Post 7: Shaun of the Dead

Assignment: We discussed principles of intertextuality. How does Shaun of the Dead help you understand these principles? What aspects of the reading on postmodernity can you incorporate into an analysis of this film? What other films/tv shows that you like embrace elements of postmodernity? Be specific about which elements, referring to the Hebdige reading whenever possible.

Shaun of the Dead plays heavily on the principles of intertextuality. This is shown as it draws on other films for meaning. Most notably it plays the famous zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead which is clear from the title, as well as 28 Days Later. It is similar in terms of subject matter, but where it differs is through the use of humour, romance and other semiotics. Although the film is clearly shown to be a horror movie, with the use of zombies, it uses intertexutality as it heavily uses comedic and romantic aspects. The zombies in the film appear the same as in other traditional zombie horror movies. Shaun of the Dead was one of the first comedic zombie films that lead the way for other films. Zombieland, which came out years after the film was released, uses some of the same strategies as seen in Shaun of the Dead with combination of horror and comedy.

Most horror films teach us to be scared of zombies. The characters show fear towards the zombies, so they make the viewer fear them. In scenes that would otherwise be scary in other horror movies, Shaun of the Dead uses comedy, to make the scenes less scary. An example of this is shown when the main characters are throwing records at a zombie that is coming towards them. In other films the main characters would likely be scared and run away from the zombie, but in Shaun of the Dead, the characters were trying to decide which records they should and shouldn't throw (shown on the YouTube clip above.)