2nd Dawn of the Dead (2004) Image Analysis

This scene is in the opening credits and in these opening credits; there are lots of references to Muslims and terrorism. This is one of the shots that show us this, as the mise-en-scene seems to have Mosques and other Islamic symbols which leads the audience to believe that the news reporter is in the Middle East. This implies that the zombie virus has spread from the Middle East and the zombies themselves are being compared to the terrorists.

This credit sequence clearly links into the American context as 3 years prior to the film’s release, the events of 9/11 occurred and so it was a cultural dominant ideology to be paranoid about Muslims being terrorists, which is implied by these scenes in Dawn of the Dead. The music that plays with the opening credits is contrapuntal to the horror genre and is upbeat and sounds like it would be heard in a happier genre, however the song ‘The Man Comes Around’ by ‘Johnny Cash’ is about Judgement Day; something included in the Old Testament which links to the idea presented in the film that there is ‘no more room in hell’.  This was a way to scare people in 2004 and Americans would still be terrified and even traumatised by the events of 9/11 and so the link between the zombies and Al Queda was powerfully upsetting.