Comparative Zombies

Roy Karros

Research and analysis

Comparative analysis paper

Shaun VS. Dawn

Zombie Movies have been main stay of the movie industry since the creation of the original zombie movie in the 1930’s but wasn’t really defined as theme until 1968’s Night of the Living Dead by George a. Romero that really established a standard of Zombies and the idea of a group trying to survive. In Some way Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Shawn of the Dead up hold this tradition but each one alters it to fit their own need with varying success. The thing is both movie have different goals that they are trying to achieve. Dawn of the Dead is just a straight up horror and gore fest that is just trying to frighten its audience and really not much else. Shaun of the dead on the other hand is a comedy and satire of a zombie film that is poking fun at zombie movies and wants to get a laugh out of it audience. These differences though are best seen in the Characters, the portrayals of the Zombies and the locations in the film.

The main protagonist throughout Dawn of the Dead is a nurse Ana, played by Sarah Polley. We are first introduced to her coming off her sift at the hospital and going home to her husband. Almost immediately the next day they are attacked by a zombie girl and her husband is turned forcing her to flee and eventually meet up with a group at a local mall. There really is no plot development with her throughout the film even though she does eventually have a relationship with another of the survivors in the mall. To a viewer she just comes off as one dimension with nothing really affecting her character greatly.

Shaun, played by Simon Pegg, you are introduced to over a longer period of time before he is thrown in front of a zombie. This allow you to get to know him as a character and start to sympathize with him as he’s kind of a looser at a dead end job who’s girlfriend dumped him. In fact the only reason he even ventures out during the zombie outbreak is in an...