but also to be the hero and lead everyone to safety, but also cargo the father has to change the way he uses his life to save the next generation which is placing his baby within a safe enviroment to survive the chaos.

The theme of shaun of the dead they use the attribute of the dead as a way of making a huge change in shaun love life within the romantic comedy side by letting go of all the characters who were boundaries between his life in the future. However combining it with a zombie horror genre makes it easier, dramatic and more permanent which applies drama and intensifies the romance within the survival platform within the zombie horror genre. This cancel out one of the conventions of using death as a method to place in suspense for the audience and characters in the group due to making the audience wait within the time period of how long someone who was bitten became one of the zombie and how will this affect the survivors decisions. An example of this slightly from shaun of the dead they realise shaun's mum has been bitten a while back weakens shaun emotionally which would destroy his focus and mind, this makes the group think fast to kill her however due to her being part of the group and shaun's family shaun finds it difficult however, shaun doesn't want anyone else to do which present to the audience some sympathy for shaun to allow his mum not to live longer as a zombie. This would be similar to rogers death in dawn of the dead where pete had to wait alone in the room with roger and wait till he becomes dangerous to handle as a zombie and gave him around 3 days where it automatic apply some aspects of suspense and curiosity of how long he has left to live.