Review - Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Director: Edgar Wright

Made In: UK

Released: 2004

Plot: Shaun (Simon Pegg) is going nowhere in his life. His girlfriend is unsatisfied with his lack of direction, the younger employees at the electronics store where Shaun works don’t respect him.His flatmate is annoyed at him because Shaun has let a friend, Ed (Nick Frost) sleep on the couch indefinitely and although Shaun enjoys his company and friendship, Ed is a bad influence – convincing Shaun that any problem in life can be fixed by visiting the “Winchester” which is the local pub.

After Shaun’s girlfriend dumps him, he decides to rebuild his life and get her back. However, at the same time the town has been over-run with zombies. Shaun battles his way through the hordes of un-dead to save his girlfriend, mum and step-dad (who hates him). He decides to seek refuge in the Winchester because it has heavy-doors, food and pints. (I would have done the same thing). However, the zombies eventually break in and only Shaun and his girlfriend escape, only to have the national guard sweep in and rescue any survivors.

Review: This is a hugely funny and clever movie made by some very funny british comedians with countless references to classic zombie movies, especially Romero’s “Dead” trilogy. The interaction between the two main characters, Shaun and Ed, is brilliant and probably developed over a long time as these two guys (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) have worked together on many other TV shows, including “Spaced” and “Big Train” They act like normal guys, and enjoy doing everything together - drinking beer, playing the playstation and listening to crappy 80s music. The comedy comes from the fact that Shaun has elected himself leader of the group, but has absolutely no idea what he is doing. This is shown in a few scenes, like when they come across the first zombie in their back-yard, and thinking it was just a drunk girl, begin hurling insults, and eventually crockery at her to scare her away. There is another scene where Shaun gets hold of a gun and furiously unloads at a group of zombies without actually hitting any of them. It doesn’t exactly go well for the group in the end, mainly because everyone is killed/zombified except Shaun and his girlfriend. The end is interesting, because it skips to 6 months later when some level of normality has been re-introduced into British society and the remaining zombies have been put to work as a form of cheap labour. Shaun keeps his friend Ed, who has become a zombie, in his back shed and joins him regularly to play video games. Brilliant!

Overall Rating: 3.5/5