Shaun of the Dead is a comedy of the horror film 'Dawn of the Dead' which I analysed for cliches. This makes fun of the cliches thatmost horror films have, by using comments and acting to entertain the audiance instead of scare them. I like this film as they clearly recognise the cliches and make fun of them in a new way using the effects of light, sound and special effects. I did the scene when the zombies start to get inside the house, as the cliches are all in this and it shows the comedy they use to twist the plot of the story.
It starts of with a scene of being trapped in a dark, scary room. The use of mise-en-scene is used effectively as the light effect that is used is the natural light. The camera is in two shots of each of the characters doing the same cliche of what happens in horror. The comforting of the shoulder. This tells the audiance that they are about to face the zombies coming in the pub, which is where this scene is set in. The pub setting is the comedy behind this horror genre, as most people stay hidden in areas other than having a beer which is why these characters go to the Winchester. This keeps the audiances attention and wait for the next cliche that is about to happen.
The next cliche occurs when a zombie jumps up from behind, the objectivity of fear cliche. The lack of music and the over exaggeration of acting is what makes this more of a comedy, rather something to laugh at the characters at for being scared of it. It is a zombie, and the humour behind it is that the characters turn their attention away from the objectivity of fear to the jukebox, which starts playing quenn's 'don't stop me now'. It is funny to assume you would turn your attention away from the objectivity of fear when in all horror cliches it is stereotypical to assume they stay transfixed to their fear.
What makes the audiance feel more comfortable in this scene is the everyday banter on how to kill a zombie. This adds humour as the talk is casual at the face of danger. One of the characters jumps over the pool table, which could be portrayed as an action cliche. This again adds humour however as it isn't graceful. This is a comedy cliche in itself. The sound effects that are used for the small things e.g. in this clip catching a snooker cue, over exaggerates the use of sound effects that horror would use.
As the characters try unsuccessfully to kill the zombie the camera pans around them as they progress to hit him with the snooker cue. This is effective as you get to see each characters expression.
To get to the fuses with this one character, the camera uses a tracking shot to follow him into another room. This allows the audiance to see another area of what is going on outside, as you see the zombies silhouetted by the light outside from the other side of the door, which can be seen as you would by the character. The hands of the zombies are seen, this is because it is a cliche of horror which they sucessfully represent. There is also jumped clips of the outside of the pub, where a high angle shot is used to see the zombies below, this makes the audiance feel as if they aren't actually in this particualr area, just getting a view of what the characters are about to face. This makes the audiance feel more powerful as they know the vast amount that are outside.
The use of props is effective when the dart misses the zombie and hits the character in the head. The way we get to see this is a tracking shot of this prop as it flies through the air, it is made more exiting by the sound effects. When it hits the character he reacts by screaming, which plays on the audiances humour instead of feeling the opposite, which is how horror would portray this.
The clip is finished by the gun shooting off into a glass bottle. This proves the argument that the characters have been having, but one character is still arrogant about another argument that they had been having, again directing the audiance of course of the storyline which has been happening. This is effective in continuing the comedy theme and sarcasm of the origional film.
I personally like this clip as I enjoy watching comedy's, and I like how they use camera shots and lighting in a way that can be saracastic. This has made the film more funny as it is scary by the use of language and humor and sound effects. I might do thisd for my final piece, as the use of loud sound effects makes this more enjoyable and entertaining to engage the viewer. I might consider choosing a horror film and changing the plot to make it into a comedy as well, to show my understanding of how they did it.
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