Research into Opening Sequences of Zombie Films - Dawn of the Dead

Today I have been looking into opening sequences of a sub genre/theme of horror; Zombie. I myself am a fan of Zombie films. And I'd go as far to say they are my all time favourite type of film. I simply cant get enough of them.

Dawn of the Dead
The first I looked at was the 2004 remake of the classic 'Dawn of the Dead'. A film that follows a group of survivors through an outbreak of a virus that turns people into cannibalistic predators (zombies). One thing I have noticed about zombie films is how the zombies themselves has been defined. Before and in the older more classic films the zombies are simply the dead rising from the graves and feeding on the living. But now its due to the cause of a virus or infection. I think it has been defined in such a way to make it more believable to the modern and more sceptic audience of today. A virus or infection is a lot more believable than the dead coming back to life. The typical flesh eating traits are still there, but the origin behind the zombies themselves has changed. There have been other major changes to the zombie. But I will go further into this at a later time.

The intro to the movie begins with audio of a press conference being played discussing the infection, the outbreak and how it spreads. The audio lasts for a good 10-15 seconds and ends on a question 'are these people alive or dead'; being answered 'we dont know'. As soon as the question is answered, a Jonny Cash song begins to play. The song begins with the artist talking, then the song builds up to more rhythm as the scenes of violence and zombies intensify. The clips themselves show scenes of violence, military activity, news reports, riots and zombies. The clips appear very fast and cut out to a black background showing credits between each clip. The clips build up and get more and more violent as the intro progresses, in what seems to hint to us that this is a world wide pandemic.

As the short clips of zombies are flashed in and out, a sharp almost demonic screaming noise is heard to intensify the horror. Its almost as if the quick flashes of clips are subliminal, placing the images of infection, death, horror into our minds without us taking too much notice. This estabilishes the general theme to the movie, and paves the way for more in depth clips. It draws in the viewers well.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lwBigliX1Bo

As the intro/opening sequence finishes, the rythmn and song slow to a halt. Which leaves us with the artists voice talking about how a horse is coming, and death is riding it. As the track dies down we are left with a final clip of a news reporter being attacked live on air by zombies, the intro finishes with a close up of a zombies face after it has knocked down a camera. This again estabilishes the general theme to the film, and provides an insight into how this infection resulted in the world erupting into chaos. Leaving the last image in our head, with that of horror.

I personally enjoyed this intro, and feel that it estabilished the theme and genre to the film well. As well as providing a look into how the infection has affected the world.

- Will