How does Shaun of the Dead subvert structuralist notions of genre?

‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a classic representation of a postmodern film, with prop paradigms such as children’s toys and location paradigms such as a London Suburban street. This would be unusual for a horror film but in this case the audience can differentiate between the usual horror film and a postmodern film such as ‘Shaun of the Dead’. The typical prop paradigm of horror films are knives which are very personal weapons because the killer has to get close to the victim in order to penetrate the skin, while in ‘Shaun of the Dead’, children’s toys are used showing the post modernity of the film, showing the subversion of structuralist notions of horror.

Prop paradigms are a key concept in a horror film such as knives and masks because knives are a personal weapon that the killer penetrates the skin with, creating a sexual nature to the killing while the mask conceals the killers identity, creating a sense of fear. However, being that ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a postmodern film that knows the rules of a horror film but breaks them, these props are not used. For example, vinyl records are used at one point to throw at the zombies to try and kill them. This creates humour because of the lack of emergency they are portraying like a typical horror film would show. Other prop paradigms that are used include a spade and cricket bat; the spade represents gardening which is known as a calming thing to do and the cricket bat is used for a middle class sport, although in this case it is not used for a middle class activity. Innocent toys are used as weapons to fight the zombies. This subverts the structuralist notions of horror because children’s toys relate back to the child’s innocence; however, these are now used as weapons. Comedy is created again when body parts are used as weapons as these are not the typical weapon to use. When the characters are cornered by the zombies, a rifle is used as if they are in a western in a saloon. This is not appropriate for horrors because weapons used normally involve a slow death with something more personal such as a knife. Theorists such as Foucault and Lacan believed in structure and the use of appropriate props, although ‘Shaun of the Dead’ clearly challenges this theory of structure. At one point a knife is presented as if it is about to be used but is then rejected because it would deconstruct the post modernity of the film.

In structuralist horror films characters are normally given a character type such as the hero, being the strong, intelligent one. However, in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ the hero is the man who is represented as a bit dim and tells lies to get out of trouble. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ challenges the character types you would normally put with certain characters to subvert structuralist notions of horror. The zombies are portrayed as ordinary people in suits and everyday clothes doing everyday things such as walking the dog, yet there is no dog on the collar. This is quite humorous because the audience will know that the dog has been eaten. They are familiar with how zombies are portrayed to be in horror films with which they have to survive on others flesh and blood. The characters are able to get up close to the zombies without feeling fearful, whereas in typical horror films the characters will realise almost straight away that they are zombies. This creates a sense of humour because it deconstructs a structuralist notion of horror. The moment the men know something isn’t right they form a group which is the typical group in all horror films; the geek, hippy, mother, laid back, blonde and the leader. The audience will not recognise this but their subconscious will and this is shown clearly later on in the film when they meet with another group that mirrors all the people within their group, except a female as the leader. Rather than having a ‘strong’ man, a woman has been represented as the leader, challenging the stereotypical view of women as being weak and vulnerable. Conflict normally always occurs within a group and because of this the group becomes smaller and so this shows aspects of a horror film. Also, when the group threaten the geek, Liz, the blonde, becomes the hero when she settles things, showing one of Propp’s eight character types. Carol Clover’s final girl theory is shown but in some ways is challenged. Liz is the blonde girl who are normally the ones seen as promiscuous in horror films, although she ends up being the final girl that survives. It is evident that ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is criticising the way society lives because at the beginning people are shown acting like zombies-in an almost robotic way, due to being too set in our ways. At the end of the film the zombies are shown being kept as ‘human pets’ which is showing aspects of comedy because in an ordinary horror the zombies would have been destroyed as a way of survival for the humans. In typical zombie films such as ‘Dawn of the Dead’ zombies are represented as fast and extremely frightening. However, in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ zombies are not as frightening because the characters are able to walk amongst them and are easily knocked over by weapons of bats and children’s toys.

The usual structuralist settings are normally isolated houses and areas. For example, a house in the middle of a forest or a desert because it is very hostile setting, like in ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Compared to this, the postmodern film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ has location paradigms such as a London suburban where the main characters live. This is supposedly calmer than the city, but yet is not isolated like the usual horror location where no one can hear or see you. The film is set mostly during the day which is not a very common time of day for a horror film to be set in. However, night time comes and becomes darker as events get more serious, which relates to the frightening events that are about to occur, creating a sense of tension. It is evident that Levi Strauss’ binary opposites are taking place here, as daytime relates to safety contrasting with the darkness of the evening, when no one can see what is hiding in the shadows, which links to danger. The location of safety in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is their local pub. Pubs are normally a busy place but at this specific time it is not because most people have turned into zombies. This creates a sense of isolation as it has become an almost unfamiliar place. It is also an unlikely place to hide because of the large room, and so in a way the group are making themselves victims as they are giving themselves nowhere to hide. This creates a sense of comedy because it contrasts with typical horror films and almost makes fun out of society by representing British people as always at the pub.

Sound paradigms are used to build tension but also to create humour, showing aspects of horror and aspects of comedy. For instance, non-diegetic sound of string instruments builds tension which follows Foucault and Lacan’s theory of structuralism of using the typical non-diegetic sound in horror films. Contradicting this theory, diegetic sound shows the postmodernism of ‘Shaun of the Dead’. The song is very upbeat and has the lyrics, “I’m having such a good time”, which is ironic to the events that are occurring as they fight for survival by hitting a zombie with cues. The hitting goes with the beat of the song which makes the scene humorous as the audience know this would never happen in a typical horror film. At the same time as this, a continuity shot is used of a group of zombies outside the pub with their arms in the air whilst lights flash on and off over them. This makes it seem as if they are at a concert, creating an obvious comedy feel to the scene.

‘Shaun of the Dead’ is humorous because it is a postmodern film, where the audience see the rules of structuralism being broken. For example, the main character has blood all over his shirt and gets told, “You’ve got a bit of red on you”, creating humour because of the quantity of blood and the contrast of using the word ‘bit’. This also refers back to when his red pen leaked on his shirt and someone used the exact same phrase. More evidence for the film being postmodern is that a lot of the tension is built using sound paradigms and camera shots but is then stopped by doing things like cutting to another scene. This makes the film less scary which proves it is not completely a horror as horror films would achieve in making the audience scared.

Each element I have studied in this film including sounds paradigms, prop paradigms and further more prove that ‘Shaun of the Dead’ contains aspects of horror and mainly comedy making it a postmodern film. Some theories are shown such as Carol Clover’s final girl theory and Levi Strauss’ binary opposites. However, theorists such as Foucault and Lacan’s structuralist theory have been challenged with the use of settings such as the pub as a ‘safe’ place rather than hiding where no one will find you. Props have been used to raise humour because they are either innocent children’s toys or things such as human body parts to warn off zombies. This subverts structuralist notions of horror as these are weapons that horror films would never use. Postmodern films tend to stay away from the rules of structuralism as this film shows.