L.P: Conventions of Zombie Horror

Examples:

Dawn of the Dead

Night of the Living Dead
The Zombie Chronicles: The Infected
I am Legend
Day of the Dead
World War Z
The Evil Dead

Protagonists:

The zombies, with blood all over their white pale face, and blood all over their hands as if they have just finished eating something. They have white, empty eyes implying they have no brain working behind, and they walk very slowly with their arms leading them.

Archetypes:

Archetype hero à the lead role that will realise the world is being taken over by these zombies and will set out to stop this from happening, they tend to find ways of killing off the zombies and never get attacked by them. For example, Will Smith in I am Legend who is determined to kill these zombies.

Archetype villain à sometimes a lead zombie who becomes the most aggressive and desperate for example in I am Legend there is an evil zombie who is determined to kill Will Smith and therefore hunts for him.

Stock Characters:

The character that will follow the archetype hero around also trying to help them save the world, for example the dog in I am Legend, who follows Will Smith around. Quite often in zombie horror the stock character can be a women who is portrayed as vulnerable particularly at the beginning of the movie, and sometimes become stronger for example in Dawn of the Dead, Fran is protected by 3 men but overcomes her fear of the zombies and becomes self-sufficent.

Plots and Stock Situations:

 à There tends to be a scene in a grave yard showing all the dead bodies coming back to life, and mangled hands coming up above the ground and clinging onto the ground.

 à A stereotypical scene showing the archetype hero supposedly killing one of the zombie and then it suddenly comes back to life.

 à Putting the zombies into real life situations, for example the shopping mall in Dawn of the Dead

 à Scene showing the survivors trying to escape to see if it's any safer in another locations, but when they get there they realise it's not.

 à Survivors will barricade themselves into a supposedly safe location to hide from the zombies, however eventually the zombies will get them in their determined state.

Icons:

Objects à spades, bats, chainsaws that would be used to hit the zombies round the head with the try and remove their brains.

à in American zombie horrors, guns are used to kill the zombies.

Locations à graveyards, homes to try and keep themselves safe, remote locations such as a deserted city when most people are dead

Stars à archetype hero will often be a famous actor  for example Will Smith in I am Legend and Brad Pitt in World War Z

Themes and Ideologies:

The world gradually gets taken over by zombies, and more and more characters are being bitten and turned into them. Previously dead people are waking up and becoming zombies and therefore a group of survivors has to save the world by cleansing them. The genre tends to follow this formula, meaning the audience will have an idea of what's likely to come.

by laurel