DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) image analysis

This scene from ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004) introduces the idea that this film has links to the America vs terrorism conflict. A lot of horror films during the 2000’s reflected the historical context of the Iraq war which can also be seen in the film ‘Hills have Eyes’ when the male American hero stabs one of the mutants through the head with an American flag. Horror is often popular when reality is going through a harsh time, as the audience can relate to it because it’s fresh in our mind, making context very important. This still image uses awful pixels from a ‘video phone’ to portray the idea that this reporter is out in the Middle East reporting on terrorism.  In the background we can see the top peeks of mosques giving the audience an idea of setting within the mise-en-scene, and although nothing of terrorism is actually mentioned it gives the viewer an idea and conveys the idea that the zombies within the film are symbolic of what was going on in this world at the time. Although as a generation we have grown to find horrors more acceptable, and we are a harder audience to scare, scenes like this still unsettle us because they are very realistic, and almost hit a ‘sore spot’ due to historical context. Scenes like this that seem very genuine and relatable seem to get through to our generations audience on a more psychological level much more than gore does.