The story is about the mad cow disease deteriorate into 'zombie disease' which makes everyone turning into zombies. Columbus, a survivor from the disease is trying to make his way to Columbus, Ohio from Austin, Texas to find his parents. In his adventure trip, he meets Tallahassee, a guy who expert in killing zombies and has a strong desire to get a Twinkies at the same time. Two of them meet a pair of a sister, Wichita and Little Rock. Four of them begin their road trip across Southwestern united state to find a free-zombies land.
Genre
The topic we discussed in the class on last week lesson.
In general knowledge, the genre can be defined as 'types' or 'categorize' of films. But, how to define and categorize a genre? Mr. Joe has shared his knowledge about interpreting a genre by syntax which is through semantic and syntactic, approached by Rick Altman.
Semantics: list of common traits and attitudes, bringing us to very much the visual aspect.
*Which means that mise-en-scene: lighting, costume and makeup, actor's performance and movements, setting and props become a building block of the genre.
Syntactic: a constitutive relationship.
*Able to define a genre through a structure with deeper meaning. For example conversation between actors, types of character, ideologies, etc.
Genre can be analysis and better understanding through combining these two components.
Now, let us discuss the genres of Zombieland.
Zombieland is categorized in horror comedy film.
Horror film usually aims to lead the negative emotional reaction among the audiences such as fear, shock, disgust by creating a threatening, a thing which can terrify us.
There are several sub-genre under Horror genre but Zombieland is categorized in 'unnatural' horror type. Most of the storyline in unnatural horror is begin with an external force (vampire/zombie's bite) to change a normal body into bodily mutilations or mutations. Sometimes, it might be caused by a virus or disease.
A very strong evidence to prove Zombieland is an unnatural horror film is everyone has become zombies because of the mad cow disease turned into mad zombies disease except the survivors.
Besides, the setting and props and zombie's makeup make me actually felt disgusted especially the opening of the film is introduced by the zombies are eating the human flesh while the person is still alive. The blood and the tearing of human flesh scenes make me extremely uncomfortable and this is the aim of being a horror movie.
Comedy is a genre which totally opposite with horror. The aim of a comedy film is to make the audience laugh through a sense of humor, entertainment and fun.
In Zombieland, we able to find several comedy sub-genres in it such as dark comedy, slapstick, and parody.
Dark comedy is a sense of humor which makes us forget the darker and serious matter such as war, illness, and death. The scene where Bill Murray try to act a zombie and try to scare Columbus, but Columbus shots and kills him. At the moment he takes his last two breaths before he dies, Wichita actually laughs because Bill Murray is a classic comedian actor in her heart. I think most of the audience will treat this death as a hilarious rather than a sad case.
Slapstick is a style of humor with a varies of hyperbole physical actions which overreacting than a normal physical action to make people laugh. In the beginning of Zombieland, the screen appears the Columbus rules while Columbus sharing his experience to survive from the zombies. To let the audiences learn some rules such as 'double tap' or 'cardio' from a horror film actually able to add some humor elements in it. I remember a slapstick scene where Columbus meets with Tallahassee in the first time, Tallahassee treats Columbus have a drink but Columbus spills it out from the car window during Tallahassee drinks his liquor. After that, Columbus pretends he actually drank it.
Parody means that make fun and change the style of the original work into a more funny way. The parody of ghostbusters appears in Zombieland: Wichita, Tallahassee, and Bill Murray get high after inhaled the Shisha. Wichita tells Tallahassee and Bill Murray there has a monster on the ceiling lamp, then the two guys take a vacuum machine and act it as the weapon which able to catch the ghost.
Although the main genre in this film is a horror comedy, but this film has included other genres such as Romance, Sci-fi, Action, and Road film.
The romance genre is all about love stories. Columbus always want to impress and woo Wichita but the love story between Columbus and Wichita begin to fall in love with each other is when they are dancing and try to kiss each other but failed through the interruption from Tallahassee. However, they are finally kissing and Wichita reveals her true name after Columbus changed his nerdy and timid into a hero to save Wichita and Little Rock from his greatest fear, clown zombie.
Sci-fi, Science-Fiction-Film often dealing with scientific facts, futuristic science, and technologies and visually through imaginative or after effects. The background in the film is about the extinction of human but full of zombies. The setting of the film is an advance city but only left a shell with no human but damages everywhere. It seems like the entire world only left four main characters as the survivors from the mad cow disease.
The action genre often requires an action hero and this character must belong to Tallahassee. He is a one man army who can kill hundred of zombies. His appearance brings along the masculinities, which is a cowboy image, strong built body, and expert in killing zombies. Columbus can be considered as an accidental hero as he has no courage and body skill to deal with the zombies, he is a nerd but he uses his intelligent to survive from zombies, unlike Tallahassee takes the actions without thinking. Wichita is a heroin with the combination of Tallahassee and Columbus. She is smart, quick, brave as she tries to protect little rock and herself from chasing by zombies with the expert in a shotgun. A huge chase scene happens in the film when a crowd of zombies attracted by the sound from Pacific Playland after Wichita and Little Rock activated the rides and enjoy the theme park. Luckily, Columbus and Tallahassee come to rescue them. Tallahassee attracts all the zombies to chase after him to let Columbus near to the drop tower ride to save Wichita and Little Rock. Tallahassee locks himself in a game booth and shooting down all the zombies. Columbus overcomes his phobia, clown zombies to save Wichita and Little Rock. He even changes one of his rule 'Don't be a hero' to 'Be a hero', then he smashes the clown zombie's head with the game hammer. The chase scene, battles, rescues are the important elements to categorize a film into an action film.
