A batch of stills from the upcoming Ourobo aka “An Excuse to Make a Weird Giallo-Infused Kubrick Knock-off”. With an assembly cut pretty much finished, it’s time to pass it off to our post-sound supervisor (the talented Cabel Adkins for those wondering) and continue the seemingly-perpetual game of tag for the next few months. Until then folks!-Z
Cinematographer: Laura Wells
Production Designer: Ruby Rodriguez
“To the expressionist, it would be absurd to reproduce the world as purely and simply as it is.” - Lotte H. Eisner
Germany, 1920. Europe had just began to pull itself out of the trenches dug for the First World War, attempting to reestablish itself in the world while while simultaneously preparing for the conflict. The effort had cost some 16 million people their lives, this mass loss of live created a post-war socio-political environment unique to Europe, and most importantly Germany. The German Expressionism movement grew, partially, as a reaction to this environment; a distrust of authority figures, disorienting and architecturally absurd set designs, elongated shadows & the use of sharp black and white contrasts, and fear of the foreigner, of the “other”; Germany audiences understood instantly the unsettling nature the Expressionism movement; recognition of the familiar, no matter how strange.
Robert Weine’s 1920 release Das Cabinet der Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)made heavy use of these aesthetics to captivate his audience as well as capitalize on their fear and political-sensibilities. The titular Dr. Caligari is introduced to the audience as shambling, traveling, snake-oilsmen; a carnival freak-show presenter of unknown origin, with heavy-set eyes that constantly shift as he plans his next murder. Through the power of hypnotism, Dr. Caligari exerts total control over the somnambulist Caesar, who he beckons to life nightly to commit various acts of ill-will upon the local townsfolk, preying most heavily upon the women. Caesar himself clad in all black, allowing him to slink about the distorted shadows and pallid asymmetrical landscaping indicative of the German expressionism movement.
These visual elements came no doubt from the vision that most Germans held about their current world. Having just ended the First World War, their outlook was bleak and dark; uncertain. Trust in their leaders and authority figures were rocky, their methods and competence and motives questioned; Dr. Caligari, using his position of authority, sends out a sleeping, mindless, Caesar to commit his murders while Caligari himself is protected safely in his wagon. Much in the same vein that German soldiers had been sent out to kill en-mass by their superiors, who were tucked away safely in bunkers and fortified areas far away from the horrors of trench warfare.
Also noticed was the fear of foreigners and outside-cultures (Caligari and Caesar), who were seen as scheming and untrustworthy. Although the German government had recently lifted its ban of foreign films, fear and resentment of outsiders, or at least those perceived as such, was still prominent amongst German peoples; resentments that would pave the road to World War 2 and subsequently the Holocaust. Caesar is seen scurrying to and from shadows, hiding behind corners and creeping in through windows at night to steal-away, or otherwise harm the virtuous German women. Who were dressed in white; depicting their pure, virginal, qualities, a trait Caligari and his monster Casesar otherwise sought to defile or tarnish. Siegfried Kracauer spoke of its effect “…to a revolutionized people, expressionism seemed to combine the denial of bourgeois tradition with faith in man’s power feely to shape society and nature. On account of such virtues it may have cast a spell over many Germans upset by the breakdown of their universe.”
The use of powerful abstract aesthetics to create mood and atmosphere is not a trait reserved solely for German Expressionism. Use of strong visual elements, that is to say, production design, use of color & sound, wardrobe, shot design and pacing is one of the defining characteristics of the Giallo film; the Italian mystery/thriller, often incorporating moments of extreme violence intermixed with sexually charged images. Giallo, as a genre of film, traces its roots back to cheap Italian pulp-fiction murder-mysteries, which were noted for their giallo (Italian for “yellow”) covers they were often bond in. Mario Bava would take inspiration from this books, creating his 1963 piece The Woman who Knew Too Much, followed by Blood and Black Lace in 1964; films credited as the first giallo releases. The 60s were an important time for the development of Italian cinema; Fellini’s 8 ½ released in 63, Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” (64-66) & Sergio Corbucci’s Django (66) giving rise to the “spaghetti western” genre. This films, as well as American film-noir, would inspire Dario Argento’s 1970’s debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, 75’s Perfondo Rosso (Deep Red),and subsequently 1977’s Suspiria.
