"A romantic comedy. With zombies."

Shaun of the Dead (2004): 8/10

Poster (c) Rogue Pictures

So we've had the Dead trilogy by George Romero-Night of the Living, Dawn of the, and Day of the. Since then, there haven't been many big zombie movies, save for the remakes of Night and Dawn. A Day remake is in the works. But last year we got 28 Days Later, a pretentious wanna-be zombie movie that I still enjoyed. But as a complete parody, we haven't really had any movies. That is, until Shaun of the Dead came around. It's a no-holds-barred comedy/horror, with some of the obvious social commentary that both Dawns had. But really, it's not even a spoof, just a zomromcom, as I believe the director wanted it to be called. And it's just what this world needs.

Shaun (Simon Pegg, also the co-writer) is the senior salesperson at an electronic store at age 29. He lives with his roomates, slacker Ed (Nick Frost) and uptight Pete (Peter Serafinowicz). None are really going anywhere in life, and Shaun's girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) just broke up with him. Then zombies start to walk the earth, and Shaun and Ed have to go and knock them zombies back to hell.

In the first 15 minutes, the movie gives off this bleak, uninviting vibe. The social satire is strong, but the laughs and excitement are not. Then soon after, the movie completely changes gears into this gory, hilarious send-up of not just zombie movies but horror movies in general. The body count is high, blood runs through like an erupting volcano, British accents are thick, yet it's a movie that you can't help liking. The humor is varied-from the dialogue, from the images, from the situations, from the parodies, from the effects, from just about anything. There's some great, memorable sequences in there, such as the hitting of the zombie with the pool cues, and the absurdity of the whole movie makes Shaun about equal to the Dead series. Maybe it will become part of the "official" series. But the whole cast has great chemistry (many have been on the British TV show Spaced), and the characters are just normal people. At times, an Office Space-ish vibe was given off. The character of Shaun was a likeable guy and everything, and it's the normal people we relate to in these "tense" situations.

The entire parody was great, with a bunch of random jumps thrown in there for no reason whatsoever. I hate to say this about a zomromcom, but at times the atmosphere was pretty creepy. I wouldn't go so far as to call it scary, but for a comedy it was somewhat intense. The movie was well shot, with nothing unusual or any handheld camera movements or anything of the like. Straightforward directing, by co-writer Edgar Wright, makes the movie watchable. Also, the acting was believable, and, at times, over-the-top (see Shaun's reactions when he first sees the zombies). But the nihilism of the Shaun character worked, especially when he walks through the town not realizing that everyone is a zombie. There's some crazy stuff happening here, and it's some of funniest stuff you'll see this year in theaters. Even if you don't like horror movies or blood-and-guts movies, I'd recommend it. You'll laugh no matter what.

Rated R for zombie violence/gore and language.

Review Date: October 2, 2004