Trailer Analysis:Zombeavers

Zombeavers is a horror comedy surround a group of young friends. it was released in 2014. Some of the cast have starred in a mixture of horror movies and comedies. The director is not known for horror movie but has some work in comedy directing.

Zombeavers is a genre hybrid as it is a horror comedy. To highlight this in the trailer it follows conventions of a horror movie but adds a comedic twist.  The major convention that the trailer conforms to is the secluded location.  The trailer also includes dim lighting and some shaky handheld shots to add a layer of tension but notify the audience that this is a horror movie.  However it also plays a twist such as most gore/zombie movies will show kill scenes and gore, in the zombeavers trailer when one of the males gets his foot bitten off the special effects are low quality and the gore is humorous implying a humour element to the movie.  One of the titles shown says ‘from the producers of the ring and we’re the millers’, We’re the millers is a well-known comedy and some of the dialog is humorous and very similar to that rude sense of humour and over the top swearing.  A convention of both comedy and horror is teenagers who are over the top and seen as rather immoral. The way the movie is introduced in the trailer is as a teen movie, young females parting and in bikinis until a threat is introduced by a gun shot and birds flying away, from here the movie takes a darker tone suggesting it is a horror movie.  The movie follows the most common zombie convention of once the person is bitten they turn into a zombie however the trailer makes a twist on this for a humorous effect of making them turn into zombie beavers.

The trailer reveals the story line as 6 teens go to a secluded house and party however a threat is introduced, beavers. The beavers start attacking and it is revealed that they are zombie beavers. The group try to escape however things go wrong for all of them. At the end of the trailer it is revealed that once bitten the character turns into a zombie beaver. The trailer introduces a beginning and middle, enticing the audience to watch the film to discover how the group deals with the threat and what happens to all the character as in the trailer we can see that some character where bitten, the audience is left to question who survives.

The trailer doesn’t conform to the propp’s theory as there is no obvious protagonist and the trailer focuses on the group. Although the theory can be linked to male gaze, there are plenty of shots of the girls in limited clothing and bikinis as well as a mid-shot of one of the girls walking past the camera, not showing her face and focusing on her bottom, suggesting to the audience they should be focusing on the sexuality of the girls.

The two main character types being represented in the trailer are teens and females.   There are wide shots of the girls swimming and playing in the lake  showing them in bikinis and one girls is topless, connoting the idea that these girls are provocative and flirty, suggesting the idea that all young people are ‘wild’ and focus on their sexuality. The teens were see being loud, shouting in the lake and very unserious as they keep telling jokes, representing the teens as party animals and loud, which adults would disapprove. The teens are also seen as as rude due to the constant unnecessary swearing, further adding to the idea that young people are immoral so good targets for a horror movie as they have traits that most disapprove of. Teens/young people are also used because they are seen as relatable, to people currently that age, to those who are older and cast back to when that was them and also those who are young who almost look up to them.