The era of zombie entertainment has been quite popular. There have been many TV shows, comedies, and many movies in terms of zombies. Dawn of the Dead (1978) created the following for this era. The movie Shaun of the Dead (2004) is about a zombie apocalypse in London. This comedy responds to the 1970s era because its structure makes fun of Dawn of the Dead. With Shaun of the Dead, there is use of zombies being able to run and have coordination. In contrast, the zombies in Dawn of the Dead added to the era’s horror. Dawn of the Dead is more effective of a story than Shaun of the Dead because of its setting and social message.

The setting of Dawn of the Dead is in a shopping mall where survivors are sheltering themselves. The mall has some zombies scattered in a variety of different places of the mall, but it is only in the commons. This setting proves a suspenseful purpose because it leaves viewers to be curious of how long their shelter may last. The survivors keep shelter in the storage spaces of the mall because the zombies have no idea that the survivors are there. The mall is also proven beneficial because when supplies are needed, the survivors can get their hands on what is necessary. When they do this, their lives can be on the line, but they create a structure for distraction towards the zombies. They do this so they can get what they need without getting infected or killed. What adds to the suspense is that eventually somebody will end up getting infected because the population of zombies increases day by day.

Shaun of the Dead, however, the setting made no sense which viewers know that this was not a serious zombie movie. The film took place in London, geared on two friends who are lazy and drink consistently. All of a sudden, they stumble upon a zombie apocalypse with no idea how to survive. Therefore, they do ridiculous things for survival. The weapons they use are not really useful and their priorities are way off with safety being the last priority. In Dawn of the Dead, their shelter was a lot more secure. On the other hand, the shelter in Shaun of the Dead was quirky and not useful. They stay in a small pub to wade out the apocalypse and they board up the windows. Given that Shaun of the Dead was intended to be a comedy, there is no suspense for the viewers.

Both these films have a social message that grabs the attention of its viewers. However, both the messages are opposite from each other. The message from Dawn of the Dead is that surveil is the number one priority. This message is portrayed by the survivors as the film contains numerous moments of dramatic conversations on how to survive. A scene that describes this is when the survivors are trying to come to an agreement to who will go gather supplies from the mall. The reason why no one can come to an agreement at first is because of how the mall is swarming with zombies. Therefore, a fatality can happen instantly. The message from Shaun of the Dead is that safety is the last priority. Viewers realize this instantly as the movie already opens to be quirky. The main character walks to his usual convenient store to grab his caffeinated beverage. As he strolls to the store hung over, he does not even realize that the people around him are zombies. He realizes this like ten minutes later into the movie. With complete honesty, the characters do not even consider smart strategies for survival. They use useless weapons, want drinking to be a priority, and instead of finding safety, they want drinking to be involved.

Both movies have meaning to their social messages. What these social messages means to the audience are that Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead is to hold viewers on the edge of their seats with suspense on different terms. Dawn of the Dead is intended to leave viewers to be scared and nervous of what is going into the climax of the movie since there is tons of fatalities, no places to hide, and victims getting infected. In this era, fans felt that zombie films should be taken seriously since the film does not have anything funny. However, Shaun of the Dead is set to make viewers laugh as they watch the movie. The film may seem somewhat creepy, but it is not a horror film. Shaun of the Dead is a quirky comedy. Since each moment of anything suspenseful in Shaun of the Dead is fake and comical, this shows that the era of zombie flicks is not taken seriously anymore.

Overall, the era of zombie flicks has been going back and forth. The goal of zombie entertainment is not just to leave viewers scared. Instead, the gruesome violence in Shaun of the Dead is used to make quirky and laughable. This is a continuing factor in this era of entertainment. I believe this is an element that will be continued since the laughing moments of zombies leaves a fan base for viewers.

Paranoia has the ability to play with an audience. A quote from the movie Blue Collar (1978) defines paranoia, “All you got’s a buncha shit.” There are moments of suspense in films that set the tone for a thrill ride. This is because paranoia allows viewers to reflect on similar situations (from movies) in their own lives. There are different types of paranoia in the following three movies I have chosen. They are financial paranoia from Blue Collar, media paranoia from The Parallax View (1974), and society paranoia from The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). All of these films have a variety of elements that immerse viewers into a cinematic experience that is haunting due to paranoia, yet enticing.

The financial paranoia in Blue Collar is thought provoking.   It features three men in a union who are concerned about their income to support their families. Also, they believe they are not receiving the benefits of working in the union. The viewers see the paranoia in the main characters. They are Smokey (played by Yaphet Kotto), Zeke (played by Richard Pryor), and Jerry (played by Harvey Keitel). These three men come together to work out a plan of stealing money from the union. The issue is that their judgment can impact them in the long run. As the camera does numerous close-ups of these characters’ facial expressions and frustrations (these happen in the moments of intense conversation), viewers will realize that the paranoia is not going to calm down. Based on the decisions these characters want to make, the film shifts to become even darker in terms of paranoia.

