Conventions: Characters

Conventions: Characters

I am going to talk about the various characters that are inside different zombie horror movies. I am going to evaluate their personalities and I am going to introduce how they could be interpreted and introduced into our production in which we’re going to create.

Shane Walsh - The Walking Dead

This character was introduced at the start when he was looking after the main character’s wife. This man has some emotional problems as he cannot stand the defeat that he cannot have things the way he wants, he has outbreaks of anger and he also goes crazy and tries to kill his best friend. Obviously this character has shame inside him for what has happened and he cannot deal with the outbreak, as it gets too much for him. This character is found to have jealous traits and this overruns his mind, as he doesn’t care for anyone but his trophy child and girl. With small problems being raised, Shane only makes it bigger with his anger, thus he doesn’t have a cool head about anything and in the end of the season he gets eliminated from the group.

Tammy - 28 Weeks Later

s character is introduced properly into the production when she sees her father from surviving the outbreak of the epidemic. She seems to be The Final Girl and it categorised as the person who survives through all the odds that she’s got. People also like to think of this person to be vulnerable, as she has lost all of her parents through the outbreak, making the audience feel more sympathy towards her for going through so much in such a short amount of time. She is also somebody who they need to keep alive as they have the cure to the RAGE virus that takes place inside the film, as she is immune to it.

Jim - 28 Days Later

This character came into the story oblivious to what has happened to the environment around him. He is clueless and his mind is creating questions that aren’t answered. He finds help and he is the dumb one in the new world that has been approached. This is important to consider someone inside the act that is blind to the new world as this creates a slack to the team/group. I feel this character is vulnerable and with his parents over-dosing, makes him think about what his future objectives are. He also gets to grasps with killing people quickly and to do whatever it takes for him to survive, which is not the easiest for some characters in some movies. 

Dr. Robert Neville - I am Legend

This character is made out to be the lonely one. He speaks to manikins to try and keep his social level as high as possible, he is bored, he is trying to find a cure to the disease as he is a scientist. His entire family died and his dog is the only part of the family he has left. This makes the audience feel sympathy for him as he is interpreted to speak to himself, further increasing the confidence in the fact he is alone. This also goes for the zombie horror convention, showing how derelict the place actually is. He creates his own life orientated around fitness, searching the city and looking for survival by being out at a certain time whilst broadcasting a response. He does eventually loose his dog which makes him break-down, which takes his life onto his fragile stage of either he should live or not. I feel this character is very vulnerable and lonely and the relationship he has with his dog is rather like a relationship with a son/daughter. 

Those characters I have researched into above are the types of characters that should be invoked into our production as they all have different aspects to them, from being mischievous to being lonely and fragile. This is a good way to cover all different character traits through researching different characters from different films.