Italian director and collaborator, Luigi Cozzi explains:
“When I was working with Dario early in the Seventies we were trying to create a new genre, to create an Italian way to the giallo style… Our giallo aesthetic came partly from Raymond Chandler and, most of all, from writer Cornell Woolrich: he was the greatest of all mystery writers, he had already done wonderfully what we were trying to do again. Only, he had done it in the printed page, and now we wanted to recreate the same effect and the same noir atmosphere on the silver screen. In trying to do so, we came to create a new style: the giallo style, which we invented, also partly taking it from Sergio Leone.”
Released in 1977, Argento’s Suspiria drove much of its story through a highly stylized palette; liberal use of bright primary colors; red playing a prominent role throughout the film, used to signify impending acts of violence and death. The color green used when mystical elements are at play. Sets designed around dizzying colors with heavy use of symmetry and geometric patterns, subverting depth perception and creating the illusion of characters trending through an unbalanced, otherly, world; similar in fashion to the décor of early works of German Expressionism, although taken several steps further. Perhaps most noticeably, was the ever present soundtrack provided by the band Goblin (credited as The Goblins) who had been asked Argento to score. Their themes consists mainly of indecipherable chants, bells, droning drums, melodic keyboard work, and thumbing bass.
The bleak monochromatic landscapes of Dr. Caligari could, visually, not be more antithetical to Suspiria’s. However, they both meant to serve the same purpose; unsettling or disorienting the viewer, allowing the characters (and creatures) of their respective worlds to move to and fro as they deem fit. As Caesar stalks the streets under cover of shadow and night, Madame Blanc and her brood traverse the dance academy through trap doors and secret entrances hidden in plain sight; masked by the bright patterns and dizzying architecture.
As in Dr. Caligari, authority figures, again, are depicted as untrustworthy, scheming, and master manipulators; Dr. Caligari and his assassinations; the court judge perched upon a throne, high above the common man; Miss Turner and his dismissal of Suzy’s illness; Madame Blanc’s satanic rituals; all the school masters plotting the death of Suzy and her classmates.
Though their use of visual language was apt, I find Argento’s to make greater use (attributed no doubt to his technological advantage over Weine) of these visual elements to produce a more visceral, more powerful, experience. The opening murder scene is perfect culmination of these aesthetic values: ethereal music plays as a woman stares out of a pink room into the darkness (represented by the color blue) when she is grabbed by a figure, as she struggles, a friend in brightly painted blue room fights to save her. Once on the rooftop, she is splashed with accents of red light each time she is stabbed.
Her friend beats on a bright green door in the upper balcony of the red main lobby, framed above a set of hyper-symmetrical stairs that pained red, white, and blue. The friend runs downstairs to the checker-board patterned floor of the lobby, the checker-pattern being broken a circular pattern, which encases a giant red square, which, in turn, encases a red circle, encasing a red diamond. All of which are placed directly underneath a kaleidoscopic mashing of stain glass hanging high overhead. The woman is eventually flung through the stain-glass, noose tied around her neck, crashing through the glass, literally showering the scene (and her would-be rescuer) with piercing shards of color and creating a new piece of geometry patterns with in the floor.
Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a seminal work of film, not only as an exemplary piece of German Expressionism or as the first horror film, but as a film that crafted an environment unique onto its own; a dark and twisted false-reality born out of a need to reflect the nature of a dark and twisted reality. Weine crafts a story through the aesthetics of these set pieces; the contorted towers and puzzling dimensions as it was how he, and many of his countrymen, perceived the world. Argento on the other hand does not use these visual elements in hopes of creating a world that mirrors any type of discernibly reality. Instead he creates his own, a world subject to the whims of the palette; a world where red spells instant death and the world’s inhabitance are can be trapped and tricked by geometry and pattern. This could be seen as a continuation of style; an expansion of the ideas and groundwork laid out by German Expressionism and Weine; perhaps a type of neo-expressionism.
