[Retro Review]: SHAUN OF THE DEAD
First published in April 2004 on Filmrot, I’m bringing over a lot of my back catalogue just because of a couple of praiseworthy e-mails I’ve had regarding some of the older reviews I’ve made public here on StalePopcorn. This is going to be made available on the ‘Main Page’ for twenty-four hours and then it’ll be archived in our Reviews Archive found at the bottom left of the page. Hope you enjoy the ‘flash-back’. 
We say this is a website for film fans written by film fans. So you could say that if we were to shunt off and make a movie, a StalePopcorn Production if you will, and the chosen genre turned out to be horror than the results of said endeavour would be very, very similar to Shaun of the Dead. In fact, if Annie Wilkes were to stop liking the novels of Paul Sheldon and suddenly take a fancy to the movies of George Romero, THEN go off and make a homage then Shaun of the Dead would be the result. You get the point; this movie is loving, reverence to the old 70s and early 80s staggering, mouldy zombie crisis films that Hollywood is trying to “replace” in our consciousness with these screaming, sprinting ‘new style’ zombies on show in the Dawn of the Dead remake (2004 is, effectively, the year of the zombie and its certainly turning out to be more entertaining then last years year of the Matrix) and 28 Days Later.
Marketed within an inch of its life and over-selling its rather quaint and original tag line until it just isn’t quaint or original anymore, Shaun of the Dead is a ‘rom-zom-com’ – a romantic, zombie comedy! And whilst it stutters in the first, proves decidedly unscary in the second, with the third it proves itself to be extremely bloody (pardon the pun) funny. How it plays over in the US is questionable seeing as some of the best jokes in the film are of very much a British sensibility, but let’s forget that. Do the Yanks worry about how well Cabin Fever is going to play in Manchester? Nah, it’s time to get patriotic here – after the likes of Sex Lives of the Potato Men, it’s good to know that Britain can still do funny films.
The film is essentially a feature length stretch of the cult Channel 4 TV show Spaced. In one of those episodes Simon Pegg’s character drifted off into a daydream where he entered a Resident Evil style situation in everyday life and went about butchering the living dead. It was a fast, funny, five-minute spoof of the great George Romero zombies. Now, Pegg and Spaced writer/director Edgar Wright have take that five minute scene from the show and developed it into Shaun of the Dead:
Shaun (played by Pegg) is stuck in the rut that a life can so easily fall into. He works a dead-end job as an assistant to the assistant manager at a down market, high street electrical store and only gets any authority when the superiors are off sick – and even then its because he’s the oldest member of staff amongst a bunch of school leavers. He lives in a student-esque flat with his university friend who is moving onwards and upwards in the world and his best friend from primary school, the slobbish idiot Ed (Nick Frost – who steals the film basically), who came to stay many years ago for a couple of nights on the sofa and hasn’t left since. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is getting bored with Shaun and their regular nights of going down to the dump that is the local pub. Basically things aren’t looking good for Shaun in his life.
Then one day Liz dumps him and his brain-numbingly trite life is shattered not by the break-up but by the breakout of the dead rising up and walking the streets of London. After the zombie attack initially passes him by – after all how can you spot the walking dead when they look no different from everyday London folk commuting to their jobs – Shaun decides to rise up and prove himself by rescuing Liz, and unfortunately her two stuck up, interfering best friends (played by TV’s Black Books lead Dylan Moran and Dawn from The Office, Lucy Davis), and his mum from the clutches of his step dad (the wonderful but criminally under used Bill Nighy) who has been bitten and infected with the plague. After collecting all his loved ones – and some hangers on – and hiding out in his local pub, Shaun finds himself at the forefront of a siege as the zombies try to get in and he, and his friends, tries to keep them out.
The romance element of Shaun of the Dead is very realistically written and the chemistry between Pegg and Ashfield is good. But in order for us to really give a stuff about their characters and their romantic entanglement we need a bit more – one scene in with the characters and we’re into the break up of their relationship and then expected to care about Shaun’s plight to cross London and save her. Maybe I’m focussing on the wrong thing though. After all, it is a zombie film. However, when the film markets itself as the FIRST romantic zombie comedy of its kind, I feel as if this review can only be effective if all such areas are addressed.
