Dawn of The Dead (2004) image analysis (3)

This is a still shot taken from the opening credits of a reporter on the news talking about terrorism. This news report is being filmed on what looks like a phone as it is from a Middle Eastern country. In contrast to the original Dawn of the Dead (1979) it focusses on the ideas towards terrorism and infection and not so much on consumerism. In the original most of the film exhibited ideas towards consumerism, whereas there’s only a montage of about 2 minutes in this film. This film very much focuses on the historical context of Ebola and Islamic terrorists (9/11). These two events were fresh in the audience’s minds and haunted their thoughts, making this film shocking again. The song ‘The Man Comes Around’ by Johnny Cash is played during the opening credits. The song lyrics link to the story of the film and then action involved, therefore it's parallel music. The song references to Judgement Day and the Old Testament within Christianity. This links to the films tagline of ‘When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.’ Meaning there are too many sinners and they have been brought back to Earth as zombies, linking into the subtext of religious war. Janet Staiger is the main critic behind audience studies. She explained how understanding the context of a film is key to understanding the films content and effects how the audience respond.