Paranoia is like a landscape in these movies that provides a background that often worsens during the film. These films do well with this concept because all of them contain a conspiracy or a major event that causes many unanswered questions and aggravation. Blue Collar had many of those elements, and the next two films that will be elaborated upon will have them as well. As the main character in The Parallax View goes deep into a story regarding a senator’s assassination, paranoia of Joseph Frady (played by Warren Beatty who is the main character) becomes extremely complex.

For Frady, his life is on the line as the media and people believe what he is writing is a lie. This causes a huge conspiracy that ends up in negative headlines and puts tons of stress on Frady. His paranoia leads to reacting violently at moments. As he falls into an uncomfortable and unexpected fight with a sheriff, viewers sense Frady’s distressed paranoia as he asks the sheriff, “You wouldn’t be offended if I call the police, would you?” He asks that question because he is in a state where he feels no one can be trusted. Given Frady is putting himself in trouble with the media, he cannot be trusted either. Therefore, the authorities and Frady are even on bad terms. As the movie has silent moments, and drifts along with Frady’s agony of the media’s representation, the film illustrates real-life paranoia in real-life situations. The Director does this quite well to an extent where the serious matters are just purely engaging for the audience.

After exploring the first two types of paranoia, I feel there is a sense of art to paranoia in movies. As I watched both Blue Collar and The Parallax View, I realized the issues that the characters have upon them are real-life problems that people challenge everyday. The positive aspect of that (in terms of entertainment) is that it creates tension that may make viewers feel nervous as they watch the movies. When that happens, the situations become worse, and viewers feel they are taken into the world of paranoia as part of these cinematic sensations. As the lighting darkens frequently in these films, that is the sign that there is climax arising. The climax comes slowly but surely.

Finally, there is The Friends of Eddie Coyle: a suspenseful mafia movie with very little, but intense violence. The main character is Eddie Coyle (played by Robert Mitchum), a man who is under lots of stress. He has a feeling he is going to have to do some time behind bars because of his involvement with the mafia. To hopefully prevent his sentence, he decides to rat out the other criminals he worked with. This judgment for Coyle leaves him with society paranoia, because he is extremely stressed and has times where he drinks to relieve his stress. As the camera glances on him at a bar drinking, his face is faded with distress. This creates a dramatic tone for viewers and the film since there is lots of drama involved and Coyle’s life is on the line.

Paranoia in cinema is an art. Blue Collar, The Parallax View, and The Friends of Eddie Coyle all focus on scenarios that are serious and realistic. The different types of paranoia are shown in different ways, but they all compare in how they affect the main characters of these three films. As their paranoia gets out of hand, viewers will be embraced into the journey through cinema of the negative impact of paranoia.

The Parallax View is confusing, yet enticing. The plot is easy to understand, but the film’s subject matter is hard to keep up with. Viewers are introduced to Joseph Brady (played by Warren Beatty). Brady is an ambitious journalist that decides to investigate a senator’s assassination. This decision however, leads to complicated scenarios of conspiracies which involve multinational corporations behind every event in the world headlines. What is interesting though, is that the film somewhat relates to Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Captain America: Winter Soldier is a Marvel movie that involves battles of Liberty with historic events, but done from a fictional approach. The Parallax View focuses on terms of battling for Liberty as well, but in real-life situations. How both these movies compare is the start of the conflict. Both start off with an assassination of a major superior. Captain America: Winter Soldier is set off with fictional action, and The Parallax View is set off with real-life situations.

The paranoid feel of Captain America: Winter Soldier is like a war movie, but the sense of paranoia with the concepts of superheroes added. The main character Captain America (Chris Evans) has some horrid memories of being in the war. The sense of filming plays into this as his flashbacks are faded in white and gray. With the paranoia side of The Parallax View, it is more of the main character giving into his emotions and making disaster choices as a result of his actions. Evans has many war traumas, and Beatty has many people and lots of press trying to grab his attention, but not for anything positive. The filmmakers choose to use the same paranoid approach in 2014 to grab viewer’s attention so there can be excitement.

The similarities with the plots of both movies are conspiracies that turn into disasters. When this happens, situations do not calm down. There is rising action. The conspiracy in Captain America: Winter Soldier is that the main character is trying to adjust to the present time period. He is primarily from the generation of World War I. Now with conflicts from the past coming into the present, the conspiracy is that the main character struggles to figure out what to fix. That becomes a disaster because the enemy from his time period somehow made his way into the present as well, and now he has a puzzle to put together to try and salvage the conflict. In The Parallax View, an assassination takes place and the journalist becomes hooked on the issue. This makes him read much into the situation, which potentially puts his life on the line. This becomes a disaster because people believe that what he is writing is not the truth. This makes many people despise him, and want to potentially harm him. The rising action is similarly constructed in both films.