Welcome to Zombieland

While flipping through channels on Halloween with the goal of finding a not-too-scary yet festive movie, the movie Zombieland fit the bill. Although I have seen Zombieland before, it has been quite awhile, and it honestly was just as pleasurable now especially in the context of Halloween. The movie has heart, gore, and obviously, zombie-slaying. One thing I love is how this movie not only shows the aftermath of the apocalypse, but also gives insight into where the characters were before it all went down.

Zombieland is a movie about four characters who are trying to survive when everything has fallen apart due to unexplainable circumstances; these circumstances being the zombie apocalypse. The characters are not referred or introduced to each other by their names, but by the city where they are from. Each character has some sort of mission— computer-nerd Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is trying to reach his hometown to see if his family is still alive, con-artist sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are heading to an amusement park titled “Pacific Playground,” which younger sister Little Rock reminisces about from her childhood, and Tallahassee’s (Woody Harrelson) main two goals are to kill zombies to forget his pain and find a Twinkie. The characters’ lives become entangled as they seek to accomplish their goals.

What I love is how the story is not entirely about zombies. Yes, there is always that overarching theme, but the plot becomes about the interactions and feelings between the characters. The contrasting ideas of “banding together given the circumstances” and “trust no one” are both very present, which reveals more about human nature than zombies. I really felt that I was able to put myself into these characters’ shoes, even though I could not possible understand what it feels like to try and survive flesh-eating creatures.

The interesting thing about Zombieland is that the zombies are used as more of a comedic effect. The zombies are depicted as stupid and brain-dead, which makes every action they do funny. The make-up is very over the top and gory, which makes them seem ridiculous. Tallahassee especially has no fear of the zombies, and in every fight against them he is visibly happy. This is an issue that is used in many horror movies, video games, and books as a scary effect, but these zombies are used more for funny one-liners by various characters and ridiculous fight scenes. I thought this was an interesting take because the zombies are always a threat in the background, but the real drama seems to come out when characters reminisce about their lives pre-apocalypse and come to the realization life is never going back to the way it was before.

This movie really shows how you can make the best of even the worst possible situation. It is a very human movie in the respect that the characters realize all they have is each other. It gave me hope that maybe in the event of a national crisis, people could band together and have human connections as we do now. And although the setting of the movie is a zombie apocalypse, it is more the story of how four characters survive with the help of each other. If you are looking for a crude, funny, action-filled, ironic movie, Zombieland is the movie for you. You may even want to watch it just for the rules of how to survive the zombie apocalypse that pop up throughout the movie. You know, just in case.

A scene from Zombieland
Left to Right: Wichita, Tallahassee, Columbus, and Little Rock
Photo credits