Font Analysis

The font of the writing in the title screen is one of the most important things that are applied in a programme or film. The font can determine how something is seen as, weather its friendly, scary, funny, the font of the text will suggest what it is wanted to convey. 

Take The Walking Dead for example the writing is bold with thick, capitalised lettering. it gives off a feeling of seriousness. It also has a faded, discoloured kind of paper look to it which could be interpenetrated as something bad has or is happening or that things are falling apart in the world such as people are in great danger or the world as it is known to be is not working as it once was. It creates a tension in the mind, making the observer look at the problems that could have occurred. This could then be linked to the horror genre or even the zombie sub-genre rather easily just for this small analyse.

Just like The Walking Dead, Dawn of the Dead has a standard bold, thick, capitalised font. This font gives the viewer the impression that the text's meaning is rather important or more rather that it gives it a curtain urgency. Which also makes the viewer start to create a fear of the unknown. Whats more is the text is in red, red is typically used to represent blood and danger, so the font then gives the viewer the interpretation that the film is to be about something rather dangerous that involves a lot of death.

In contrast to the other two The Return Of The Living Dead has actually become the blood splatter its self as well as being in capital letters. Not only is the font in capital letters but the letter I's are in lower case which would be presumed to have a hidden meaning of some kind. The red blood design relates back to my sub-genre as it has typical features that are commonly asociated with zombie horror.

Horror Audiences For Zombie Films

Horror Audiences for Zombie films.

The three films i have chosen to look at are:

- Dead Snow

- Land of the Dead

- 28 Days Later

For our next task we shall be making a piece of horror for an opening. We are going to make a piece based on zombies. For this we shall be researching the different types of audiences that zombie films are aimed at.

The first film I shall be looking at for my research is Dead Snow. This film was released in 2009, And is a Norwegian zombie splatter film directed by Tommy Wirkola, produced by Tomas Evjen and Harold Zwart, written by Tommy Wirkola and Stig Frode Henriksen. This film can also be considered as a comedy horror.

A small summary of the film: the film centres around a group of students that are trying to survive a nazi zombie attack in the mountains of Norway. They are on Easter break staying in a small cabin near Oksfjord, which is owned by a woman named Sara who is shown being chased and ends up being cornered and eaten by zombies in World War II Nazi SS uniforms.

I would say that this film is for a mass audience as the theme is based around World War II Nazi zombies. A wide audience would be drawn to this as everyone knows about the World War and is interested in Nazi's, whats more everyone loves zombies so why not throw them together? This film would seem to be more aimed towards all adults as there is a lot of gore and is rated an 18+. This film is in group E the childlike nature of the film is what draws people of young ages in.

Land of the dead is a film from 2005 that is a post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero, produced by Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann and Peter Grunwald.

A summary of the film would be that a zombie outbreak takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where a rather old fashioned government exists. With this sudden invasion of zombie's the survivors flee to downtown Pittsburgh to the Golden Triangle. This is so that two sides are protected by the meeting rivers at both sides. The third side is protected by an electrical barricade that the survivors refer to as "the throat".

This film is rated a 15+, So I would say that this film is aimed at pretty much all groups, especially groups E and D as the film is strongly based on violence and bad language which is more favourable fir younger audiences. I would believe this film is for a mass audience.

28 Days Later is also a post-apocalyptic horror film just like Land of the Dead. This film however came a little earlier than Land of the Dead as it was produced in 2002. Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. Produced by Andrew Macdonald.

The Film starts off with a group of people who are animal activists trying to free captured chimpanzees that are infected with a virus and being tested on. The virus is then accidentally released and spreads rather rapidly. The film then focuses on the struggle of four people who have survived as they try to cope with the life they once knew being completely altered.

The aim for the audience is 18+, so the audience must be a mass audience especially since the setting is London. It would seem as if the group of appeal would be groups E and D, as again its heavily violent, gory, has a lot of swearing and is rather sexual as well.

Iconography In Zombie Genre

Iconography that is used in a film or TV series/programme is the visual representation of images as well as symbols that are used. So it essentially shows the type of genre they will be. It also shows the the study or interpretation of the images and symbols.

