Textual analysis - narrative openings

Day of the Dead

The opening of day of the dead helps to establish the bleak situation the characters are in in the post apocalyptic zombie-infested streets of hawaii, the film takes a while to unveil to unveil the zombies, but builds up to their appearance by showing disturbing imagery, such as corpses with crabs and spiders crawling over them.
In addition to this at the very beggining there is a dream sequence that alludes to the situation the characters face in the film, through foreshadowing.
Zombies are present throughout most of the opening after they have been revealed, and they are visable even in the camp, which shows that nowhere is safe

28 Days Later


The start quickly establishes the cause of the zombie infection, by showing the source of where it all begun.  When Cilian Murphy wakes up there is no immediate danger, however isolation is established, letting the viewer know that something is wrong. The isolation is made apparent by good shots of popular places with nobody there, such as outside of parliament, and in hospital.

28 Weeks Later 


This film allowed the viewers to get a good idea of the situation, before quickly revealing the zombie threat, which proceeds to kill all but one of the beggining characters, the build up to this is long, and as soon as they let in the boy, all hell breaks loose, and the bleak, hopelessness of the situation escalates, the music evokes panic and distress, and gradually becomes more and more exiting as the situation gets worse and worse, the image of zombies running down from the hill shows that the main character is cornered.

Night Of The Living Dead

Starts by watching the car make its way to the graveyard, this is not a traditional start to a zombie film since no sense of dread or tension is made. It establishes the characters as brother and sister and why they are visiting the graveyard. The radio broadcast starts to give an impression of something being wrong but this is stopped almost immediately. Isolation in the graveyard is prominent, with threat being established when a lone person is spotted in the distance. Music didn't effect the mood too much.

George. George. Callam.