‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a ‘romantic comedy with zombies’. Immediately the tagline strips away the horror element of the film and widens the target audience who can relish from the jumpy horror sequences of the film whilst continue laughing at generic conventions being played with. The characters, settings, mise-en-scene, paradigms and editing all contribute to subverting the notions of the genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ deconstructs the audiences pre conceived notions about the horror film genre, characters etc. This correlates with Barthes ‘pleasure of text’ theory and the idea that we only get a ‘jouissance’ when you don’t expect it.
‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a postmodernist film and therefore there is a deliberate subversion of paradigms. The props in the film consist of a cricket bat, spade, rifle, and children’s furniture. Even when horror related props are used such as a knife, they are merely dismissed and the danger and lethalness of them is mocked. The notion is played with, then rejected adding to the subversion of the structuralist genre. The middle class cricket bat contrasts with the working class protagonist subverting the meaning of the recreational object. It is humorous to see the middle class object being transformed into a weapon of destruction and the idea that the zombies ‘head’ is the ‘cricket ball’. Next the sight of a calm gardening spade being used as a destructive and deadly weapon is another deliberate subversion of a tranquil and peaceful activity with a threatening murder rampage. These items are unstereotypical for the horror genre yet, when used destructively, result in the same death. The childhood furniture as a weapon, on a more serious note, depicts the idea of innocence being corrupted alas the lack of emergency when the characters fire the weapons contributes to the subversion of structuralist notions of genre. It is almost always seen that the characters have a heightened sense of their own mortality yet in this film, the characters have an exaggerated outlook on the fact that things will return to normal as per norm by the end of the film.
The suburban setting translates everywhere therefore the audience of the film can relate to the location. The pub as the central setting is reminiscent of western films and, unlike ‘The Shining’, is spread out in one room making it easier for the characters to see the danger which surrounds them. There are no long corridors or rooms for there to be menace lurking there.
Similar to ‘Dawn of the Dead’, which illustrated the effect of consumerism on people by setting the main part of the action in a shopping mall; ‘Shaun of the Dead’ does something similar. This film exposes the mundanity of life; the mindlessness of life, and people who are stuck in the same repetitive routine. (Sociologists would call this the Fordism system). This is shown through the scenes at the beginning of the film which show people carrying out monotonous jobs, already foreshadowing them to the zombies they will later be transfigured into. The way in which the action unfolds, mirrors a video game in which life represent the game world. The power of Media is also depicted as there are news broadcasts informing the characters of the events as they unfold.
The six different character types in the film, echoes Propp’s eight character types. In this case, the paradigms include the hippy, geek, bafoon, mother, middle off the road guy and the smart heroine. Clover’s ‘final girl’ theory is prominent in the film and Liz’s character is strong, demanding and not the usual week blonde girl. In a scene, she manages to save Shaun from the zombies conveying that she is a twenty-first century horror film heroine. Furthermore, Shaun’s character does not look like a hero of a horror film once again subverting the generic conventions of the genre. The presentation of the zombies starkly contrasts with the zombies form ‘28 Days Later’ and the tension that is built before the audience is shown the zombies, is dispelled instantaneously after the zombies are revealed.
There are some notions which are upheld, these are, the slow walk of the zombies; the gradual death of each character; the conflict which takes place between characters; and the non diegetic sound which creates fear. The slow walk of the zombies is mocked as the characters do not find the need to run as they know that the zombies are quite far behind them.
Overall ‘Shaun of the Dead’ plays with the ideas of generic codes and conventions by subverting prop and character paradigms. Nevertheless it still sustains the horror element through the use of non diegetic sound which creates tension and the jump cuts.
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