Movie review time again. This little gem came out in 2004, and some of you will be familiar with it. For those of you who aren't, and if you have a taste for zombie satire comedies, and after all, who doesn't, this will be a must see.
Shaun of the Dead. It's achieved a cult following by now, and Simon Pegg (Shaun) is well known for his outstanding work in Hot Fuzz and Run, Fatboy, Run, but this was his first starring role.
What’s a boy to do when he’s got a dead end job, his girlfriend dumps him, his best friend is a case of arrested development and he has the stepfather from hell? See the cup as half full, that's what. What else can you do when suddenly everyone around you is dying, coming back to life and trying to eat you and everybody else who hasn’t contracted whatever it is that’s killing them and turning them into flesh eating zombies. Shaun of the Dead is a wicked funny black romantic comedy for everyone.
After his girlfriend dumps him he decides to drown his sorrows at the pub with his best friend. After a night of drinking, he has an epiphany and resolves to sort his life out. Said epiphany comes along just as an uprising of the undead within London occurs, the zombies, of course, have a taste for the living. Shaun doesn't realize what's going on until two zombies attack him in his backyard. There ensues a very funny scene of he and his dim-witted roommate attacking the zombies with old LP's, making snap decisions about which ones are disposable and which need to be kept. The LP's that is, not the zombies.
Lots of references to other movies, television shows and video games, among them Blade, The Deer Hunter, Reservoir Dogs, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. The plot pays homage to previous zombie and horror movies, most notably the Dead trilogy of George A. Romero. The name of the film is a play on Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Simon Pegg co-wrote the script with director Edgar Wright.
So on one level it's a zombie movie spoof, but on another it's a commentary on modern society, the opening scene of Shaun walking back from the store completely oblivious to all the zombies moving past him on the street sets the tone and makes a clever statement about alienation and discontent.
George A. Romero was so impressed with Pegg and Wright's work that he asked them to appear in cameo roles in Land of the Dead, the fourth part of his Dead series. Pegg and Wright insisted on being zombies rather than the slightly more noticeable roles that were originally offered.
If you have a taste for the offbeat, I recommend this one highly. The violence and language might be a bit much for some, but all in all it's a good time.
