Shaun of the Dead
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Recent years have seen a revival in one of the staples of the B-movie genre – the Zombie movie. Films like 28 Days Later, Resident Evil and the Dawn Of The Dead remake have all proved commercially successful (even if they were rarely critically acclaimed). It would therefore be easy to assume that a comedy film about zombies titled ‘Shaun of the Dead’ would be a unimaginative spoof along the lines of the ‘Scary Movie’ series. Fortunately, Shaun of the Dead is much better than that. While it is a comedy, and it does reference scenes from classic zombie movies, it is more of a character-based comedy than a silly slapstick spoof. This is unsurprising when you consider that the film was made by the people behind police comedy “Hot Fuzz” and the excellent British sitcom ‘Spaced’, a show that builds a highly entertaining comedy show with good characterisation around plots that are heavily based on pop-culture or cult references such as “The Matrix” or “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
The titular Shaun (played by co-writer Simon Pegg) is a late twenty-something man in a dead end job who is on the verge of breaking up with his beloved girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield). Liz is exasperated by Shaun’s immaturity and lack of ambition and his seeming conviction that the best possible night out involves going down his dingy local pub The Winchester with his even more immature best friend Ed (Nick Frost). It is a measure of how badly things are going for Shaun that when the Dead start roaming the Earth, he doesn’t even notice at first. There is a nicely satirical comment on modern lifestyles – if all the daily commuters were turned into mindless zombies, would anyone really notice the difference?
Fortunately, the imminent danger of zombiefication manages to bring out some hitherto unsuspected talents in Shaun as he is driven into action by his compulsion to save Liz and his Mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton). Having collected them, they must find refuge into the only safe place he can think of – his favourite pub, The Winchester.
At its best Shaun Of The Dead is very funny, with a mixture of humorous dialogue, clever film references and the occasional burst of surrealism that will be familiar to anyone who has ever watched an episode of “Spaced”. As well as being a comedy, it also works perfectly well as a Zombie movie, in fact often better than many of the Zombie movies it is referencing. The characterisation is better than the drab stereotypes that populate most Zombie movies, although it could still be better. Compared to Spaced the characters (with the possible exception of Shaun himself) seem to lack depth. They are portrayed well enough that it is easy to care about their ultimate fate, but many of them (Dylan Moran’s character, for example) seem defined by only a handful of character traits. Despite this, there are some well-done character moments, particularly Shaun’s touching concern for his Mum’s well-being in the face of the zombie invasion and his last-minute reconciliation with his recently-bitten-by-a-zombie Stepfather (Bill Nighy).
It falls behind Spaced in other ways as well, while it is funny, it isn’t quite as consistently funny as Spaced was at its best (despite some extremely funny individual scenes), and there is always the nagging suspicious that Pegg and director Edgar Wright are capable of doing a bit better. On the bright side, the action has an authentic B-movie feel to it, the acting is generally high quality, the direction is good and there is an excellent soundtrack – including some clever use of songs that mesh well with the action on screen.
Despite the fact that it could have been better, the film is still great fun. It some ways this is a Zombie-movie equivalent of Sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest, a spoof genre film that is funny and ably satirises the conventions of the genre while simultaneously being a better example of the genre than many of the films it is parodying.
Rating : 8 / 10
DVD Review (Region 2)
The DVD has a good collection of special features, including deleted scenes, out-takes and several varied short documentaries (including one analysing the plot holes in the movie). There are also 4 audio commentaries.
DVD Rating : 7 / 10
All content ©2007 William Marnoch.
Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .