Scene Description Spotlight: “Zombieland”

One of the most important things a writer wants to do when they begin a script is establish the story’s tone — and this is nowhere more important than with a cross-genre movie. A great example is Zombieland (2009).

Written by screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the movie crosses two genres: horror and comedy. The screenwriters let the reader know straightaway their screenplay has heaping gobs of both.

Okay, so with the zombie attacking and killing the cameraman, the script pretty much gets across the horror theme of the movie. But what about the comedy?

• “This Land Is Your Land” and the upended Presidential limousine — a funny contrast.
• “The CAMERAMAN SCREAMS and SCREAMS and SCREAMS, accompanied by ripping, cracking, CRUNCHING” — the redundancy of the “screams” and the visceral sounds of the zombie assault, one we can only imagine, not see.
• “Then he gacks and falls SILENT” — use of the word gacks.
• “We hear munching” — that’s just funny.
• The zombie belches which fogs the camera lens — zombie belch and a humorous visual touch by the writers re fogging the camera lens.

With their opening, the writers have (A) established the post-apocalyptic nature of things in the United States, (B) introduced the presence of zombies, © conveyed that this is a horror story, and (D) gotten across that it is also a comedy.

Not bad for 1 1/2-pages

A good lesson in using scene description to establish the tone upfront of a cross-genre script.

Here is a trailer from the movie where you see how they marketed both the movie’s horror and comedy:

For dozens more articles in my Scene Description Spotlight series, go here.