Poster Picks: Shaun of the Dead
Here’s another entry that’s been writing itself in my brain for a while. This is the “British Quad” poster for 2004′s Shaun of the Dead. I figured it was time to showcase the British Quad style of movie poster, and what better way than with a British movie?
So, first, a bit of poster pedantry. Here in the States, most movie posters, referred to as “one sheets,” are designed for a vertical format and are generally sized at 27 inches wide by 40 inches tall (although sometimes they can be 39 inches or 41 inches…I really don’t know why the discrepancy, but 40 is usually the norm). These are the posters that you see hanging in light boxes throughout the movie theaters. These are also generally double-sided, with a mirror image printed on the back. I’ve got several of these posters, and sometimes I like to display them with the mirror image showing rather than the proper side. I’m a little weird like that. The purpose of the double-sided printing is to give the image a bit more substance when the light from the light box shines through (makes the lit-up image look richer than if the back was just white).
Anyway, over in the UK, they prefer their movie posters in a horizontal format. Queen’s prerogative and all, you see. Actually, I’m not really sure why they like their posters in a horizontal layout, but I do like how most often the U.S. design needs to be altered, sometimes significantly, to fit the quad format, which is 40 inches wide by 30 inches tall (don’t ask me for the metric size; I’m American and my brain simply isn’t that talented).
So, Shaun of the Dead. Right from the start, fans of the zombie genre will recognize that the title is a delightful play on the title of the George Romero classic Dawn of the Dead. Already, we’re clued in to the fact that this is going to be a spoofy take on the zombie flick.
The U.S. design is all right, but there is something so delightful and so intrinsically English about the UK Quad version. We start out with the tagline, “Ever Felt Like You Were Surrounded By Zombies?” in a nice, smooth sans serif font. The entire image is composed of what I’m sure any proper Londoner will immediately recognize as the doors to an Underground train car. The black rubber of the closed doors perfectly bisects the design, and you get the two windows on each side taking up a significant portion of the design.
What I love most about the choice of the Tube setting is the double meaning it gives to the tagline’s “surrounded by zombies” statement. Anyone who takes public transportation with any frequency will understand the figurative take. Sitting or standing in a packed-to-capacity train car, not yet fully awake, surrounded by other still-groggy commuters smelling of coffee, toothpaste, and too much cologne/perfume…it’s the zombie shuffle in its truest form as we worker bee automatons drag ourselves on our programmed daily commutes. All that’s missing are the bloody body parts on the floor and random cries for “Braaaaaainnnnnssss!” (Actually, I’ve had morning commutes that came pretty close to having both…but that’s for another post.)
Here, however, the tagline takes on a more literal meaning as we see this particular train is packed with zombies…and our hero. I love how the most vivid colors on this poster are the blood-red train doors and our eponymous Shaun and his bouquet of flowers. The zombies all have properly pale zombie skin, but even the color of their clothing has been muted. Check the zombie dude in the bottom right corner; his red outfit has been dulled to a muted rust color (I feel like I should be writing “colour” in honor/honour of this movie).
Our eyes are irrefutably drawn to Shaun because of his vivid coloring—the yellow flowers, the red of his tie, the pink flush of his living skin—as well as the wonderful look on his face. Not necessarily a look of fear…more of reserved disquiet. It’s a wonderful “WTF” look if ever I saw one. I also love how Shaun is the only one on the train who isn’t looking forward. All the zombies are pretty much making eye contact with anyone looking at this poster. Shaun, however, is looking at what the rest of us are looking at…all those effing zombies.
We then follow the design down to the title of the movie, again presented in a sans serif font (I know it sounds incredibly nerdy when I point out the font type, but I’m a bit of a font geek and have in fact been accused of font snobbery, an accusation I rather happily accept). This is a nice, bold font as well, quite striking in appearance. It’s been distressed, although the red of the Tube doors makes the title look instead like it’s been splattered with blood. Also, note how the “A” in “Dead” is partially formed by a hand reaching upward in a rigor-mortised claw of classic zombie design. Sweet.
Then comes the second tagline, “A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies.” followed by the movie’s Web site, “www.romzom.com” (which is, sadly, no longer the movie site). I love how the URL has such perfect symmetry as well as plays, perhaps unintentionally, with the fact that we typically hear about “rom-coms,” those schmaltzy romantic comedies that make you feel so close to sugar coma by the end that you get a free shot of insulin as you’re leaving the theater. Here, there’s a bit of an interruption in the rom-com in the form of zom…romzomcom.
This poster gives you everything you need to know about this movie while giving you absolutely nothing. All it tells us is that there are going to be zombies. And romance. And humor. Er, humour. And a guy named Shaun. Oh, and it’s all going to be very British. But, as with previous picks for this series, this poster does its job so very brilliantly. It’s concise, it’s clever, it’s whimsical, it’s well planned and executed, and it gives the proper amount of teasing needed to draw people and make them want to know more.
So, there you go. Our very first Quad poster. Hope you enjoyed it…and if you haven’t yet seen Shaun of the Dead, whatever are you waiting for?
