2nd Dawn of the Dead (1979) Image Analysis

This scene is of Peter and Stephen enjoying their time at the shopping mall and they are taking advantage of the ability to get away with anything they want. This scene highlights consumerism and this is very effective with the audience because at the time of the film’s release, shopping malls were a new and exciting obsession for Americans and it was the start of something new. This illustrates Janet Staiger’s audience/context theory and the idea that in order for the audience to fully understand a film, they have to understand the time of when the film was released and so in this case, it would apply to the audience knowing about consumerism. The whole idea of the film being set in a shopping mall shows just how exciting these were for Americans at the time because the zombies are walking around in them implying that they are relatable and want to spend time shopping. This scene is part of a montage of clips showing the characters enjoying the mall which again highlights consumerism which is a main theme and ideology in this film. Romero himself as auteur of the film, was not a fan of consumerism and so he would’ve wanted to put people off from it and so made Peter and Stephen look like thieves so that the audience would feel bad about it. The shot itself in a high, long expressionist angle and shows that the survivors are not superior and that the zombies are in fact dominating the world and there are too many of them for them all to be stopped. Despite their smiles, it also shows how they are trapped in the mall by the zombies and while they are enjoying it now, they won’t be in the long term.