Ricardo Fortuna
Cultural Studies and Pop Arts
Dr. Kurt Fawyer
Historical Analysis on horror on Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Introduction
This paper dwells on historical analysis of the horror on Dawn of the Dead film. This film is also known as Zombi. It is an American independent action horror film produced under the directorship of George A. Romero. The script was written by Romero and Dario Argento and produced by Claudio Argento, Alfredo Cuomo, and Richard P. Rubinstein. The film presents phenomena of an unidentified source that has caused the reanimation of the dead who eat human flesh and thereby causes mass hysteria. The film was made over about four months from the late 1977-1978 in Pennsylvanian cities of Monroeville and Pittsburgh.
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The Zombie catastrophe has captured more victims and spread from the countryside to the whole of Pennsylvania. They are everywhere and eventually outnumber the humans in the film. The dawn begins in the television studio as well as the housing project in Philadelphia. Eventually it moves to the shopping mall outside the city to show the suburban society instead of the rural society shown during the night. Here, Romero critiques the consumption of the society equating the Zombies to the mindless consumers, by using the zombies who are in the mall by instinct and alluding to the way American society’s consumer-oriented approach at the time. The incidences at the mall depict the opinion that everyone is participating in the capitalist system by trying to acquire more things. Romero thus dwells on the consumerism aspect of the American society where and the zombies represent the mindless in the society who go around searching for goods to define their lives instead of minding about the people around them (Bailey 98). The theme of racism and capitalism is depicted when police raid the minorities and the zombies who equate capitalism to the marginalization of …show more content…
The postindustrial American society defined themselves with reference to the goods they owned and not how much hard work they had put into the production of the goods. At the time, striving for material goods was a defining factor in individuals’ lives based on the television and advertising practices at the time. The society viewed shopping malls as crucial places of commerce and places from which people define themselves. Incidentally, all malls were built as consumption places and not places for production activities. As such, there were places for final consumers of goods and services. In other words, the society spent hours eating, relaxing and shopping in the malls, the convenience of worry zones as well as living a consumer’s dream. The notion that the consumer would always want to consume more of goods every time, was thus
Max Brooks explains in his article ‘’The Movies That Rose From The Grave’’ [2006], that zombies and the supernatural forces have impacted and have become popular in the world today. The first main idea that Brooks points out is the way society has changed the meaning and glimpse for the supernatural creatures like zombies causing them to become increasingly popular. To support this zombie movies have changed from darkness and mystery to violent and bloodier scenes therefore making them more prevailing. The second main idea that is discussed by Brooks is how the media has helped to increase the popularity of zombies, vampires, ghosts. Highlighted by the author particularity both ‘’resident evil,
Postrel develops her support of national retailers throughout the essay, offering the opinion that it isn’t the stores that give places their character, but instead, aspects like the terrain, weather and culture that do (Postrel 347). While terrain, weather and culture can set apart regions, such as New England from The Deep South, and Southern California from the Midwest, it’s the community that gives each town their own special character. A community consists of the residents, their restaurants, hardware stores, pharmacies, ice cream parlors, farmers markets, and so on. These places, and the interactions that occur daily at each establishment, are the fabric that differentiate them, and create the breeding ground for diverse characteristics to flourish. While Postrel argues that wildly different business establishments across America in the past is a myth , it’s actually not necessarily that the products that varied from store to store, but more the aforementioned factors that truly set ...
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
In this essay, I will be critiquing two articles “Monsters and Messiahs” by Mike Davis and “My Zombie, Myself: why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead” by Chuck Klosterman, to show the different fallacies along with the argumentized style that is being used. Both of this articles can be found in the book Monster A Bedford Spotlight Reader by Andrew J. Hoffman.
