Back in the day I used to be pretty deep into the zombie film genre, and have seen many a good and bad zombie flick.  My collection began with the black and white version of Night of the Living Dead, and ended with movies like Shaun of the Dead, the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and the more recent Land of the Dead from the classy zombie producer George Romero.  After class discussion today, I found that each zombie movie shares an interesting aspect of the Zombie Genre.  In each of these movies, the living characters hold themselves up in iconic sanctuaries.  These very structures end up being compromised, and in most cases, they aid in the downfall of the survivors.

                             Beginning with The Night of the Living Dead, the survivors of an unexplained zombie outbreak seek shelter in the cliche white house with white picket fences.  Throughout the night, the characters attract more and more zombies until they eventually overcome the survivors and lead to the death of all but one resourceful woman who hides in the attic.  It’s interesting to ponder why the creator of this story chose a house as a refuge.  It could be a historical cultural aspect that reflected what the people of the late sixties (when the movie was produced) considered to be a safe haven.  Within this era, the vietnamese conflicted had been a major part of the American life.  Significant numbers of people were being sent to a country thousands of miles from home.  Many Americans could have developed the home as an image of safety from the foreign dangers of war.  This could be a significant reason why the house was used in the film.

                            Dawn of the Dead, which was released in 1978, uses a shopping mall as a refuge for a small group of people.  The seventies were a time of economic decline in the United States which could reflect why the shopping mall was chosen.  The mall could have represented what the Americans pictured as a sanctuary.  The thought of excess money could have made Americans feel safe, and the mall could be a significant symbol of the spending such money.  As the film progressed, the mall was eventually compromised and led to the death of all but two of the characters.

                        Shaun of the Dead provides another sanctuary for Shaun and his zombie evading cohorts.  The Winchester, Shaun and Ed’s favorite bar, becomes the safe haven after a cheeky British zombification.  The bar has long been a symbol of escape.  The use of the bar in this movie is more confusing to me, but there is one aspect of escape that I see.  The pub could be Shaun’s attempt at escaping adulthood.  As we discussed in class, Shaun seems to visit the pub in order to re-live his past life.  He gets hammered, sings cliche 80’s songs, and stay up til four in the morning.  He seems to want to escape a serious relationship with his girlfriend and the move on to a more professional job.  This could reflect a cultural trend of the early part of the decade, one in which many people don’t want to make the shift from childhood to adulthood.  Within this movie, the bar is also eventually compromised, leading to the deaths of some of the characters.