When it
comes to zombie, I immediately think about the computer game “Plants VS Zombie”,
and there is a BGM for the game “Zombies on your lawn”. This game mixes the
elements of cute and scary, which are the plants and the zombies. It makes me
relate this type of game to the movie that I watched in Film Studies class last
week, Zombieland.
Zombieland is
an America zombie comedy film in 2009 directed by Ruben Fleischer from a
screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. This film is about the virus
spreads indiscriminately to whole world, humans have been transformed into a
dehumanizing and bloodthirsty horror zombies. The main character, Columbus, the geeky college student, is one of the survivors. He was
a little timid and cautious, but the experience that he had let him able to
escape from the danger again and again. One day, Columbus meets the tough and
valiant guy, Tallahassee, so they go together. Then, they meet the sexy and
glamorous sisters, Wichita and Little Rock. They take an extended road trip
across the Southwestern United States through this new zombie apocalypse. They
are on a journey to find a sanctuary free from zombies.
I’m surprise
that this zombie film is different from the others zombie film. Normally we can
see the disgusting bloody scenes, the scientists in white coat in research
centres are developing the antidote for zombie virus, serious discussion about dark
side of human nature and etc. It just four people driving a jeep travel in
Zombieland. There are some genres we can classified for this film such as
horror, comedy, romance, action, science fiction and road films. This
combination makes the film content and narrative more interesting.
HORROR
Let’s talk
about the first one, horror. Normally, a horror film is designed to frighten and
makes the audiences panic. It is often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while
captivating and entertaining the audiences at the same time in a cathartic
experience. There are a few sub-genres for horror film such as unnatural,
psychological, massacre or slasher flicks. The film, Zombieland is under
unnatural, which is the zombies.
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Coulrophobia
is one of the antagonist in Zombieland.
It manifests in Columbus's mind and later in a real zombie.
(Source: http://giphy.com/gifs/zombie-blood-clown-l6qGwXXsI5J3W)
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| The 406 room's girl become zombie.(Source: http://bewarethehorrorblog.tumblr.com/post/28064747100) |
These are another examples of zombie in Zombieland.
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| (Source: http://www.playbuzz.com/lukep11/zombieland-champions-cup) |
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| (Source: http://latestissue.blogspot.my/2010_08_01_archive.html) |
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| (Source: http://highdefnews.blogspot.my/2010/02/zombieland-nut-up-or-shut-up-edition.html) |
COMEDY
Besides,
comedy is one of the main genre for this film. There are three types of comedy
being used in this film which are slapstick, dark comedy and parody to draw
laughter out of audience. We can often see some of the characters acts funny
visual action to draw attention. This is slapstick.
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Tallahassee hits the fat zombie in supermarket.
(Source: http://indiretasdobem.com.br/blog/)
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Sometimes
they exaggerate the action to looks more funny. Another example is Bill Murray disguises himself to looks like a zombie so the others zombies will think that he is their type and do not disturb him. Unfortunately, he shot and killed by Columbus and die when he wants to scare Columbus and Little Rock.
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| (Source: http://media1.break.com/breakstudios/2011/10/25/zombieland-bill-murray.jpg) |
Dark comedy
consists dark, sarcastic and humorous stories to help the audience to ignored
the darker serious such as death. For example, the “double tape” scenes repeat
a number of times in the film. They kill the zombie with gun or car two times
to make sure that the zombies are really die. Killing suppose a very cruel and
serious case, but when the rule comes out the scene looks funny.
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| (Source: https://deadlyeverafter.com/2013/11/) |
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| (Source: http://www.howtobeadad.com/page/3?s=diaper+load) |
Parody
usually imitates the idea of a serious film. This will make the audience to think
those ideas from which original film and they will laugh when they find out.
For example, Tallahassee is looking for Twinkies from the beginning to the end of the
film. I’m so curious why they put this
Twinkie idea into this movie. After some research, I found that the appearance of
Bill Murray has related to this idea. Twinkie is a main food product used by Egon Spengler in explaining the level of ectoplasmic of
New York in the first Ghostbusters movie. Bill Murray was the character from Ghostbusters.
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| (Source: http://badass007.skyrock.com/27.html) |
ROMANCE
The romance between Columbus and Wichita. Columbus is attracted by Wichita at first but Little Rock said her sister does not like the man like Columbus but bad boy. I think Wichita is a brave, smart and rationale girl. She knows what should do to make sure that Little Rock and her can be survive. But Wichita starts to change her attitude when she slowly realizes that Columbus is a nice person. Their relationship become closer in Bill Murray's mansion. Then, Wichita and Little Rock are stuck in Pacific Playland because that place is crowded with zombies as they switch on all the lights and music of the playland and accidently attract zombies to come over. But luckily they save by Columbus and Tallahassee at last. Then, they fall in love to each other.
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| (Source: https://www.tumblr.com/search/zombieland%20gifs) |
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| (Source: https://www.tumblr.com/search/zombieland%20gifs) |
ACTION
An action film normally contain continuous high energy physical activities and extended chase scenes, fights and escape. We can see it clearly through all the characters. For example, the most tough guy,
Tallahassee. He is an action typical hero in this film. He can shots hundreds of zombies by his own in Pacific Playland. He is always the one who kill the most numbered of zombies.
(Source: https://www.tumblr.com/search/zombieland%20gifs)
The starting scene showing the first rule of survive "Cardio" shows the zombie is chasing a fat guy. Columbus also chased by a group of zombies in Pacific Playland.
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| (Source: https://www.tumblr.com/search/zombieland%20gifs) |
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| (Source: https://www.tumblr.com/search/zombieland%20gifs) |
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| (Source: https://www.tumblr.com/search/zombieland%20gifs) |
SCIENCE FICTION
Science
fiction showed in the setting of apocalypse of Zombieland. The United States
have fallen, most of the people transformed to zombies, even Columbus’s
hometown, Columbus, Ohio also has been destroyed.
ROAD FILMS
Zombieland is also counted as a road films because the whole movie shows the characters are travelling from one place to another place. Columbus starts his journey from his college dorm located at Austin, Texas. He decides to go back to his hometown, Columbus, Ohio. On the way, he meets Tallahassee and they travel together. Then they meet Wichita and Little Rock in grocery store. After some incidents and conflicts, the sisters reveal that they wants to go to Pacific Playland amusement park in Los Angeles. After knowing his hometown has been destroyed and his probably his parent is killed by zombies, Columbus decides to go to California with others. They drop by an Indian souvenir shop and starts to destroy things. Then, they move on again. They reached Hollywood. Wichita directs them to go to Bill Murray's mansion. Wichita and Little Rock leave and go to Pacific Playland in the next morning. Columbus decides to go after Wichita and he tries to convinces Tallahassee to go with him. Then they have a fight with zombies in Pacific Playland.
They take turn to rest and drive in the journey. This is where their relationship become closer and closer. This shows the bonding between the characters especially the scene where they are in the Indian souvenir shop. They break things and play happily. Friendship is grow among them.
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| (Source: http://giphy.com/gifs/zombieland-store-indian-dvNhpKo85ssJW) |
Lastly, I will recommend this film to my friends who want to watch horror film but not dare to watch it. This film combines some of the genres and this makes the horror film is not just a horror film anymore. It is good to see a horror film that not only focuses on scare the audience but also entertain them.
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