DOTD (2004) Film Image Analyses

In this shot we are presented with the final girl of the film pointing her gun at a zombie. We can see that not only is she mentally tough but physically as well as soon after this shot she shoots Steve and survives. This reflects her power/dominance as a female, strangely she has blonde hair which is untypical for a final girl, however as this is tied back it gives her a more conventional tomboyish look. Slightly before this still shot is taken, Steve has sex with a female character, it is very typical that victims within horror film are seen being sexually promiscious and plays in well to modern day fears of sex and taboo. This particular type of character is often judged by the audiece and not a person they would desire to survive. On the zombie there is body horror, in the close up of Steve's head shot we notice that this is quite graphic and in your face even though it is not drawn out, this pulls the audience more into the emotion. It is important to consider that by this point censorship has relaxed alot, therefor audiences have become alot tougher and are able to watch much harsher stuff. As a consequence of this boundaries must constantly be pushed in order to shock the audience. Quick montage can be seen in this shot, this creates a sense of panic and excitement and supports the fact that horrors have become much more faster paced as a result of modern low attention spans. The zombie’s connote the film’s narrative in the way that the virus/disease the zombies contract could relate to contextual fears such as recent disease's such as bird or swine flu. The zombies are also much faster paced than in older films and this has been done to frighten more cynical modern audiences. This illustrates the importance of Audience Studies, Janet Staiger is the main critic for this, her main concept being that audiences watch films in different ways and some may try and create their own meanings in relation to context and have different interpretations of the film.