Iconography is used in film to create a curtain image or interpretation for the viewer to piece things together and understand what is happening and what genre it will be. For a horror film such as a zombie film it would be things like people covered in blood, empty scenery so there's a sense of isolation to the characters, and generally being a lot of waste and mess everywhere with the world being in complete chaos.


In films iconography can be used in many different ways, from either lighting, colours, props or characters. These can give the audience a firm interpretation of what is trying to conveyed.

 My group will be looking at zombie horror. Typically this genre would consist of an extreme amount of destruction, abandonment of pretty much every possible place; streets, buildings etc, masses of blood, rather urban and open places to show how isolated the characters are, dull colours such as blacks, dark blues, browns but of course the one colour to stand out a lot of red when it comes to blood. And lastly a use of low-key lighting as much as possible.

The kind of props that would be found within this genre would be some kind of weapon or even object that initiates a form of fear and or danger; even death or pain in someones mind. Props that would do such would be things such as guns, knifes, bats, axe's, ropes (depending on the situation). Other than guns the props used are often close and personal in The Walking Dead. They do this to create a bigger fear of the zombies, getting the characters to use broken pipes and bats, axes etc.



Props that create fear or tension can also just be a bunch of clutter or rubbish such as the in prison in The Walking Dead. This generally creates a sense of fear as a place that is extremely messy can be portrayed as a dangerous place as the mind starts to question and say "What on earth happened? Where is everyone? Has something bad happened?"

The use of Iconography for the World War Z poster's is rather typical of zombie genre. It shows that there is no escape, even in helicopters. It also displays weapons - typically being a gun. As well as showing mass destruction of buildings, either being on fire or crumbling and forming a dusty background, In one poster it even emphasises the 'no escape' aspect by having the somewhat weaker characters with the main character trying to push through all this destruction and mass of the undead. And yet once again the lighting is rather low-key and the colours are dark.

Preliminary Task Video

Including Preliminary Task Into Our Horror Opening

For our horror opening we are taking the skills we learn of using a camera to record with and editing skills from our preliminary task. Before doing the preliminary task no one in the group knew how to work a camera, but from practice with the preliminary task our group now know how to use a camera which is helpful as we have to film our horror opening. We had also never used editing before so this skill is being taken from this too.

Costume Analysis

The Orphanage:

It Follows:

History of Horror

The first horror film on record is Le Manoir du Diable (1896), created by one of film's earliest visionaries, Georges Méliès.

The film, a brief pantomimed sketch in the style of a theatrical comic fantasy, tells the story of an encounter with the Devil and various attendant phantoms. It is intended to evoke amusement and wonder from its audiences, rather than fear. However, because of its themes and characters, it can technically be considered the first horror film (and, because it includes a transformation involving a bat, it has even been called the first vampire film). The film is also innovative in length - its running time of over three minutes was ambitious for its era.

 This film was considered scary to anyone watching it in the 1900's as the thought of someone turning into a bat was witchcraft and seeing ghosts was terrifying. These kinds of things were widely feared by everyone of this time. For this reason it is seen as the first horror film.

If you would like to watch the film yourself:

How horror has developed:

Horror Movies have since served both purposes of delivering thrills and scares as well as telling stories about the dark, mysterious, terrifying side of life and death. Often cautious tales for grownups. Not only this but horror films also provide a reflection of the anxieties of the time period the film comes from.

Nosferatu (1922) is not just a simple story of vampires, but offers heart-rending images of a town beleaguered by premature and random deaths, and shows reflections of the Great War and the Great Flu Epidemic fatalities. At the other end of the century Blade (1998) is not just a tale of vampires either, but reflects a fear of the powerful yet irresponsible elements in society, a lawless elite, sounds down the corridor of the growing invincibility of those at the top (the most powerful people).

So overall horror movies have been about all kinds of mythical things such as vampires, witches, werewolves, monsters (e.g. Frankenstein's monster) essentially anything out of the ordinary.

Horror movies of the early 21st century often looked upon global concerns of contagion ( An example of such would be 28 Days Later), or sound reactionary warning notes about the dangers of leaving moral absolutism behind (like The Last Exorcism or The Conjuring). Horror movies provide a unique space for free discussion about the moral, political and societal shifts in our communal patterns.