U10 LA A - Zombieland Purposes

1. Jake O’Brien
ZombieLand
Purposes
Zombieland is a horror/adventure/comedy film. A mix of different genres which
is enough of a horror film to make horror audiences and horror fans happy,
enough of a comedy to make audiences who want a lighthearted film happy, and
enough of a busy adventureride to make adventuremovie fans happy.
Itwanted to make another film in the popular zombie horror genrethat took
zombies seriously and made them a serious scary threatbut that also showed
characters having to deal with them in a morefunny way. Italso wanted to make
something like a teen movie, with young stars and with the romantic comedy
idea of how a couple will manage to get together.
It’s a quest movie too, but like a lot of post apocalypsestories it’s a quest that
isn’t aboutmaking everything right (becausethat’s impossible), justaboutfinding
something to do that is more than justsurviving.
Itwas also a commercial product, like almost all feature films and especially like
all Hollywood films, and so it wanted to make money.
Messages and values
Some of the messages that zombieland portrays areoften efficient. For instance,
the main protagonistColumbus has created a set of rules that he abides by every
day to ensurethat he survives. This messagebasically says thatyou have to be
quite organized and mainly look out for yourself. And the value of this is that it
can be used in reality and is not justa piece of fiction. It’s a film that shows that
being sensible like a bit of a nerd can be very important.
Also, another messagethat is shown a lot in the film is betrayal. Itfirstexplains it
when Columbus and Tallahassee are conned by two girls and are left behind in
the supermarketwith their car and equipment taken. They then go after the two
girls but arebested once again when they are found in the back of their new car
as they stopped to look for them. The messageof this would relate back to
Columbus’s listwhen not trying to be a hero as it can get you killed or in this case,

2. Jake O’Brien
being held hostagewith your own equipment. And the value could possibly mean
that you can trustanyoneyou don’tknow.
But the film goes on fromthat to show that actually coming to trustpeople is
really important, and that family (a real one or a pretend one you gather around
you) is really important.
Understanding theaudience
When being involved in creating a film, understanding the audience is one of the
most importantaspects as they are the ones you are creating the film for. They
are the ones that will make it successfulor makeit a wasteof time.
In the UK its age rating is 15 and in the US its R rated. This tells the audience what
type of movie it is and that it could contain violence and bad language. Age rating
is not justimportant or the age of people that see it, it’s important that whatage
group you want the target audience to be. If the put the movie at age 18 and their
target audience whereteenagers, they would get anywhereas mostof them
would be able to see it.
This is a film aimed at 15-24 year olds as a core age band. It’s probably aimed a
bit moreat men than at women because horror is typically moreof a mail genre
but there are strong and important women characters in the film so there is also a
good appeal to a female audience too.
It’s nota ‘comedy horror’ in the way that parody films like Scary Movieare – it’s a
proper ‘straight’ horror moviethat manages to be funny as well – that means that
it has to be enough of a horror movieto appeal to horror fans but not so much
that the comedy fans you wantto get along too won’t like it.