Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
a review by Evan Landon
“Take Pete's car, go to mum's, kill Phil, grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over. How's that for a slice of fried gold?”
- Shaun
It truly is a difficult task to make an original comedy that is incredibly funny and oddly satisfying, all the while seamlessly balancing it with the horror genre. Like I have always said, there is a fine line between horror and comedy, but they are more alike than they are different. Just look at how many comedians there are in horror films and how many horror actors are in comedies. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
In all sincerity, watching a horror movie of any kind is going to grab my attention and usually I have a great time, comedic or not. Believe it or not, as close as those two genres are, there is a subtle way to blend both together majestically even though the contrast is easily observed. It's like if you put peanut butter and jelly on a steak as opposed to a piece of bread. That is a strange metaphor, but you get what I'm saying.
That is exactly what a young, fresh-faced filmmaker named Edgar Wright had set out to accomplish early in his career, landing a job early on as director of the British sitcom Asylum where he met Simon Pegg. The pair would then create Spaced where they met actor Nick Frost and history was made. Wright and Pegg then wrote Shaun Of The Dead, which was inspired by an episode of Spaced where Pegg's character hallucinated that he was killing zombies after taking amphetamines. The group would go on to collaborate on the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy which includes Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End.
If you are not familiar with Shaun Of The Dead, the plot revolves around Shaun, a down-and-out electronics salesman. His co-workers humiliate him, he hates his stepfather, and his girlfriend just broke up with him. After a night of getting plastered with his best friend, Ed, his dickhead roommate, Pete, comes home after being bitten by an attacker on the way home. Finally realizing they were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse after disposing of two zombies in the backyard with household goods and Shaun's record collection, Shaun and Ed formulate a plan to steal zombie Pete's car, retrieve Shaun's mum and kill his zombie-bitten stepfather, pick up his ex-girlfriend and her flatmates, then go to their favorite watering hole, The Winchester, and wait for it all to blow over. Needless to say, not all of it goes according to plan in a series of comedic consequences. Yes, a lot of people die, but for some reason – it's fine. Whatevs. You have to expect these kind of things in zombie movies.
What truly works in this comedy horror fever dream is how everyone involved in this movie understands their assignment from the very start. Despite knowing full well that Shaun is your main character, he is incredibly unlikable, unfunny, uninteresting, and untrustworthy. He really does become less irritating as a character and shows the true growth that he lacked in his dreary, everyday life. When you are first introduced to him, he comes off as a living zombie going through his mundane, repetitive bullshit with no respect for himself, which in turn leads everyone around him to treat him the same. Admit it, we all know someone just like that. There is one hilarious scene where he sleepily walks to the store the same way does every day, not noticing that the zombie apocalypse had fallen upon the upscale Crouch End neighborhood of London.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the makeup effects by Stuart Bray and his team at the Iver Makeup Academy, which is better than most of the horror movies with even larger budgets. The soundtrack plays a huge part too, especially the final bar scene at The Winchester set to Queen's “Don't Stop Me Now” that fits perfectly for God knows what reason, but it does. Also, you will never hear Duran Duran's “White Lines” the same way without thinking of the zombie they confuse for a drunk limping down the alley.
Making its premier in spring of 2004, this unexpected hit cleaned up $38.7 million at the box office against a small $6 million budget making it a worldwide success and launching the careers of everyone involved from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to the key grip (Paul Hatchman has had a lovely career) and Edgar Wright has gone on to create the aforementioned Hot Fuzz and The World's End, but also hits like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Ant-Man, and Baby Driver. He even dated Anna Kendrick for a while, so that makes me a little jealous.
If you have never heard of this movie or you have just never seen it, I suggest you change that today because that is something you will not regret. I haven't given out 5 stars in years, but I honestly cannot think of anything I dislike about this film and it still makes me laugh my ass off like no other movie can twenty years later... So there.
Yeah, boyyyeee!
5 Out Of 5