The Postmodern Elements of Zombieland
Critics have roundly questioned what, if any, frontiers still exist in zombie-based films. The tropes are so well established that audiences can now run a checklist during zombie films that they are viewing for the first time. With minimal variation, the progression often unfolds in such a predictable chain of events that the only components still drawing audiences are big-name actors and extravagant special effects. The 2009 film Zombieland addresses these issues by thoroughly employing postmodern elements that look inward. Director Ruben Fleischer revels in these perceived limitations by using his film to mock the exhausted fundamentals. Zombie films used to frighten audiences on levels that ranged
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The opening scene immediately makes it clear that Zombieland will not be a typical undead portrayal. The dialogue is almost entirely a voiceover by Jesse Eisenberg addressing the audience directly. Eisenberg’s introduction is so not meta that the character breaks the fourth wall and treats the action as a film, but the line between opening soliloquy and a satirical judgment of past zombie films is so carefully maintained that audiences immediately understand that this meta postmodernism inclusion is highly self-aware. Eisenberg’s character – only known as Columbus – has already become an expert is surviving the zombie epidemic and explains to the audience the almost scholarly rules Columbus neurotically adheres to in order to avoid a fatal mistake. A 2010 article published in the Science Fiction Research Association explains the importance of this ongoing list as, “Survival is, of course, one of the central motifs of the film. Columbus keeps a list of rules, many of which are simply common sense and certainly reflect audience responses to previous zombie films. The list is little more than an observation of all of the foolish behavior