Unmasking the Chaos: The Untold Secrets Behind “Zombieland”’s Most Iconic Scene
Tone is everything when you open a script—especially when your film refuses to sit quietly in one genre’s corner. Take Zombieland (2009), for example: it’s not just a flick about zombies gnawing on brains; it’s a wild rollercoaster that wedgies horror and comedy into one messy, delightful package. The screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick don’t just tease you with the mashup—they dive headfirst into it from page one, making sure you know the landscape you’re about to tread is filled with both screams and guffaws.
But how do you send a double-coded message that’s equal parts spine-chilling and hilarious without tripping over your own mojo? Is it the sound of a cameraman screeching in terror or the absurdity of a zombie belching and misting up the lens that nails it? Their opening pages accomplish an astonishing feat—they set a post-apocalyptic United States, drop the zombie bombshell, showcase the horror, and wink at the comedy, all before you’ve even settled in.
In just a handful of paragraphs, you get a masterclass in establishing a cross-genre mood that doesn’t confuse but hooks the viewer instantly. So—how do you get your script to wear two very different hats at once and look damn good doing it? Here’s a close look at how Zombieland pulls it off.
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.
