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Shaun (Simon Pegg) is 29 and stuck in a dead-end job. His girlfriend,
Liz, is tired of spending every evening in the pub and of Shaun's lager
lout best friend Ed (Nick Frost) tagging along all the time. Shaun's housemate
Pete, an uptight city boy, is tired of Ed freeloading. Meanwhile, Shaun
is terrified of his step dad (Bill Nighy), which is alienating him from
his Mum. All this comes to a head when, Liz dumps Shaun and, after a night
drowning his sorrows, he decides to sort his life out. The only problem
is, the world has been infected by a plague of zombies. Shaun now has
to rescue his Mum and his ex girlfriend and take them somewhere safe (the
pub?) before he can patch up his relationships.
Made by the people who brought us 'Spaced', Shaun of the Dead is witty
and fast paced. Although billed as a 'romantic comedy with zombies' the
romance aspect is heavily overshadowed by the zombie bashing. Zombie movie
fans will be glad to hear that there is a huge body count, lots of guts
and gore, and the occasional nod towards the other greats in the genre.
For fans of 'spaced' and 'black books' there are plenty of examples of
the quirky humour of the sitcoms - like the hilarious scene where they
try to bludgeon a zombie to 'death' with pool cues to 'Don't stop me now'
by Queen. There are some bits, like the zombie in the bathroom, which
are quite chilling.
The first part of the film is in the same style as one of the offbeat
TV sitcoms and contains some acute observational humour - such as how
unobservant most people are (Shaun goes to the corner shop and back through
his zombie infested neighbourhood and fails to notice anything is wrong)
and the portrayal of the people's relationships with their mobile phones.
Although the characters are confused about what's going on, the viewer
is given snatches of TV and radio reports, which feed them clues about
the phenomenon. Once Shaun and Ed leave their house on the rescue mission,
the balance shifts from sit-com to a squirting, squelching gore fest,
which is less compelling and less funny than the first half.
The film features some familiar figures from the British TV comedy scene
(some so familiar that it's hard to distance them from their small screen
characters). Simon Pegg's comic timing and Nick Frost's brilliant portrayal
of slobbish Ed make the film a joy to watch. Personally, I don't deal
too well with gore, but by the end of it, I was weak with laughing. With
witty gags and eye-watering eviscerations, Shaun of the Dead is good fun,
but not for the squeamish.
Jeev Mantotta, April 2004
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