Shaun of the Dead

• Genre : Comedy, Horror, Romance...
• Running time : 99 min.
• Director : Edgar Wright
  
• Studio : Studio Canal
  
• Writers : Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright
  
• Cast : Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Nicola Cunningham..
  
  
  The great British sit-com has undergone something of a revival in recent years. Galvanised by the new wave of smart, sassy imports from the US, the Brits have girded their loins and produced a spate of quality comedies that have banished memories of the bland, identikit dross of the late eighties and early nineties.
  
  One such series is Spaced, a wholly original and delightfully quirky comic bagatelle which has built up a small but dedicated following in the UK. Now writer/actor Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright have teamed up once again to give us Shaun of the Dead which is, in a nutshell, a feature-length episode of Spaced (with added zombies). Happily timed to coincide with the Hollywood remake of the 1978 classic shocker Dawn of the Dead, Shaun is the perfect antidote: Irreverent, warm and very funny.
  
  Shaun (Pegg) is your stereotypical sit-com loser: An ineffectual slob in a dead-end job, he is terminally afraid of commitment and spends all his time with his flat-mate Ed (Nick Frost, also from Spaced) who is an even bigger loser. After his girlfriend dumps him, Shaun and Ed seek solace in their local pub the Winchester - a good old-fashioned English hostelry with warm beer and pork scratchings which is infamous for its lock-ins. They stagger home in a state of advanced refreshment, unaware that the dead are now walking the earth. Indeed, it takes Shaun a little while to work it out the following morning despite interacting with a few of them (one of the recurring themes is that most of us go through the drudgery of our daily routines in a trance close to inertia).
  
  
  
  When the penny drops, Shaun resolves to rescue his mother and his (ex) girlfriend and generally stand up for himself for the first time in his life. There is not much more of a plot than that. The film, like Spaced relies on a flawless script, observational humour and the theatre of the absurd. Pegg has perfected this in his writing but he is also a surprisingly good actor. It helps that he has surrounded himself with the pick of the British comedy fraternity who seem to have been lining up (literally in one scene) for a cameo. The stars of similarly acclaimed series' such as Black Books, The Office and Little Britain are all on show here as well as Jessica Stevenson, Pegg's Spaced co-writer, who plays a jolly-hockey-sticks human vigilante with a stiff-upper lip and can-do attitude ready to give those nasty zombie's what-for.
  
  Veteran support comes from Penelope Wilton (a sit-com stalwart from a bygone age) as Shaun's curtain-twitching mother and Bill Nighy as her fearsome second husband who performs one of the most dignified and poignant descents into zombieness ever caught on camera.
  
  Despite all the high praise, it must be acknowledged that Shaun of the Dead is still a spoof - a comic tool that you could argue is as low a form of wit as sarcasm. But where it scores highly is in its respect for the original material. Most spoofs (the Scary Movie franchise, for example) are vicious lampoons that unmercifully mock the films they are taking off. Shaun of the Dead gently pokes fun but doesn't lose sight of the fact that if something is worth parodying, it must have some merit. Pegg is also careful to ensure that his film can stand up on its own - there is barely a minute goes by without a very good joke and despite the light-heartedness, there are some satisfyingly scary moments and ample gore.
  
  What is most encouraging is that us Brits have started playing to our strengths. It took a long time for comedy writers to realise that making an English version of Friends is doomed to failure (in the same way that The Office will not work with an American make-over). We should celebrate the Britishness of this film, laugh knowingly at the in gags, and be proud that it doesn't take a huge budget or movie stars to entertain people at the cinema.
  
  
  
  Shaun (Simon Pegg) is in the midst of a lousy patch--he hates and is embarrassed about his job, he gets no respect from other employees, one of his roommates is on his case about the other roommate--a slacker friend of Shaun's, his girlfriend is on his case about the fact that all the ever do is hang out at a pub, and he hates his stepfather, who is also on his case about doing something nice for his mum. As if that's not bad enough, suddenly, everyone is turning into a zombie. Shaun must both straighten out his life and fight for it at the same time.
  
  Shaun of the Dead is a superb blending of horror and comedy ala An American Werewolf in London (1981), Idle Hands (1999), Frankenhooker (1990), or the Evil Dead films (beginning with the 1981 original, although there is progressively less to more comedy in that series). It manages to successfully both pay homage to and spoof a number of classic zombie films and horror film zombie mythology in general.
  
  The film begins firmly in very British comedy/drama territory, with a number of stylistic directorial flourishes that seem like a cross between Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000) and Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996). The horror material enters gradually, beginning with a couple background gags, then entering Desolation Boulevard territory via another Boyle reference, this time to 28 Days Later (2002) (although that itself was basically a version of The Last Man on Earth (aka L'Ultimo uomo della Terra)(1964), based on Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend). This arrives in the guise of Shaun crossing over to the corner store to buy his morning soda. He doesn't notice the deserted streets or store because he's so hung over from the night before.
  
