Research: Film Image Analysis (Dawn Of The Dead 1979) 1

In this scene we see the male hero Stephan not being able to shoot a zombie so roger has to step in and help him. From this long medium shot we can straight away see that they have power from the use of a phallic symbol (guns). Throughout this film there is a constant theme of the fear of death and of being trapped which appeals a lot to a wide demographic. George. A Romero’s auteur style throughout his films is going against the character stereotypes of normal horror films. Especially for its time, having a black male hero (Peter) and a blonde female survivor (Fran) was an unusual character stereotype. Even in this scene, the shorter character is more dominant than the taller one. I feel this is partly why the characters work really well and still engage with modern audiences.