“Yes. Impressionistic films are very important to me. I remember when I was in the famous film museum in Munich it’s very important, one of the biggest in the world and they were having a retrospective of my films. Every morning, I would go down to the basement where they had a small room where you could watch films and I watched impressionistic films, very rare films that almost nobody had seen. I spent wonderful days there! I also saw expressionist films “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, which was the only colour-tinted copy from the Murnau institute. The colour was marvellous and unique to this copy as it was coloured by hand at the time. It was like a treasure and I was so proud to see these films.”
- Dario Argento, Electric Sheep Magazine, July 3rd, 2009
- C
Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead takes many liberties with the tropes of the horror and zombie genre, and by extension the pop-culture that has begun to surround both. In essence, it is a subversion of Romero’s Living Dead series (and the series it inspired). With the most obvious parody being the source of the film’s name, based off Romero’s origin Dawn of the Dead. The film also uses musical cues, character names, and lines as homage to the inaugurate film. These mentions are no mere in-jokes for hardcore fans but serve as an illustration of the impact that the zombie-genre has had on pop-culture and human society as a whole. The zombie-genre, much like the slasher-genre, has given raise to its’ own set tropes and archetypes; when a genre reaches this stage, it outgrows small niche it was born from (demon and possession films) and becomes a genre unto its ‘self and full-fledge fixture of pop-culture phenomena.
Deeper still, the archetypes of a genre already serve as a sort of self-actualization of the common themes and set pieces in that inhabit that particular genre. It can be seen as an acknowledgement of its’ own tropes; a rudimentary self-parody. Shaun, therefore, is a parody of a genre that’s already being to consume, to parody, itself. The film subverts the characters and familiar tropes of the zombie-genre by way of converging elements with the Monomyth.
The Monomyth is the theoretical narrative structure purposed by Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied the similarities between different cultures and their use of the heroic epic which he dubbed the Hero’s Journey/Monomyth. Campbell purposed that a majority of the stories told throughout human history follow a very specific format; a hero, with a clearly defined set of goals, sets out on an adventure, a quest, to achieve this goals. Along the Hero’s Journey he/she will experiences the influence of negative forces that wish to hamper their journey or otherwise keep them from reaching their goals.
One of the fundamental elements of The Hero’s Journey, as purposed by Campbell, is the Refusal of the Call. That is, the Hero refuses the call to adventure, to go on his predestined quest, because of trepidation, prior engagements, or simple unwillingness. Campbell states:
“Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless – even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire or renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his Minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.”
Shaun’s refusal of the call takes comedic liberties with the idea but its subversion is a central concept to the film that helps reinforce the idea that Shaun is an emotional isolated man-child who spends his days wallowing in self-pity. Shaun’s refusal is that he, quite literally, sleeps through the zombie outbreak. Even once he becomes ware of the situation, his only action is to close the blinds, watch TV, and hope the zombies disappear.
The classical hero and princess are played by Shaun and Liz, an obvious reference to the Monomyth’s Hero and Princess character types, with the zombies as the obstacles standing in the way of his quest to safe her. The Hero and Princess elements are spliced with the already familiar character-types typical of the zombie-genre:
All of these character types are presented in a jest as well, as Shaun presents these archetypes in a refreshing enough light that you forget that they are, indeed, archetypes. That is until midway through the film, the survivors run into Yvonne and her group of doppelganger friends. This type of visual/narrative joke continues the illusion that even after the zombie horde invades London, individuals still manage to fall in formulaic routines; furthermore, it can be taken that Shaun’s actions aren’t that heroic after all; literally anyone can do.One of the most prevalent themes of the Shaun, and the zombie genre in general, is the obliviousness of the common humans to the important aspects of life prior to the zombie-outbreak.
