A close analysis of three scenes in Zombieland

1. Zombieland – Understanding Micro Elements
Cinematography / Sound / Editing / Mise en Scene
1. Columbus’ opening scene – the chase in the parking lot
a. The scene opens with an establishing shot of the garage area where
Columbus is filling his car with gas. The camera slowly pans and tilts
along and down until it’s moving in close up with Columbus. There is a
non-diagetic voiceover from Columbus about where he is and why he’s
here. The mise en scene is of a deserted area at night, and the fact
that Columbus is carrying a gun, significant iconography, adds to the
idea that he is at risk. (And we’ve just had the very violent title
sequence showing Zombies taking over everywhere).
b. The editing of this first sequence is a classic of film grammar. It uses a
pov shot / reverse / shot to show us his face as he looks on, the door
he is looking at, back in close up at the handle of the door (with the
‘rule’ edited in as an effect in the edit) and then continually back and
forth from his face to his POV in increasing close up. As this happens
the non-diagetic score becomes more and more tense and threatening
c. Eventually we see a low angle shot of him waiting outside the door
which bursts open, a classic horror shot of the monster bursting into
the frame. and a chase sequence starts
d. The scene then changes into what should be a really tense and
frightening chase sequence but somehow, even this early in the film
and even after the very graphic title sequence we’ve just seen, there is
something slapstick about it. There is toilet paper trailing from one
Zombie’s shoe, the other is held in the position that she took after
Columbus shot her, and they are moaning and groaning but never
getting very close to him, and his ‘rule’ appears in the background. He
is in terrible danger but also not really in danger at all.
e. Even when it should get more tense, when he drops his keys whilst
trying to get into his car and they get closer to him, shown to us again
in a pov/reverse shot, it still feels like a comedy moment, partly
because he quietly swears. Again we have the rule in the background,
chiming in the soundtrack as well as flashing.
f. As he gets away the soundtrack changes, instead of a tense non-
diagetic score we have the diagetic lounge music playing in his car –
but this is suddenly disrupted as the zombie appears in the back seat.
The disruption is marked by a big jump scare in the non-diagetic score.
We get to see two more rules reappear, and we don’t see the ‘gross’
images of the zombie after it has been shot, even though it’s very clear
what’s happening. The pay off line in the non-diagetic voiceover ‘On
the other hand, I had found a place to go number 2’ is a different kind
of gross-out comedy.
2. The second hijack
a. Opens on sudden musical sting in the non-diagetic score as we see the
abandoned car. It helps to make sense for the audience, this is

2. important, something has happened to them. At the same time, the
question comes to the audience that also comes to the characters, is it
a trap?
b. Cinematography – the van is in the distance, and on a clang in the
soundtrack we jump closer, and then closer again, and then cut away
to see Tallahassee looking through binoculars.
c. Mise en scene – the open road – the abandoned car – the guns – this
is thriller/adventure genre, not horror film at the moment
d. Cinematography – we go off with Tallahassee – including a tracking
POV shot as he approachs the van, and as he looks around. There is
nothing there at all so he goes back and…
e. Of course it’s Columbus who has been hijacked. Playing on a horror
idea – Kanas appears suddenly in the back of the frame. But the way it
works also makes it part of the comedy – “you got taken hostage by a
12 year old?”
3. Destroying the store
a. The film continues to use Columbus’ non-diagetic voiceover. As they
arrive at the store the camera focuses on him as his voiceover and the
onscreen graphic remind us of ‘the most important rule of all – don’t be
a hero’. We then have a rising tension in the non-diagetic score as
Tallahassee is shot from behind, backlit by the store, and uses his gun
to ring the bell at the front of the shop. The non-diagetic score picks up
in urgency as a zombie appears and runs towards him and cuts out as
he shoots it. and we have the again somehow comedy moment of
Columbus delivering the double-tap (rule).
b. There is then another slapstick scene. The shot matches the dialogue,
‘zombie kill of the week’, with a bright onscreen graphic of the saying
and we cut to daylight somewhere else, and the slapstick of her calmly
walking away from the rushing zombie and pulling a bell to see a grand
piano falling on the zombie and crushing it. Once again there is a lack
of really graphic violence (there is some red splattered on the white
door in mid/long shot, but compared to the extreme graphic scenes of
the opening title sequence there is no more extreme material in the
whole film).
c. Without any non-diagetic sound, no music or voiceover, Columbus and
Tallahassee talk about what’s going on, and there is a different kind of
comedy/violent scene as Columbus sprays cologne on Tallahassee
and gets punched (‘for that you get 45%’). It’s mainly shot in a well lit
mid shot and is a good example of ‘technique’ getting out of the way,
pointing the camera and letting actors act.
d. Then there is a scene of completely fun mayhem, as the four main
characters trash the store to a lighthearted classical orchestral non-
diagetic score, including an edited montage of shots with lots of jump
cuts, with the film going into slow motion, ending on another rule and
more non-diagetic voiceover with Columbus commenting on the scene.