Manriquez 1 Jessica Manriquez Professor Lynda Haas Writing 37 16 October 2013 Horror Redefined The film, Zombieland like

the title states, is a film that focuses on the common antagonist in many of today and yesterday's horror films, the zombie. Zombieland has been classified as a horror comedy due its several conventions that it has in common with both genres. In a horror film, most of the time there seems to be a being(s) who do not seem to belong because they usually harm or bring some form of destruction to the society presented in the story, so as a result when this story is presented as a film to an audience, the audience tends to experience similar emotions as the characters they sympathize with in the film. Not only does the audience feel threatened for example when a character is being chased by a zombie, but the audience may also experience some form of disgust (Carroll 54-55). For example a character may feel disgust when they are being chased by grotesque children who are no longer living and covered in blood hungry for human flesh. These genre characteristics go beyond encompassing zombies and the obvious death associated with them, but also how they have permanently affected the society they have taken over, and how they have dramatically changed the characters living ways, and most of all the characteristic of the survivors fearing each other more than the zombies themselves (Bishop 20). Zombieland encompasses these conventions which classifies it as belonging in the horror genre, but at the same time it eases the terrorizing effect it should have on the audience by making the characters have comical personalities. There

Manriquez 2 are moments in the film where the images shown should have a fearful affect on the audience, but instead it receives laughter due to the way the characters respond to the horrifying circumstances. Zombieland is one of the few films that had the ability of scaring the audience enough and at the same time making them enjoy the film through laughter. Directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Zombieland is a film released in 2009 which is classified as a horror comedy. The story begins with Columbus, a socially awkward college student who is on the search for his family and has remained alive in this zombie apocalypse by making a list of rules for himself to follow. As he begins his journey to Ohio to find his parents, he encounters a tough man, Tallahassee, who is on the search for the last Twinkie and desires to kill as many zombies as he can along his journey. Columbus joins Tallahassee and they both set out to find what they are searching for and along the way they discover a little about each others lives before zombies took over. When Columbus and Tallahassee enter a grocery store they encounter two sisters, Wichita and Little Rock, who easily deceive them by pretending that one of them was bitten and had to be killed by the other. While the boys fall for Wichita and Little Rocks trickery, the girls steal all the weapons and vehicle Tallahassee possessed. Columbus and Tallahassee meet up with the girls again and all four survivors remain together, but not one of them trusts the other. Wichita confesses to Columbus that her and her sister are also searching for something, an amusement park which is said to be zombie free. Towards the end of the film every character finds what they were searching for, Tallahassee finds a Twinkie, Wichita and Little Rock have the opportunity of finding the amusement park, and Columbus realizes that his family is the other three survivors he has become so intimate with on their journey of staying alive together. Zombieland is classified

Manriquez 3 as a horror comedy because it encompasses conventions of both genres and brings them together. The film has grotesque and gory shots of zombies being killed and chasing humans as a typical horror zombie film which makes the audience fearful, but at the same time it goes beyond being horrifying and changes the typical zombie conventions by adding Columbus set of rules and his narration throughout the the whole film which creates a comical reaction to circumstances that should cause fear. Two typical zombie genre conventions seen in Zombieland that make the film like all other horror films is the gory and grotesque shots of zombies chasing survivors scaring the audience just as much as the characters in the story and the other is that it seems as if Columbus and Tallahassee had to be more careful of Wichita and Little Rocks deceitfulness than the actual zombies trying to kill them. In the beginning of the film when Columbus is narrating how the zombie apocalypse came to be, many close up shots of bloody zombies chasing fearful survivors are shown. The one scene where the audience gets a real close up of a terrorizing zombie is when Columbus neighbor comes running into his house before being a zombie saying that she was chased by a homeless man and bitten. Since this was an instance before Columbus realized that she would be a zombie trying to kill him, in the meantime Columbus tried to calm the girl by comforting her on the couch. At this state when Columbus has a relaxed facial expression and seems at ease, the audience feels no fear because we know its safe by analyzing Columbus reaction to the occasion. As soon as the girl turns into a zombie and attacks Columbus, he starts running away from her and trying to destroy her, the audience feels fearful about the fact that the zombie might get a hold of the character. During this chase, the zombie gets her ankle broken and makes her seem very unappealing and that doesnt stop her from chasing Columbus who has

Manriquez 4 a disgusted facial expression in response to the grotesque zombie chasing after him. The audience once again is able to connect with the survivor and cant help but feel disgusted and impure when they see the disgusting zombie. The other convention is seen every time Wichita and Little Rock trick Columbus and Tallahassee. This is seen clearly in one of the last scenes in the film when the four characters are in the amusement park and most of the zombies that were surrounding them have been killed. Wichita and Little Rock get in the truck first and Tallahassee and Columbus are still in the amusement park. After Columbus realizes that these other survivors is closer to a family that he was looking for, the girls pretend to drive off once again and leave Tallahassee and Columbus behind, the looks on their faces make it obvious that they were more fearful of being left behind once again than being scared of any zombies that might not have been destroyed. The audience having mutual feeling with the characters and survivors being more fearful of other survivors instead of the zombies are common conventions in horror films and shown as well in Zombieland. Zombieland is classified as a horror comedy, but is not so much a horror film with comedy, it is more a comedy with horror. What makes Zombieland like no other horror zombie film is that it is narrated by Columbus along with his survival rules he has made for himself. Horror films are usually not narrated and the main character does not talk to the audience directly, like Columbus does in this film. An instance where Columbus set of rules eases the effects of a horror convention is when he is confronted by a clown zombie at the amusement park, while he is trying to save Wichita and Little Rock from zombies going after them towards the end of the film. Earlier in the film, Columbus lets the audience know that his biggest fear were clowns and not zombies. When the audience was presented with Columbus looking straight

Manriquez 5 into the eyes of a zombie clown, the audience could feel the terror Columbus was experiencing. However, the effect of this horror convention was eased when Columbus mentions his seventeenth rule of survival, Not be a Hero. Instead of feeling the fear to a major extent, the audience receives a comical effect which is unconventional in the horror genre. Another instance when the set of rules takes away the horror effects of gory zombies chasing and eating a survivor is towards the beginning of the film when a woman is running away from a zombie. The woman turns around and shoots the zombie once and then taps him with her foot believing that he is dead, but to her surprise the zombie pulls her leg and starts ripping it apart. While the audience is exposed to this terrifying scene, the scene is paused and another rule is narrated by Columbus saying, Always Double Tap. These survival rule narrated by Columbus create an effect that is highly unconventional among zombie genre films. Films classified in the horror genre share many similar conventions which make an audience realize that it is a horror film from the start. Zombieland like many other zombie films shares similar conventions such as the audience being able to connect with the characters and experience fear or disgust simultaneously or the survivors in a zombie film fearing each other more than the zombies. Zombieland, however, adds comedy to relieve these conventions to a certain point. What makes this film so different from others is Columbus survival rules he has made for himself and his narration throughout the film. This new effect makes this film stand out from other horror films and the way its comedy is presented is unconventional for the horror genre. Although Zombieland does demonstrate these zombie conventions it goes beyond being a horror movie and perhaps it is the start of making horrifying aspects of a film into something an audience can laugh about.

Manriquez 6 Works Cited Bishop, Kyle. Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance. Heldref Publications. 2009. Print Carroll, Noel. :The Nature of Horror. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 46, No. 1. (Autumn, 1987), pp. 51-59.