The general public is seen engaging in numerous trivial activities that have no real importance but nonetheless have become ritualistic or taken on sanctimonious qualities in their everyday lives; visiting the mall, dead end and menial jobs, or activities they enjoyed which all ties into the zombies trying to reestablish elements of their previous life; the message being that zombies are motivated by the most basic of emotions; those of desire, routine, and self-preservation. The zombie eats without fill; it does not eat because it is hungry but because it thinks it must; extinguishing hunger is the most important parts of human existence and sometime we do everyday. Thus, by extension, zombies operate on behavioral-patterns indicative of the important, or what are deemed to be important, parts of the human life and locale pop-culture; the mall in Dawn of the Dead, Bud’s redemption in Day of the Dead, and zombies returning to their previous jobs in Land of the Dead.Shaun manages to both subvert and reestablish these themes by portraying Shaun as already living a zombified existence before the infection; He goes to the same bar every night, walks the same path to the same corner-store every day, and works the same dead-end job five days a week. Shaun’s subversion is that Shaun is, in many ways, a zombie himself.
From the first shot he is shown shuffling onto the screen, yawning, and instinctively going for the controller to play games with Ed. He is then shown wondering the streets to his favorite store which is portrayed in such a way that it establishes that Shaun visits so much that he can literally make the trip with his eyes closed. This obliviousness is played upon several times through the film to show that Shaun, and to some extant ourselves, get caught up in routines and fail to actually live our lives. A sudden, often times unexplained, zombie outbreak is also common of the genre. This fear of the unexplained and of the unknowing strengthens the power of the epidemic; It says that something, anything, out there in the darkness has the power to turn friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor, and children against parents; no one is safe from the void, not even you! This narrative-style is parodied throughout the first arch of the film as there are numerous warning signs hinting to Shaun that something is wrong; televised news reports, radio broadcast, and news papers literally bombard Shaun’s senses. Yet, somehow these warnings go mostly unnoticed, that is until the infection is quite literally staring him in the face.Shaun’s unwillingness to listen to his peers or observe the world around him causes numerous conflicts with the loved ones that surround him (save of Ed the lovable best-friend that acts as the last bastion between Shaun’s growing maturity and his childhood). This state of arrested development acts as a safeguard that keeps the hero “safe” from the increasing hostile environment (both physically and mentally) of the outside world; his relationship with Liz and the increasing responsibilities associated with them as well as the zombie-outbreak. Often time’s children, and those with childlike qualities, are usually the only characters that are kept safe from harm within the horror genres. The zombie-genre is one of the exceptions to the rule; children are often used as a way to pervert the holiness and innocence image that are associated with them. Since children would be the most venerable during an outbreak, it serves that those with childlike mentalities would be as well. Survivors are forced to mature instantly by casting off lessons learned at childhood and adopting a Darwinian existence or face possible death due their weaknesses and short comings; in order to survive Shaun most shed his child like demeanor and mature into an adult, or face death.Stylistically, director Wright and actor/writer Simon Pegg have a unique approach to their directing and filming style. Repetition is one of the defining traits of their films. Scenes, lines of dialogue, and events are often repeated several times throughout the narrative.
Take for example the first encounter of Shaun and Yvonne, a former friend/possible lover of Shaun’s and how their repeated interactions take on different meanings as the story progresses:“Yvonne: Shaun! How are you?Shaun: Surviving. You?Yvonne: Good! Are you and Liz still dating?Shaun: Yes, we’re doing fine.Yvonne: Good, glad somebody made it!”This exchange is meant to show that both have settled into a life with no major highs or lows and that they are simply “surviving life” by making ends meet, living out their daily routines, and ultimately settling. Upon their second meeting the same lines are spoken, but instead of meeting on an empty sidewalk they encounter, they meet in a back alley after the outbreak has occurred and the words begin to take on a different meaning:“Yvonne: Shawn! How’s it going?Shaun: Yvonne? Uh…surviving.”The meaning, while still light hearted, shows that physiologically Shaun is making the transition to survivalist mode; that is, he no longer cares about the mundane aspects of life such as video games and working, he is wishing simply to live and protect his loved ones. For their final encounter, at the end of the film, the impact of the seriousness of their exchange is felt as the as context of the film has seen Shaun make the final transition into adulthood with Liz being safe and the most important part of his life, for which he is grateful:“Shaun: Yvonne!?Yvonne: Shawn! How are you? Shaun: Surviving…Yvonne: …so just the two of you?Shaun:…yeahYvonne: Well…glad somebody made it.” The tone is dark, but it says everything both characters think and feel; it shows how both characters have evolved over the course of the film and how their statements are now truly sincere.
