This movie rules almost too hard for words. It has everything you need for a movie to work, (zombies, British sitcom stars, violence, Queen, use of the word "cunt") almost to an extent where it's worrying to think what could happen if it did fail to impress. Fortunately, it all fits together.
The movie opens with one of Shaun and Liz's dates. As usual, it's at the Winchester, their local pub. And as usual, Shaun's brought Ed, and Liz has brought her best friends, Dianne and David. Liz is sick of the repetition, and Shaun promises to make it up to her. He doesn't, and gets dumped the next day. He awakens the day after, and the world has ended. To add to his problems, Shaun's stepfather Phil has been bitten by some "crazy people". He forms a plan with Ed to rescue his mother and Liz, thus winning her back, and hide at the best place he can think of: the Winchester.
This is the first zombie movie I've seen where zombies are taking over the real world. Before the outbreak, there are signs in the background that go largely ignored by our heroes. Once the outbreak has happened, no one is an action hero, as hard as they try to be. People do really stupid things. People use stupid things as weapons. Just like life. Or so I imagine.
Shaun of the Dead is a comedy/horror, but the focus is much more on the comedy. And you can tell by the cast. Shaun is played by Simon Pegg, who also co-wrote the screenplay, from the awesome sitcom Spaced. Nick Frost (Ed) is also from Spaced, while David and Dianne are played by Dylan Moran who hails from Black Books and Lucy Davis of The Office respectively. Phil is played by Bill Nighy, the funniest thing from Love, Actually. And Liz is played by Kate Ashfield, who hasn?t really been in anything of note, but deserves to be mentioned, as does Penelope Wilton (star of about 500 British things) as Shaun?s adorable mother Barbara.
While it does reference many zombie movies, these are almost exclusively in the background, and don?t draw a disgusting amount of attention to themselves- it's more Scream than Shrek 2 (but funnier than both). The comedy comes from slapstick (which director Edgar Wright, who also handled Spaced, does very well) and misunderstandings (one of the first zombies Shaun and Ed see is mistaken for a drunk girl), as well as the dialogue. From arguments over which record should be used as a weapon, to Shaun?s lies about his stepfather, to Pete?s sheer disgust of Ed, it's all good.
Simon Pegg is great in the lead, but Nick Frost's lumbering bad seed Ed steals the show. Ed is who's holding Shaun back in life, but it?s impossible not to love him. While everyone else is telling Shaun to move onwards and upwards, Ed is telling him to stay still, have a drink, and play video games. And how can you argue with that? The rest of the cast all work great, but the one complaint I have about the film is that Dylan Moran, one of the funniest people alive, is underutilized. It's hard not to want him to be drunken, abusive bookstore owner Bernard Black, rather than the uptight David.
As mentioned earlier, this is a horror/comedy, and the horror is there. It's not a particularly scary movie, nor was it meant to be. But it does contain a couple of things missing from more recent horror. Firstly, we see the zombies eat people. Not just bite and claw, but tear flesh and expose organs. I miss those days. Secondly, this movie does have a high body count. And for a first time in a long time in horror, these deaths hurt. You really don?t want to see these people die, and it's sad when they do. Within a minute you've gone back to laughing, but the sadness is still there.
Shaun of the Dead, for my money, is the funniest movie of the year, and still manages to be at times touching, sad, and sweet. There are too many moments to mention here, and I?d be a bad person if I did, but go out and see it. When it actually gets released.
Like most things.