Shaun of the Dead (2004)


I was unfamiliar with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost before seeing Shaun of the Dead.  I don't recall Spaced being shown on BBC America, so I had no point of reference when it came to in-jokes or cast members that they put in the movie.  I just knew it was going to be about a couple of average joes taking care of zombies.  That was enough for me because the media still hadn't been saturated with zombie films and comedies in 2004.  Also, it looked like a direct tribute to George A. Romero.

What I didn't expect is that there would be an entire story at the core about a guy facing the fact he has to grow up as well as mend his personal relationships.  This kind of material can go wrong in so many ways; my main problem with Star Trek: Discovery is awkward conversations about relationships and feelings at times when people should be more worried about being vaporized.  Somehow Pegg and Wright got the balance right in their screenplay, which elevates a film that would have still been lots of fun with just the idea of the two friends surviving a zombified London. 

Shaun (Pegg) is a clerk at an electronics store.  He lives with his unemployed, part-time drug dealer best friend Ed (Frost) and an uptight flatmate named Pete (Peter Serafinowicz).  His relationship with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is failing because he tends to spend more time with Ed at their favorite pub, the Winchester, rather than with her.  After another failed date she dumps him, prompting a night of partying between him and Ed.

What Shaun hasn't noticed is that society is rapidly falling apart as something has caused the recently deceased to come back to life and start attacking people.  He and Ed become aware of this when they find a zombie in their garden named Mary (Nicola Cunningham).  After a call from his mother (Penelope Wilton) saying his stepfather Phillip (Bill Nighy) has been bitten, Shaun decides to take Pete's car and rescue her, pick up Liz and barricade themselves in the Winchester until things blow over.  Things don't go as planned, as Liz's friends Dianne (Lucy Davis) and David (Dylan Moran) tag along, and soon the group is forced to find their way through a London quickly growing in walking dead. 

Taking advantage of the fact that Night of the Living Dead and its sequels never give an exact date that the zombies begin to rise, Shaun of the Dead is hinted to take place on the same day as everything that is happening in that film.  Many of the broadcasts use the same lines and the exact cause is never revealed.  The endings are quite different, this being a comedy and all, but the original showed society at least somewhat coming back to normal, although this was before Romero even had plans for a sequel.  The zombies are the same, with some rudimentary knowledge of tool use and memory of their lives, so it is like looking at the Night of the Living Dead through a different lens. 

What is quite different are the romantic comedy elements and some straight-up heartbreaking scenes when certain characters die.  Instead of just being tools of the plot one begins to care for everyone involved and root for their survival.  Wright also keeps who lives and who dies unpredictable, and even some of the most annoying characters have more than one dimension.  There is a human factor to Shaun of the Dead that is missing in most zombie films. 

Although a lot of what is in the background, from CRT televisions to old video game consoles, dates the movie a bit, it still provides the same enjoyment as it did 20 years ago.  The only unfortunate thing is that, in the wake of its success, there were so many attempts to make zombie comedies that it helped overload the market and cause a disinterest that still exists today.  It is refreshing to revisit something that, at the time, was a celebration of movies that were enjoyed by fans rather than jumping on a trend. 

Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Time: 99 minutes
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield
Director: Edgar Wright

 

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