Review
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Starring Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield and Nick Frost
Co-written and directed by Edgar Wright
Opens Friday, September 24
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Most horror-movie junkies will tell you that, if you look closely enough at the plot of your average gore-encrusted chiller, there is usually some social commentary to be found. The zombie-movie genre is exceptionally good at that. Whether it’s a condemnation of human nature in general (28 Days Later) or the dig at the mindless consumption of material goods (Dawn of the Dead), between the shuffling, brain-munching zombies and their heavily armed victims there is usually a lesson to be learned. In Shaun of the Dead, writer-director Edgar Wright posits that the bulk of the working class are already zombies – they just don’t know it yet.
Don’t worry. This movie doesn’t really have that much to say. Most of the film’s commentary is buried in laughs and relegated to the first and last 10 minutes of the film (keep an eye out for a brilliant cameo by the members of Coldplay). In the meantime, we meet Shaun (Simon Pegg), a spineless electronics salesman who spends most of his time down at the pub with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) and his freeloading flatmate Ed (Nick Frost). When Liz dumps Shaun, he can’t imagine things getting any worse. Then he finds out that London is overrun with flesh-eating zombies. What follows is his bloody and comic quest to save his family and friends from the zombie hordes.
Admittedly the film’s premise is barely enough to sustain its 100-minute running time, but this film is as much brains as it is heart. As such, Shaun of the Dead delivers everything you could want from a film that promises to be a romantic comedy with zombies. The film’s pace at the outset is wisely slow, as though it were trying to pass itself off as a normal movie. As Shaun (and most everyone else in the film for that matter) sleepwalks through his daily routine, the filmmakers hint at the peril that is to come. But once the characters are introduced, no time is wasted in delivering outrageous gore effects peppered with some solid one-liners.
The entire cast (which includes Lucy Davis from BBC’s The Office) is completely committed to the film’s darkly comic tone, but it is Pegg’s turn as Shaun that really makes the film. His transition from low-rent shlep to action-movie hero is not only believable, but invigorating. His chemistry with Frost makes for a great cinematic odd couple, but more importantly the performances are good enough to make you actually care for the characters, which is a feat most horror movies don’t achieve.
Still, no horror movie is worth its weight in human intestine if the special effects aren’t any good. Shaun of the Dead winkingly recreates some classic zombie kills with the help of sharp computer-generated and practical gore effects. The result is queasily enjoyable and bloody funny to boot. Most horror movies are comical (whether intentional or not), but Shaun of the Dead, with its reverence for zombie-movie mythology and deadpan delivery, is every bit as funny as the title suggests.
Taking their cues from George A. Romero’s classic Living Dead trilogy and dousing them with a healthy portion of fake blood, the filmmakers put the characters through a meat grinder (literally and figuratively), and in the process make one of the best zombie pictures to date – comic or otherwise. |
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