Shaun of the Dead Essay

 
Film Essay

Shaun of the dead is a hybrid of many different genres that mix together to make an interesting story. It is a comedy, a romance, and most obviously, a zombie film. The film uses its hybrid of different genres to fix problems and re balance the equilibrium. The use horror within the horror allows this movie to tell much darker jokes than if the film chose to stick with one genre. Edgar Wright uses visual comedy to tell the story within this film, a key example of this within the open if the film is the use of the gore. When Shaun and ed find a girl in their garden they are still blatantly unaware that they have been torn from the world of rom-coms and hurled into a zombie film, until, Shaun impales the zombie through the chest with garden furniture (the deadliest of all weapons). Edgar Wright literally puts Shaun and Ed inside the zombie by having the framing show them through the circle through the zombie’s chest. The film then uses typical zombie conventions to play to the comedy aspect of the movie. The zombie, who is understandably annoyed at being rejected and attacked within the same five minutes, is now holey (get it, like wholly, because she has a hole in her stomach) focused on Ed and Shaun, however, the movie plays on the trope that zombies are typically very slow, and not very smart, allowing them to go inside, get Shaun’s records, come back down, and have time to pick which ones they can use as weapons, and which ones they cant.

The fil also uses film form to foreshadow what’s going to happen, as well as display the conflicts within the film, for example, in the scene where Shaun and Ed are leaving the pub, and they have one of their first interactions with a zombie. This shot if framed so the zombie is directly between Ed and Shaun, foreshadowing the problems that the zombie apocalypse is going to cause between their friendship. Shaun begins to get more and more frustrated with Ed through out the film, with the tension rising, and reaching breaking point outside the Winchester surrounded by zombies, this results in Shaun yelling at Ed. The scene where Shaun and Ed leave the Winchester is also a foreshadowing of how the zombies are going to help saves Shaun’s relationship. As they leave, we see a couple “making out” against the wall, all though in reality, we know that she is trying to eat his brains. This is a suggestion of what come, as, where Shaun fails in the romcom genre, he begins to fix within the horror zombie part of the film.

Shaun of the dead uses the mix of genres to solve the protagonist’s issues in a new and original ways. The film clearly uses Propp’s character theory to help with this. Shaun is the typical hero and Liz is the princess, by having these typical characters it allows to jump between genres, where Shaun cant be the hero in the romcom (failing to book a date for Liz and himself at a fancy restaurant), the film can use the horror aspect of the film to fix this, rebalancing the equilibrium. Foe example, when Shaun first goes round to visit Liz her fails to climb the wall up into her apartment, however, once the genre of the film has been flipped, and he needs to escape the zombies, he manages to climb up into her apartment, showing that the zombie apocalypse is Shaun’s catalyst for change, and giving us hope for his relationship.