Another example is the famous “Corner Store” long takes; a series scenes in which Shaun exits his apartment and makes a dazed (alcohol or sleep induced) walk to Nelson’s Corner Store and buys a diet Coke and a sugary snack:The first take involves Shaun making the walk to the store during a normal London morning, with his only obstacles being a panhandler, a careless driver, and a curb side. Along the way various new bulletins are heard discussing a recently crashed space probe and a string of mutilation on the London country side. The Second take involves Shaun and Ed drunkenly shuffling from the Winchester to their apartment, along the way mistaking a zombie eating a man in the bushes as a pair of lush lovers and the guttural groans of a walking ghoul as an enthusiastic stranger wishing to sing along with them as they drunkenly belt out Grand Master Flash’s White Lines. The third and final scene takes place in the same location as the first and follows Shaun as he makes the exact same trip to Nelson’s Corner Store (even tripping over the same curb side). The only difference is the presence of dozens of zombies. Shaun slips on blood, passes a fleeing jogger, and even passes by the recently zombified panhandler and instinctively tells him he has no change. All of these are comic in nature but they serve as a humorous way to interpolate the viewer into the strict, albeit mundane, nature in which Shaun lives his life (as well as hole Ed plays a large role in his apathy).
Visually, it helps implant a sense of familiarity with the characters, specifically with their daily routines and how they approach them. Narration-wise it helps show how the same scenes and character interactions can have different meanings when the contexts are changes. Extrapolated, it shows how characters are stuck in their daily-routines, and after the events, how the characters have grown and changed over the course of the film as their world has become broken down around them. Deeper, the repetition serves as a reminder of the ritualistic formalities that are still attached to their lives; they still ask the same questions and use the same phrases, it is only after the zombie event that they begin to understand begin to understand the importance of the questions and how the context makes them important.These meetings play into the psyche of Shaun, whose alienation from others allow him to appreciate theses events that occur during the course of the film with a dual-conscious; one prior to the events of “Z-Day” and afterward. Shaun’s alienation serves both as a homage, as well as subversion, of the elements of isolation and alienation of the characters and their surroundings, a common theme of the zombie-genre.
This usually happens in two-fold, with each event playing off the other. First the survivors most escape the zombie horde and find solitude in a fortress in order to barricade themselves from the outside world, physically. This isolation eventually leads to the second stage; alienation. The survivors’ isolation from the outside world eventually leads the survivors to start alienating themselves from each other. This serves has a way to preserve the remaining portions of their humanity (and sanity) as they begin to condemn the lose of the humanity they see growing within their fellow survivors (who are in turn, reflections of each other). These are serious tropes of the zombie-genre, which is why Shaun places the survivors in a bar. A more comedic take on the idea of zombies visiting the mall; a place where the undead are drawn because of the significance it held in their previous life. “A man whose idea of a romantic night spot and an impenetrable fortress are the same thing” is a comedic observation made by a character within the film describing the Winchester (the bar in which they barricade themselves) but the idea of the Fortress is often times drawn from the character’s beliefs that their strong hold is truly invincible. These barriers, both physical and mental, allow the survivors to continue living in placidity; living out their existence in a state of arrested development. A “dream state” where all they ever wanted in their previous life is at their finger tips, yet their treasure is perverted as their impenetrable fortress begins to become a prison. The zombies ultimately find a weakness in their fortress, either physically or by human interaction, and dismantle their solitude and dream-state; the zombies act as a personification of all the negative realities that the outside worlds still has.This becomes a central part of Shaun’s narration as he is forced to exit the child-like world he has built around himself, and others, and face the realities of the zombies as well as his failing love-life with Liz, his dead end job, and his meaningless existence. This forced maturity allows Shaun (and to some degree Ed) to bridge the gap between his child-world and his adulthood by disregarding the seriousness of the zombie events. Shaun and Ed treat the newly zombified London as their own personal amusement park; stealing cars, practicing their rifle skills (obtained from hours spent playing video games) in real life and trying to act as daring heroes.
