Dead Set Theory

Watch and rewatch (and rewatch) your table’s assigned scene from the Dead Set. As a group, analyze the scene in terms of narrative themes and motifs, but also pay attention to the scene’s formal properties: camera angles, lighting, color palette, diegetic and nondiegetic sound, and so on.

Then, draw connections between your scene and these three readings: Pinedo’s “Postmodern Horror”, Cohen’s “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” and Bishop’s introduction to American Zombie Gothic. How does Dead Set bolster Pinedo’s, Cohen’s, or Bishop’s arguments? How does Dead Set challenge their arguments? Finally, what sort of non-obvious insights about Dead Set can you make?

Here are the scenes: