Film Report: Comparative Analysis of Shaun of the Dead & Cloverfield

This report provides a detailed analysis of two films: "Shaun of the Dead" and "Cloverfield." The review of "Shaun of the Dead" explores the film's satirical take on modern life, its use of zombies as a metaphor for societal consumerism, and its post-modern intertextuality. It examines the protagonist's struggle against an apocalyptic zombie outbreak and the film's technological codes. The review of "Cloverfield" focuses on its mockumentary style, found footage cinematography, and the depiction of a monster attack on New York City. The analysis delves into the film's shaky camera work, sound design, and editing techniques, highlighting its ability to create a sense of terror and chaos. Both reviews offer critical insights into the films' themes, techniques, and cultural significance, supported by references to academic sources.

Running head: FILM REVIEW
FILM REVIEW
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Author Note:

1FILM REVIEW
Shaun of the Dead Film Review:
Zombies are what that represents the society’s increasing need for immortality and the
ever increasing necessity (Austin, 2015). Zombies are the physical form of immortality and the
price that one has to pay to have a life even after his/her death. The movie Shaun of the Dead has
shown a man’s struggle to overcome the evil in the form of an apocalypse by outbreak of
zombies. The struggle of the protagonist or Shaun is presented through the technological codes
of hyper-kinetic camera edits, crash zooms and more. The movie is set in a normal sub-urban
environment which is turning into a city full of living dead (Decker, 2016). It is an important
scene to consider as well, since symbolically this scene shows that in the modern context, people
are so absorbed with the consumerism that they have willingly allowed their individuality to be
destroyed and became a part of the hoard.
The movie is basically a struggle that takes place between the Good and the Evil, which
are the most common binary opposition. It is Shaun and his friends, who are the only good that is
left in the whole wide world; as the movie goes on it is shown that they are over taken by the evil
in the form of the zombies. The struggle was appearing hopeless and the devouring of the good
by the evil symbolically represented the devouring of the ‘independent thought’ of an individual
by the society (Vervaeke, Mastropietro & Miscevic, 2017). This film thus can be interpreted as a
satire of the modern life in United Kingdom. It is evident that the film is clearly post-modern; the
intertextual references to music, cultural artefacts, TV shows and more indicate the endeavour of
producing a ‘knowing’ humour.
In fact the ending of the movie shows that the apocalypse of zombies is mediated by the
humans and when everything is back to the normal, humans are seen to keep the appropriate

2FILM REVIEW
zombies as a source of their entertainment and employment. The recruitment of these zombies in
the game shows or service industry finally symbolized that zombies are actually like the humans
all along.
Cloverfield Film Review:
A mockumentary is usually a film or a television program that is shown in a form of
documentary which is serious in tone but it satirizes the subject of the show (Surace, 2019). The
movie ‘Cloverfield’ uses the motif of found footage in order to show how five young New
Yorkers are fleeing from a huge monster and other such creatures of smaller sizes that has
attacked the city whilst they were having a farewell party. The movie had a shaky camera
cinematography style to show that the movie is sowing documentary of the young New Yorkers
(Hoshino, Kim & Kawasoe, 2013). It is said that the cinematography was such that it caused
many of the viewers to have motion-sickness which included nausea and also a temporary loss of
balance. Theatres had to provide verbal warnings, poster warnings to inform the viewers about
the movie’s filming style.
As per the sound of the movie, it does not contain any kind of film score; it has just one
composition by the name of “Roar”. This composition is played by the end of the credits and by
looking at its similarity with the music of “Godzilla”, it has been suggested that the work of
Giacchino is a tribute to that of Ifukube and this fact is confirmed by the director of the movie
Clover field, Matt Reeves himself. The scene of destruction is viewed through the hand- camera
style of cinematography from a distance (Bennett, 2010). When the head of the Statue of Liberty
falls down and rolls down the street, the things start heating up. The scene of several shots
showing billowing smoke clouds can be easily related with the evocations of the incident of 9/11.

3FILM REVIEW
The editing of the movie has been such that it maintains the found footage cinematography intact
and along with that it brought for the terror that the monster was inflicting upon the people of
New York. There was focus on the off-screen of the movie in order to deepen the effect of the
found footage cinematography. Basically with its technique of found footage, the sound and the
editing, Cloverfield has been described as a mockumentary that satirized through its plot.

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References:
Austin, E. (2015). Zombie culture: Dissent, celebration and the carnivalesque in social spaces.
In The zombie renaissance in popular culture (pp. 174-190). Palgrave Macmillan,
London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276506_12
Bennett, T. (2010). Cloverfield: Reinventing the monster movie.
Decker, L. (2016). British cinema is undead: American horror, British comedy and generic
hybridity in Shaun of the Dead. Transnational Cinemas, 7(1), 67-81.
https://doi.org/10.1080/20403526.2015.1078120
Hoshino, K., Kim, D., & Kawasoe, Y. (2013). Discussion on Using Mockumentary Staging
Techniques in the Creation of Frightening Imagery. International Journal of Asia Digital
Art and Design Association, 17(4), 111-117.
Surace, B. (2019). The flesh of the film: The camera as a body in neo-horror mockumentary and
beyond. Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook, 17(1), 25-41.
Vervaeke, J., Mastropietro, C., & Miscevic, F. (2017). Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-
First Century Crisis. Open Book Publishers.