The idea of a zombie is made up and it comes from nzambi, the Kongo word for the spirit of a dead person. In states such as Louisiana, or the Creole culture they believe zombies represent a person who has dies and brought back to life with no speech. Kings psychological argument on how we have an urge to watch horror movies because it helps to re-establish our feelings and feel natural again. Klusterman’s sociological essay helped us see the comparison of zombies and humans in real life. In conclusion zombies are not real, they are make believe but help bring a sense of normality to
Zombies have become very popular due to their depictions of being easy to kill and being communal. Zombie apocalypses are also very relatable due to the fact that they are set in lives similar to our society and seem easy to overcome. Zombies, themselves, can be identified with because we see ourselves when we look at a zombie. Zombies drudge on through the same task of finding human flesh to consume every day just like we drag ourselves to either class or our job in order to sit through another boring lecture or perform the same menial task every day. Just like the zombie, R, in the book, Warm Bodies, said, “I am Dead, but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it,” we have learned to succumb to our daily routines and just live with
Night of the Living Dead is an iconic horror movie released in 1968 in America. The movie was directed by George Romero and premiered on October 1st of the same year. The movie follows the characters of Barbra and Ben and five other characters trapped in a rustic farmhouse in a rural town in Pennsylvania. The farmhouse is attacked by a large group of non-living human beings which are not named. They have characterized features of a monster and of a corpse. In the onset of the film, the main character Barbra and her brother Johnny drive to a town in Pennsylvania for a customary visit to the father’s grave. When in the cemetery, Barbra and Johnny encounter a peculiar looking man who had been walking around the cemetery. Fear overcomes Barbara as the deranged man walks towards her and proceeds to aggressively attack her. While trying to rescue his sister, Johnny is thrown into a gravestone and succumbs to his demise. After this occurrence, Barbra decides to escape in a car which gets involved in a mishap. This forces her to escape on foot and subsequently leads her to a farmhouse. Later, the news reports to the
In Night of the Living Dead, the zombies were eventually eliminated. Or were they? Theorists argue that the monster’s elusiveness is due to its physical, psychological and social characteristics that cross the lines of classification. Human’s innate fear of the unknown is due to their inability to make a distinction or draw a clear conclusion. This is explained further in Jeffrey Cohen’s second thesis in “Monster Theory” that claims that; “the monster never escapes” (Cohen, 14). The zombie as a monster can never be destroyed completely and if it is, it leaves a remnant the make people feel uncertain of its destruction. Base on Cohen’s theory, the zombie’s different interpretation allows it to emerge in other forms (a faster, smarter zombie?)
ScreenPrism. "ScreenPrism." Why Did "Night of the Living Dead" Spark Controversy after Its Release. Web. 19 Sept. 2017.
Night Of The Living Dead a film that was in my opinion the first of its kind. It didn’t have the biggest budget when they filmed it. Yet a film I would watch again and again. The 1968 original film is a classic I really enjoyed. It didn’t have the most famous actors and actresses or the greatest acting in that case. It didn’t even have great film quality, yet I was glued to the film from the first minute to the last. I saw it as a change of scenery from the films we see today, and if you’re someone who likes black and white films you’re going to love this one.
In the article, “A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism” by Sarah Juliet Lauro and Karen Embry, the authors’ evaluate the idea of the zombie and its connection to capitalism and post-humanism. According to the authors, the zombie represents much more than just a fear, it represents a loss of oneself to many different things, primarily to a capitalist society. The authors have come to the conclusion that humans have a fear of what they cannot control, and that is why the zombie is so big in entertainment. We see zombies everywhere, in movies, books, tv shows, fundraisers, marathons, and so much more. They have been around for decades, but recently they have become very popular. The authors believe this is
A Brief History Of Horror Movies. Ezine Articles. Spark Net, 10 Aug 2010. Web. The Web.
This article’s main argument is that developers manufacture an illusion of doing more than just shopping when designing malls and shopping centers. The developers and designers disguise the building’s identity while mediating the materialist relations of mass consumption. Goss focuses on five areas in his article. This first area is looking at the mall in a cultural context and the connection between ...
Popular movies often reflect society’s real world fears; likewise in horror movies monsters reveal our true anxieties as well. The monster that I am going to be using as examples will show how they reflected society’s fears and anxieties during specific moments in history.
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage, Page 30, Page 126, Page 132, Page 133