Publicly Pegg and Wright have stated that with Shaun of the Dead they were very much intending to achieve the same tonal elements of the likes of American Werewolf in London. In this area it is unfortunate that they have failed – whilst American Werewolf had some generally scary moments mixed in amongst its jet black comedy, Shaun does not. In amongst the hyprid of the romance, the comedy and the horror it is always the comedy that is at the forefront. There are no scary moments in this film. Don’t get me wrong, this does not make it a bad film – far from it – but if this were to be categorised down at the local Blockbuster Video store then it would be going in the Comedy Section long before it was even considered for the Horror Section.
The scene where Shaun encounters a zombie for the first time – well at least when he first NOTICES one - should, if it is going for the horror angle, be going for a genuine scare. Instead, Shaun and Ed mistake said zombie for a pissed-up drunk student resulting in the punch line whereby the zombie attacks Shaun and knocks him to the ground and Ed rushes off to get a camera to take a picture of Shaun with the “drunk” lady. Even the following scene in which Sean and Ed crash down in front of the telly and finally discover the true extent of the crisis is concluded with a hilarious scene where – having been informed by the newscaster that the heads need to be removed from the bodies - they go outside and throw hard things at the zombie’s head. Ed decides to throw old vinyl albums at them and a discussion breaks out over which of Shaun’s collectable records can be thrown and which are too valuable… all as the zombies stagger slowly towards them. Basically, the horror element doesn’t work that well because whenever the opportunity arises for a genuine scare a great big gag is substituted in its place. Hell, even the siege-like finale is far funnier than it is scary when Shaun and company beat the zombie-landlord with snooker cues to the tune and beat of Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now”;.
Shaun of the Dead is so effective in it’s gag a minute ratio that scenes that are meant to be touching and dramatic – of which there are three; Shaun’s conversations with Liz, Shaun’s heart to heart with his stepdad and Shaun’s poignant moment with his mother - don’t work because you’re either still recovering from the last big laugh or preparing yourself for the next.
As a homage to the old Romero zombie films then this is spot on. It’s a film fans wet dream full of subtle and not so subtle references and great performances. The cameo appearances won’t work as well in the US, seeing as they are all of cult UK TV comedians (League of Gentleman’s Reece Shearsmith, Little Britain’s Matt Lucas, The Office’s Martin Freeman, Spaced star Jessica Stephenson and Black Book’s Tamsin Greig all flash by in one brilliant blink and you’ll miss it moment!) and some of the jokes are based off very British lifestyle sensibilities. However, the main comedy frame of the film is so universal and so brilliantly observed that it could play anywhere. Anyone who has worked in a dead end job and followed a fruitless daily routine in life can empathise and recognise the comedic swipes that this film performs. In fact the best bit of the whole film is how brilliantly well observed the initial break out is when Shaun goes about his normal routine, encountering the same people (now zombies) and does not nor cannot tell the difference between normal life and life now that the dead have risen from their graves. Even when he goes to take the same can of soft drink that he takes from the same fridge in the same corner shop every day, he not only does not notice the bloody handprints on the glass of the fridge door but he nigh on slips on a big pool of blood but just canters on, unaware and uncaring.
Shaun of the Dead is one of the funniest films of the year and definitely one of the funniest films that Britain has produced since… oh… well… lets got as far back as Withnail & I. As an out and out comedy pastiche it is one of the best I have seen in a long time. It might fail in the horror areas or as a romance, but something tells me that whilst its making Brits roll in the aisles with laughter in the way that it is (at the screening I went to there was a continual air of laughter running throughout… even in the ‘touching’ moments!) Wright and Pegg aren’t going to lose too much sleep over that. In fact its questionable whether, despite what the director and star say about wanting to make a film with an even measure of horror/romance/comedy, they set out to achieve that at all. The comedic element is so strong that it drowns out all other areas.
If you like zombie films then you have got to see this film – it is as if someone has just gone out and made a movie about what it would be like if the zombie crisis happened to me, you or any other average Joe. It’s well performed, well observed, utterly hilarious and well undeserved of lying in second place to Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. It is every single British persons civic duty to – if they have not seen it already – switch off their computer (make sure you shut it down properly as I wouldn’t want to be responsible for any damage caused) and go and see this film immediately.
Popcorn Ratings ExplainedRelated Posts:
- [Retro Review]: LAND OF THE DEAD
- DIARY OF THE DEAD Sequel?
- The Wayans Brothers Are Back! The Art Of Comedy Is Officially Registered As Dead! Coincidence?
- [BLU-RAY Review] DIARY OF THE DEAD
- [DVD Review (R2)] DEAD SET
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