Opening analysis: Zombieland

Zombieland is the 2009 film directed by Ruben Fleischer, it was released in the UK on 7th October and gained £3,001,207 at the UK box office, it was produced by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; The film received 8 wins and awards nominations including best horror movie at the 2010 Scream awards. It has been certificated a 15 and has a running time of 88 minutes.

The film is a mix of two genres, one being horror and the other being comedy, this appeals to two audiences with a preferred age range of 15-30. The film contains jump scares, violence and gore, it is a satirical film that pokes fun at original horror films such as 28 days later and dawn of dead. This spoof idea will appeal to a wider, comedic audience. 

The first scene shot in this film is part of a found footage scene, where the mise-en-scene is a war torn USA, where an USA flag is shown and a focus pull is used to show. Within in the scene fire, guns and overall carnage is scene, this connotes carnage, chaos and anarchy. The camera is shaky, and pans around the road. There is a low angle shot when a zombie appears, this shows that the zombie is dominant in this scenario, there zombies makeup is very bloody, battered and wearing torn clothes, this connotes a horror and thriller genre. The zombie moves in a limp manner, very stereotypical of zombie films. There is a non-diegetic voiceover in this opening, the use of this helps start up the narrative, there is mention of a “virus” which is a icon of zombie films.

This film follows the conventions of a movie opening as it contains opening credits at the start of the film, these credits are included within the scene. The credits typography are a red/orange colour these a connotations of fire, explosions and danger, this gives an indication to the narrative of the film. There are indications of the setting  within the opening, firstly the USA flag is the very first shot, strongly indicating that this film is based in America, furthermore during the credit sequence there is several shots of zombie attacks in different locations, showing that there will be more than one setting however they all have American icons, showing the film may landscape over america. 

During the opening there are two themes that are shown these being horror and comedy, for example, in the tips to survive a zombie attack there is a scene of a zombie stripper chasing an obese man, this is seen as a comedy element. Also one scene shows a man throwing up blood, blood and gore are icons of horror films, this counteracts the comedy element to solidify the horror/comedy genre.

Throughout this sequence it is difficult to identify the main protagonist within the film, the viewer would assume the person doing the voiceover would have a significant role within the film, what the opening of this film does do is introduce us to the main antagonists which are the zombies. 

The title sequence contains all the conventions of a stereotypical opening sequence, as it contains 

Title of film

Cast

Institutions 

Music

Costumes

Producers

Casting

Director 

Production Designer 

Director of photography 

Writers

The casts credits appear to come in order of acting status as Woody Harrelson is the most established and well known actor his name appears first, in contrast Abigail Breslin appears last as she in the least well known cast member.

During the sequence a slow motion effect is used, this gives a comedic effect on the film and helps capsulate the audience attention as thy are more poised to focus on the film, during the sequence there a range of camera angles and shots, the zombies, the antagonists always are facing the camera, with a direct mode of adress, this connotes that they are more important than the victims. There are close up shots, medium close ups and several long shots, these help establish the setting and characters throughout the film.

There is a non diegetic sound track throughout the credit sequence, the song is Metallica's For Whom the Bells Tolls, which is a well known song, it is heavy metal and fast paced, this gives a clue for the narrative, and will make viewers think this is a representation of the films narrative.

Overall this is an effective, conventional opening, although is doesn’t necessarily introduce the main protagonists, it still draws in viewers by having both comedic and entertaining factors, It works well as both a comedy and horror opening.