In this short analysis I am going to look at in my opinion, is one of the most effective opening scenes of all time within the horror genre, from George Romero’s 1985 cult classic, Day Of The Dead.
Incidental music begins straight away, as a medium close up of a woman lifting her head begins the scene, sat against a white wall, a point of view shot follows which gives us a look at where she is actually located, 4 white walls with no obvious door and a calendar on the opposite wall. This sort of surreal environment begins to get stranger as she stands up and the music changes rhythm and adds an even eerier effect, a sense that something isn’t right, as the woman in question walks towards the calendar. A close up of the calendar reveals the month of October, which could be a reference to horror in general, the pumpkins on the picture a direct connection to Halloween, which is ominous within horror films. The calendar seems to intrigue her, a shot reverse shot into a close up of her face shows this well, then a sort of, over the shoulder medium close up of her reaching out and touching the calendar ends this unusual scene as a barrage of hands suddenly comes through the wall trying to grab her, before a cut moves to her waking up somewhere else, the synchronous diagetic sound of the helicopter telling the watcher what there travelling in, then the women proceeds to try to bring herself into reality from her obvious dream, looking around the helicopter, the camera switching to several medium close ups as we get to see the other characters for the first time. One of these characters is in clear distress, clutching a cross close to his heart, this is again another horror convention, religion and the age-old argument of good versus evil and the belief god will protect them, which is rarely the case though within the typical horror plot though. Then a cut switches to a crane a shot and what is the first real establishing shot of the scene, showing what seems to be a deserted tropical city, another shot reverse shot back to the women’s face shows her reaction to this with a sad look on her face, leaving the watcher with the question of what is actually going on? Following this we are presented with the first dialogue of the sequence, as the women squeezes forward into a medium close up shared with one of the men in the front seat, whom is bearded; this again shows that they are in a helicopter and how little space there is. After the man declares they’ve had no luck contacting anybody via radio, the women then proclaims “right then let’s set down, we’ll use the bullhorn,” these words are met with resentment, as immediately a cut moves to a close up of the pilot, who is obviously not happy for some reason about landing the craft, but at this point it is still oblivious to the watcher what is actually in store. Religion again is used in the context, as the bearded man says “Jesus Mary And Joseph,” but perhaps not in the same way as before, as this man is seen drinking out of a flask and looking rough, it seems more so of a blaspheme than a cry for help from the heavens judging by his character. The fact they are going to land is established when the pilot announces to the rest of the crew, “I’ll set us down, but I wont leave my seat and I’ll keep the engines running, now the first sign of trouble I’m going up, if your not on board when that happens, your likely to have a lousy afternoon,” this little diagetic speech is spoken with a sort of negative sarcastic tone, and sets the scene for what might be in store, confirming that there is something not right about the world again.
A cut follows this to a low angle shot of the helicopter flying over some buildings, the camera then pans to follow the helicopter almost 360 degrees as it slows down to try and find a spot to land, this could also be seen as a sort of establishing shot too, as it gives the first concrete view of what they are travelling in and what they are doing, and as the camera slows down along with the helicopter, there is a slight use of elliptical editing here as a cut shows a short advancement of time to a low angle of the helicopter actually setting down.
The next stage in the sequence is a medium shot of the helicopter doors as the women and the religious man step out carrying a megaphone, at this point its still not entirely clear what there target is, and then the camera zooms out to reveal the full helicopter with them outside before it pans left to follow them running off. A cut moves to a full shot of them jogging past two abandoned cars along a road covered in debris, surrounded by palm trees, this showing that they are in somewhere tropical, and again adding to the mystery of what has went on. They stop along the road, and a long shot of them nervously looking around is used creating more tension, before the man speaks his first speech of the scene, shouting hello down the bull horn, as he does this, a shot reverse shot is used to switch camera view to a shot of the street they are shouting down, back to them, and then a cut to a medium shot of the two as the man continues to shout. During this shot, the women is circling around, looking for people, and the nervousness is clearly visible on the mans face as he is sweating and looking uncomfortable, and as the film progresses this character is constantly portrayed as the weakest of the group, mentally unstable and a liability. From this moment, the action switches to what is actually going on within that city, a couple of low angle shots with tilts show some buildings that appear unused, one of which has an alligator within the doorway, this is used to confirm the fact that society is clearly not as it once was, as it is totally out of the norm for an alligator to just be in the middle of a city. Mise en Scene comes into play well now, a skeleton with insects crawling all over it, dollars are seen blowing all over in the wind, then a newspaper blows up against a wall to reveal the headline, “the dead walk,” this is quite a famous shot which was imitated in the more recent film, Resident Evil. Now we get the first look at one of the “dead”, with the use of composition we are subjected to just staring at the floor, as a shadow is projected against it and footsteps are heard, creating mystery of what is to come, these footsteps being diagetic and separated from the actual theme music, so we know they are part of the scene, then a tilt upwards reveals the first of George Romero’s famous zombies in this film, make up used to create a gruesome look with just half of a face and his tongue hanging out, and its at this point the films title appears for the first time “Day Of The Dead”, written across the screen. Throughout this entire period you can hear the voice of the man echoing down the seemingly empty streets, “hello, is anybody there?” It is only now that the film begins to pick up its pace, some low angle shots again used with some lighting to create shadows of the slow moving creatures, footsteps the only thing heard again, before we get some medium shots of various different zombies, all looking around confused as to were the voice is coming from, and cut after cut we finally get a proper look at just how bad the situation is, as more and more of these zombies come out of wherever they had been, and the noise of there moans gets louder and louder, before a high angle crane shot is used to show the entire street, with what must be about a hundred or so of them, then it cuts back to the two in the helicopter, one man trying to contact over the radio again, before the Jamaican man stops him and says “stop it Billy boy, listen, it’s another dead place, just like the rest of them, you can hear it over the engines.” This is spoken in a distinctive Caribbean accent, and this speech adds an eerie atmosphere to the scene. The scene draws to a close as you see the two whom are out of the helicopter seeing the horde of zombies coming towards them, shot reverse shots used in good effect yet again, before they run back to the helicopter and fly off.
