Film Poster Analysis:Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead, tells the story of a going nowhere man, who's life is slowly going down hill, as his relationship crumbles and life rotates around trips to the pub with his less intelligent friend Ed. Although things plummet when the apocalypse strikes and Shaun finds himself on a mission to save his girlfriend and salvage their relationship whilst trying to survive the night.

The film's genre sits on a satire horror, whilst containing the imagery and plot of a horrific situation, with the possibility of death, The movie still shows a comedic side to the apocalypse by having the less than able Shaun and Ed try and fight off zombies and keep their spirits light hearted.

This is shown within the poster, where we see a Ginger man in a bright red tie and white shirt, holding a bunch of florescent yellow flowers, as he stands awkwardly on the train as he is surrounded by green skinned, white eyed zombies, showing the audience that what should be an expression of fear being replaced with almost a look of sarcasm shows the humour within the picture and that it's not a serious horror film.

The font used within the poster shows an all capitals titles, where it seems to have been worn off it certain areas, showing a rough sense to the film and that nothing stays pristine and perfect through the plot. Within the main title "shaun of the dead", we can see that within the letter "a" in dead there is a grasping hand coming out of the ground, again giving off the sense of the living dead and showing the zombie theme.

Subtly written slogans are also written in white to stand off of the bright, yet blackened in certain areas, background, also possesses the satirical comedy that is shown visually within the poster also, with at the top of the poster stating " ever felt like you were surrounded by zombies?", Also hinting the plot to be starring characters of the average every day life, due to the rhetorical question that makes the audience put themselves into the leading character's shoes.

The second slogan is seen again in small righting underneath the main title, stating more about the the type of film it is, but again in a satirical and voiced in a way that would be said by the average cinema goer who was telling their friends about it. which goes as follows "A romantic comedy.With zombies."

In conclusion this poster effectively shows the conventions of their film's genre, plot and who their target audience is, both visually and with the slogans they use. As this would appeal to movie goers who want to be thrilled with both humour and horror, which would be by the average working class male, which forms the main leading characters characteristics.