Shaun is often conflicted with this state, seeing Liz as the mature adult he should be and Ed as the aloof child he was; Shaun finds himself sitting somewhere in the middle. This adds a unique aspect to the monomyth-narrative that Shaun follows. Shaun, the hero, must overcome the zombies, the obstacle, as well as Ed’s influence, trickster, to reach his ultimate goal of survival and maturing. This ultimately comes to ahead when Shaun confronts Ed and tells him how he is holding him back. These moments are often set within a subversive environment so that the viewer isn’t completely dejected.Shaun, Ed, and Liz (and to some extent Pete) share a dynamic relationship throughout most of the film. From the very opening scene Wright establishes a strained relationship between Ed, Shaun, and Liz, which while not quiet full of animosity, still shows signs of hushed regret and subtle bitterness. It is within this scene that the true nature of the Shaun-Ed-Liz relationship is ultimately defined; Liz, the mature adult wishing to settle down and start a true relationship with Shaun, is in conflict with Ed’s childish influence.“Liz: You see what I’m saying?Shaun: Yeah, totally.Liz: I know he’s your best friend but do you live with him.Shaun: I know… And it’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you, cause I do. It’s just… Ed doesn’t have too many friends.Ed: Can I get…any of you cunts…a drink?”He is sincere is his attempt to bond with Shaun, Liz and her friends but he must mask his sincerity with a joke (that unfortunately causes an even bigger rift between Shaun and Liz). Ed, on the other hand, is childish, aloof, crass, and manages to interject himself into serious situations at the most inopportune times; Shaun is trapped between these two states; being an adult or stay a child.As Liz talks to Shaun about the ever increasing difficulties within their relationship, Ed’s comedic injections can be interpreted as a representation of the entire dynamic between their relationships. Ed’s interruptions can be seen as Shaun’s inner child (or at least, inner slacker) running onto the screen and desperately trying to pull Shaun away from a frightening life of adulthood and the responsibilities tied to them (fully committing to Liz, resolving his relationship with Philip and coming to terms with his static life). Shaun and Ed’s roommate other roommate, Pete, can also be seen as a foil to Shaun’s irresponsibility (Ed as well, although he is much more apathetic to adulthood). Pete acts as the embodiment of where Shaun should be, career wise, and tries to give well meaning (but poorly explained) advice to Shaun about this situation in life; he is what Shaun could be like if he let go of his apathetic ways and committed to an adult life and reminds him just how immature he is:“Shaun: I’ve known him since primary school. I like having him around; he’s a laugh.Pete: I guess he can be pretty fun. Remember that time we stayed up all night drinking apple schnapps and playing Tekken 2? Shaun: Ha yeah! When was that ?Pete: That was five years ago, when’s he going home?”
Shaun, as irresponsible as he is, is forced to become an arbiter between the warring “friendship” of Pete and Ed. Ed is a completely reckless, immature, buffoon, but he is happy, able to easily adapt to the new zombie world, and has a childlike sincerity that allows him to convey legitimate emotions but he must mask them with immaturity. Pete, on the other hand, is an adult and while he is the most mature and responsible of the friends, he is easily frustrated and callous. When Shaun is dumped by Liz, it is Ed who consoles him, takes him to the Winchester and provides a shoulder to cry on (who Shaun happily uses). When Shaun’s consoling session is interrupted by a zombie (perceived as a drunken bar-hopper), Ed asks the bar owner to shut lock the doors, shut the blinds, and shut the lights off; effectively cutting them off from the outside world and allowing him to openly express his depression and feelings about his relationship with Liz. Where Shaun finds solace in Ed, he finds belittlement and frustration in Pete; Ed is an immature slacker but a good person, whereas Pete is a model citizen (in terms of sticking to social norms) but a terrible friend.