Last but not least, a car has become an important vehicle for the characters to reach their destinations. Road film genre requires a journey and the characters will travel from one place to another. The characters will start to have a bond with each other along the road trip. I felt warm when four of them agree to go to Pacific Playland in Los Angeles, California and take turns to drive the car. They start to have a conversation like the old friends without suspicious with each others.
Now, let us discuss the genres of Zombieland.
Zombieland is categorized in horror comedy film.
Horror film usually aims to lead the negative emotional reaction among the audiences such as fear, shock, disgust by creating a threatening, a thing which can terrify us.
There are several sub-genre under Horror genre but Zombieland is categorized in 'unnatural' horror type. Most of the storyline in unnatural horror is begin with an external force (vampire/zombie's bite) to change a normal body into bodily mutilations or mutations. Sometimes, it might be caused by a virus or disease.
A very strong evidence to prove Zombieland is an unnatural horror film is everyone has become zombies because of the mad cow disease turned into mad zombies disease except the survivors.
Besides, the setting and props and zombie's makeup make me actually felt disgusted especially the opening of the film is introduced by the zombies are eating the human flesh while the person is still alive. The blood and the tearing of human flesh scenes make me extremely uncomfortable and this is the aim of being a horror movie.
Comedy is a genre which totally opposite with horror. The aim of a comedy film is to make the audience laugh through a sense of humor, entertainment and fun.
In Zombieland, we able to find several comedy sub-genres in it such as dark comedy, slapstick, and parody.
Dark comedy is a sense of humor which makes us forget the darker and serious matter such as war, illness, and death. The scene where Bill Murray try to act a zombie and try to scare Columbus, but Columbus shots and kills him. At the moment he takes his last two breaths before he dies, Wichita actually laughs because Bill Murray is a classic comedian actor in her heart. I think most of the audience will treat this death as a hilarious rather than a sad case.
Slapstick is a style of humor with a varies of hyperbole physical actions which overreacting than a normal physical action to make people laugh. In the beginning of Zombieland, the screen appears the Columbus rules while Columbus sharing his experience to survive from the zombies. To let the audiences learn some rules such as 'double tap' or 'cardio' from a horror film actually able to add some humor elements in it. I remember a slapstick scene where Columbus meets with Tallahassee in the first time, Tallahassee treats Columbus have a drink but Columbus spills it out from the car window during Tallahassee drinks his liquor. After that, Columbus pretends he actually drank it.
Parody means that make fun and change the style of the original work into a more funny way. The parody of ghostbusters appears in Zombieland: Wichita, Tallahassee, and Bill Murray get high after inhaled the Shisha. Wichita tells Tallahassee and Bill Murray there has a monster on the ceiling lamp, then the two guys take a vacuum machine and act it as the weapon which able to catch the ghost.
Although the main genre in this film is a horror comedy, but this film has included other genres such as Romance, Sci-fi, Action, and Road film.
The romance genre is all about love stories. Columbus always want to impress and woo Wichita but the love story between Columbus and Wichita begin to fall in love with each other is when they are dancing and try to kiss each other but failed through the interruption from Tallahassee. However, they are finally kissing and Wichita reveals her true name after Columbus changed his nerdy and timid into a hero to save Wichita and Little Rock from his greatest fear, clown zombie.
Sci-fi, Science-Fiction-Film often dealing with scientific facts, futuristic science, and technologies and visually through imaginative or after effects. The background in the film is about the extinction of human but full of zombies. The setting of the film is an advance city but only left a shell with no human but damages everywhere. It seems like the entire world only left four main characters as the survivors from the mad cow disease.
The action genre often requires an action hero and this character must belong to Tallahassee. He is a one man army who can kill hundred of zombies. His appearance brings along the masculinities, which is a cowboy image, strong built body, and expert in killing zombies. Columbus can be considered as an accidental hero as he has no courage and body skill to deal with the zombies, he is a nerd but he uses his intelligent to survive from zombies, unlike Tallahassee takes the actions without thinking. Wichita is a heroin with the combination of Tallahassee and Columbus. She is smart, quick, brave as she tries to protect little rock and herself from chasing by zombies with the expert in a shotgun. A huge chase scene happens in the film when a crowd of zombies attracted by the sound from Pacific Playland after Wichita and Little Rock activated the rides and enjoy the theme park. Luckily, Columbus and Tallahassee come to rescue them. Tallahassee attracts all the zombies to chase after him to let Columbus near to the drop tower ride to save Wichita and Little Rock. Tallahassee locks himself in a game booth and shooting down all the zombies. Columbus overcomes his phobia, clown zombies to save Wichita and Little Rock. He even changes one of his rule 'Don't be a hero' to 'Be a hero', then he smashes the clown zombie's head with the game hammer. The chase scene, battles, rescues are the important elements to categorize a film into an action film.
Last but not least, a car has become an important vehicle for the characters to reach their destinations. Road film genre requires a journey and the characters will travel from one place to another. The characters will start to have a bond with each other along the road trip. I felt warm when four of them agree to go to Pacific Playland in Los Angeles, California and take turns to drive the car. They start to have a conversation like the old friends without suspicious with each others.
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