  Before long, our ragtag bunch of heroes is in the midst of a full-fledged zombie apocalypse--of the traditional, slow-moving zombie type. Acknowledging the cultural differences that strict gun laws bring about, they have to use their wits to commit the requisite head busting, enlisting unwanted LPs (after some debate over the merits of each), cricket bats, shovels and other items for the job. Of course it would be easier if any of our heroes were the slightest bit athletic and had any aim, but they get the job done. More or less.
  
  Furthering genre-fan fun, director/writer Edgar Wright and co-writer Pegg insert a lot of references to other zombie films--especially when it comes to explaining the source of the "epidemic". The "scientific" explanations given in Resident Evil (2002), 28 Days Later, all of Romero's Dead films--beginning with Night of the Living Dead (1968)--and possibly even Romero's The Crazies (1973) and then some are all mentioned in the background, but resolutely cut off before they're finished. Part of the reason might be that usually, the explanations were pretty ridiculous, and we didn't really care--we just wanted to get to the cool zombie stuff, such as limbs being torn off, guts being eaten, and brains being blown or smashed out of skulls.
  
  
  
  Wright and Pegg also insert clever nods to the subtexts of zombie films. Shaun looks and walks like a zombie when he's waking up. We see zombie like office workers, retail workers, and so on. There's also an amusing nod to filmic attempts to study and tame zombies, as well as organized militaristic defenses (both very prominent in 28 Days Later, but present in other films as well). There are interesting, more subtle and original zombie subtexts in Shaun of the Dead, also, such as the "mirrored" scene where Shaun and his crew meet up with Yvonne and her crew.
  
  As long as you like outrageous comedy, somewhat gory horror, and you don't mind mixing the two, Shaun of the Dead should provide an enjoyable ride. Although it is the most fun when you're very familiar with the source material it is spoofing and referencing, it is still a great comedy-horror film if viewed with fresher eyes, and not so much as a spoof.
  
  "Shaun of the Dead" isn't a spoof of the zombie genre. It just isn't the same sort of film as "Scary Movie" or even in a sense Pegg and Wright's later effort "Hot Fuzz". It's a darker sort of satire, not light hearted and at points it is a reasonably effective drama. Surprisingly, it's actually a bit scarier than your average modern zombie film because it takes the time to develop its characters and make you feel for them. The screenplay is actually human and smart instead of just being a loosely connected series of gore scenes. Zombie films are, and have been for over 25 years now, for the most part simply meaningless gore scenes attached to each other. Remember when Romero was out making films that genuinely horrified you? Remember how terrifying even the dated "Night of the Living Dead" still is, and how its sequel "Dawn of the Dead" was a wonderful, edgy satire with some truly horrific moments? Sadly, those movies just aren't around any more. With the exception of a couple of gems like "28 Days Later", zombie movies are now nothing more than extremely violent action films with a slightly supernatural feel.
  
  
  
  
  It's a simple movie really, Pegg's character Shaun has lost his girlfriend and realizes that his life is going the wrong way so he vows to get his girlfriend back. Unfortunately the day he does this is the day when London becomes 'populated' by the living dead, but Shaun soldiers on regardless armed with only a cricket bat, attempting to save his family and friends. The film doesn't work as well for someone who is unfamiliar with the sort of film that "Shaun" is simultaneously making fun of and paying tribute to because it is after all a fan film, jam-packed with references to other films both in the script and visuals (the zooming and quick cutting is directly taken from Raimi's latter two Evil Dead movies). It helps if the viewer is familiar with those films.
  
  At times during "Shaun of the Dead" one forgets they're watching a comedy and feels genuine horror and sadness. There are only two or three extremely violent scenes, but the sense of dread, particularly when combined with the generally fun mood of the film, is effective, and when major characters die, you actually do feel a bit sorry for them, which is a lot more than I can say about most zombie movies that have been made recently. The script doesn't focus on making fun of the zombie genre, or more specifically "Dawn of the Dead", instead opting to create both an effective satire on the zombie genre AND on our society, much like "Dawn of the Dead" did in 1978. Of course, "Shaun" is a lot funnier and much less gruesome than that film, but they are so similar in the sense that they were more about people and society than about zombies. Zombies themselves are hardly the most intriguing creatures, they're dumb and slow and really not all that menacing, they lack the creepy sophisticated cruelty of vampires or the pure cruelty of regular human villains.
  
  Edgar Wright's direction is superb, and the scene with the zombie in the pub involving Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now' is both an excellent bit of comedy and an involving piece of cinema- well-staged, well-shot, and well-acted. The last half hour of the film is less light-hearted and more serious than the rest of the film and includes some genuinely dramatic moments. It is not my intention to make "Shaun of the Dead" sound less funny than it is, but it is absolutely, unequivocally necessary to point out that this is hardly just a random spoof of the zombie genre, it does mock the genre in areas, but it is more of a loving tribute to the genre films of past than a heartless spoof of them, which makes it in a sense similar to "Young Frankenstein". "Shaun" is also a brilliant satire on society, much like the best of zombie films. Actually, "Shaun of the Dead" is truly one of the greatest zombie films ever made and an instant classic.
  
  My Rating
  
  Shaun of the Dead : 8/10