In the “why didn’t I think of that?” department comes a little British comedy about zombies, you wouldn’t think the two things would mesh well but you’d be wrong. In Shaun of the Dead we get a rip-roaring good time and still get the horror and gore of zombies at the same time. Here is my full take on Shaun of the Dead:

The Players:

Simon Pegg - Shaun
Kate Ashfield - Liz
Nick Frost - Ed
Lucy Davis - Dianne
Dylan Moran - David
Peter Serafinowicz - Pete

The Play:

Shaun is a 30+ year old man who has troubles all around him. His girlfriend Liz thinks he is immature and unable to commit to anything seriously. He is a follower, not a leader and he just seems to enjoy doing nothing with his best buddy Ed just lounging on the couch, drinking beer and playing video games. In addition, he has a troubled relationship with his mother who had remarried a man he dislikes.

Shaun is not soon about to change even though he wants to please his girlfriend, he just can’t seem to get it right. Enter zombies, yes I said zombies, however Shaun is so unaware to his surroundings that he doesn’t even realize dead people are walking around him until he actually sees one in his back yard.

When the situation gets severely intense and they need to evacuate, Shaun
completely transforms his mindset and becomes a leader who gathers up his buddies, his mom and husband and forms a plan as to how to either defeat the zombies or avoid them. This transformation is shocking to Liz and she just goes with the flow, listening to everything Shaun has to say.

Will Shaun be able to survive and save his family and friends? Is he strong, clever and dedicated enough to outsmart the zombies? Watch and see the exciting ending.

The Good:

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who happen to be best buddies in real life, are very well cast and have great interaction throughout the film, seems like each is trying to steal the show, Pegg in a clumsy more subdued humorous way and Frost in a more upfront and deviously vulgar way, they both are extremely funny.

The premise of the movie is well done and the storyline, albeit far-fetched is interesting as well, how does a man become a leader when he is a semi-loser his entire life? Pegg answers that in his performance and his sidekicks help him along the way.

The movie is very funny, it has many vulgar humor scenes and many physically amusing bits throughout, I especially like one scene where we see Shaun walk from his house to the local convenience store (in a very well shot swooping scene) and he is so out of it and clueless as to what’s going on he doesn’t realize the zombies around him and the bloody hand splatters on the frozen drink window, he even slips and nearly falls on a puddle of blood but still doesn’t realize anything is different. In another scene, Pegg and Frost go through an LP record collection to throw at zombies headed their way, and instead of just continuously throwing the records they decide which ones are worth keeping and which are expendable. Many scenes like that.

There is plenty of gore in this film, even though it’s a comedy the zombies look very real (a tribute to walking lessons and great makeup) and the blood and gore are abundant, I like the risk the filmmakers took to show such scenes that might make you cringe like a regular horror flick yet keeping the comedy around it.

There is a nice soundtrack in the film, mostly old school hip-hop with techno in the mix, including White Lines by The Sugarhill Gang, as well as classic rock songs by Queen and Morrissey.
There are nifty special features on the DVD, including a gag real that’s hilarious, composed mostly of scenes with Pegg and Frost, a cartoon discussing a few things we wondered about throughout the movie, a skit where the word f*u*c*k* in substituted with funk and it’s very amusing, funkin’ a! and a few deleted scenes, a couple of which are good enough to have made the final cut.

The Bad:

Since this is a British comedy (and not meaning to sound like a stupid American) there might be trouble for some understanding some of the dialogue and some of the British expressions, I had little trouble however as the storyline is pretty straight forward to decipher on your own.

I did feel some of the supporting cast was underused, most were not as funny as the 2 main guys but that’s a tribute to their comedic genius.

Towards the end of the movie I thought that the gore and violence took a stronghold over the film and the comedy was pretty much ditched as a whole, it was a little reminiscent of From Dusk Til Dawn, a great film that built up to non stop vampire violence and that took away from some of its brilliance, here it does so on a more subdued level but still it would have been nice to see more comedy towards the end.

Overall Grade:

3.8 of 5

Thanks for reading!

Please take the time to visit my other zombie related movie

Land of the Dead

and some of my other movie reviews from this year

10 Best Spielberg Movies
10 Best Film Sagas
A Dirty Shame
Boogeyman
Kicking and Screaming
The Longest Yard (1974)
The Shawshank Redemption
War of the Worlds
The Whole Ten Yards

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age