DOTD (2004) First Image Analysis

This still image is from the opening credits. It shows a scene of a mosque with lots of people kneeling down and praying. It is filmed on what looks like a video phone as if it is a news report from a Middle Eastern country. The tragedy of 9/11 was still fresh in everybody’s mind because it was filmed in 2004, so historical context plays an important role in the film and especially the opening few minutes. We see short flashes of zombies attacking and we also see the White House being ambushed with what we presume are the zombies. This is suggesting that the virus which causes the zombies to form, originated from the Middle East as this is where the bombers of 9/11 came from.

The soundtrack to accompany the opening is “Man comes around” by Johnny Cash. The tune is seemingly contrapuntal but the lyrics cleverly relate to biblical Armageddon of how the dead are rising to come and punish the sinners. "And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him." These lyrics are an example of the biblical references to the dead. The soundtrack also links to the original DOTD (1979) as its tagline is “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.” This connotes that there are too many sinners in hell so they have come back as zombies to walk the earth. It shows that the director, Zack Snyder, respects the original DOTD (1979) and wanted to include some of its core aspects in his version of it.