“Pete: Stop defending him, Shaun, he’s holding you back. Or does it make your life easier having someone around who’s more of a loser than you are? …I assume it was Liz who did the dumping? Sort your fucking life out, mate.”It is this dynamic that will surface later during the film, when Shaun literally finds himself in the middle of a zombie Pete trying to kill Ed; Shaun’s killing of Pete can be seen as the casting off of the forced responsibilities and maturity that have been placed upon Shaun as the leader of the group. He realizes that Pete might be a good employ but he is far from a good friend.This can be seen as a slight Refusal of the Call as Shaun effectively kills Pete, along with his notions of maturity, responsibility, and instead chooses to seek adulthood through his own terms. Furthermore, Shaun’s refusal to listen to authority figures (specifically Philip) is a common theme through the film’s narrative as Shaun’s relationship with Philip is the one that acts as a catalyst for Shaun’s transition from reluctant, but lucky, leader, to an analytical leader. A leader who has no problem taking central of a situation, resolving problems within the survival group, and finagling realizing the importance of Liz and the affect she has on his life. The barrier that the individuals build between themselves is a staple of the zombie-genre. However, the barrier built up between Philip and Shaun is present from their very first interaction. After being informed by a co-worker that his dad has come to visit him at work, Shaun makes it very evident to his friend (and the audience) that Philip is his step-dad, not his real father. It is never stated what exactly happened to Shaun’s father, but it can be inferred from their interaction that Philip’s presence in Shaun’s life was sudden. That is, Philip took the place of Shaun’s father in a manner that would suggest that his father had died suddenly. Shaun’s refusal to bond with Philip as a child has lead into his life as an adult. This can be seen as Shaun’s ultimate Refusal of the Call; his refusal to relate with Philip causes Shaun to not visit his mother as often as they would like as well as keep her out of the more intimate aspects of his life (specifically his relationship wit Liz). It is only once he resolves his issues with Philip, to answer his call, that he is able to an emotionally complete adult. The intimate moment between them takes place in a car that is spinning out of control (which is coincidentally being driven by Ed). This acts as a way to visually represent the conflicting emotions, a literal whirlwind, being felt within Shaun. It is through Philip’s acknowledgement of maturity, not Pete’s, that Shaun is able to understand the gravity of the situation he is in.“Philip: You just need motivation, someone to look up to. And I thought it could be me.”Upon completion of his quest, Shaun is awarded his treasure: maturity. And from this moment on he begins completing the quests that Philip’s rocky relationship has blocked; his introduction of Liz to his mother, his relationship with the Winchester coming full-cycle, and finally telling Ed that while he is a good friend, his immaturity is holding him back from establishing relationships with his loved ones.
All of these moments come to a head during the end of Shaun’s narrative. It is, like much of the film before, a continuation of scenes and motifs played out throughout the beginning and middle of the film. After Shaun and Liz are rescued, the audience is taken back to Shaun’s apartment where he zombie-shuffles out of his room and greets Liz in their living room. He joins her on the couch and they begin channel surfing with each broadcast bleeding into one another, forming a conscious explaining the resolve of the zombie infection. They pause on a particular channel and watch a game show featuring zombies tied to bungee cords as they attempt to race for a piece of meat. This is a humorous, subversive, reference Bud from Day of the Dead; a rehabilitated zombie who was used to display that the zombies hold on to the ruminants’ of their humanity. The joke goes even further as moments later one of Shaun’s zombified co-works is seen pushing a shopping cart out of a grocery store; the statement being that the zombies have reached some tertiary level of zombiness, that their jobs were so mindless and dull before the infection that even after literally dying and becoming mindless husks, they are still able to perform their previous jobs with little sign of decreased proficiency or enthusiasm.
The final scene involves Shaun making a trip to his shed, where a zombie-Ed is seen playing their favorite video game and Shaun joins in, an act he wasn’t able to do at the beginning of the film. In this scene it is shown that Shaun has managed (although somewhat ham-fisted) to find the balance in his life that he had so desperately needed. He is able to find stable ground with Liz, give their relationship some meaning, obtain maturity, and learn to venture outside of his comfort zone; maturity. For his childlike endeavors, he will still be able to hang out with Ed and enjoy his company, even if he is a zombie; the last tie to his previous life and the last ruminant of his of childhood
-Z
