Shaun+of+the+Dead

The film I chose was //Shaun of the Dead// directed by Edgar Wright.

Feminist: This movie doesn’t employ the stereotypical female in which she requires help constantly. Liz, Shaun’s girlfriend, can be viewed as a badass zombie killer. When the zombies start to show up, instead of Shaun having to save Liz, Shaun actually goes to Liz for safety and Liz manages to keep them safe for a while in her house.

Marxist: Viewed in a Marxist lens, we can see that good (the survivors) will always prevail and sacrifice (Ed’s death) will not go unrewarded (Shaun and Liz survived). Additionally, evil will eventually fail as we see in the end where the troops killed all the zombies.

Freudian: I’m not too sure if this is considered to be Freudian however as the film progresses, Shaun gets more and more red on him. At the beginning, it was a simple pen mark but towards the end, he’s covered in blood. I think this shows us how his environment is getting more and more violent around him. Red is most usually used to represent blood or violence so in addition to the already increasing violence around him, we subconsciously think the environment is more violent than it is due to the red on Shaun.

Cognitive: At the end of the film, Shaun goes into the shed and joins in as player two in a video game that Zombie Ed is playing. This gave the audience a very warm feeling because it pretty much brings us back to the beginning of the movie before everything went to hell when Shaun joins Ed’s game as player two.

Mimesis and Cathartic: I’d say this film can’t really be classified into either sections because the film is delivered in such a comical, unrealistic and improbable way. It’s just something we can’t relate the real world to. The violence exhibited in the film is inflicted upon zombies in such comical way that I doubt it would make anyone want to act on that violence and I also doubt that it will satisfy’s anyone need for violence because they’d be laughing instead.