A Bloody Great Time

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 2007)

Shaun of the Dead, the first of the so-called Romantic Zombie Comedies (or RomZomComs to those of us in the know) is an adorable romance with a sharp comedic edge. In addition, it delivers some punches just as terrifying as those in such zombie movie classics as Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. Great as a date movie, a Halloween horror flick, or a late-night comedy to watch instead of studying for finals, Shaun of the Dead is destined to become a cult classic.
The story revolves around Shaun (Simon Pegg; co-writer of the movie with Edgar Wright), a loser whose already complicated personal life begins to spiral out of control when his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) dumps him because he forgets to make dinner reservations for their anniversary. On top of this he is scolded by his stepfather Philip (played by a wonderfully crusty Bill Nighy) for failing to bring his mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton) flowers on Mother's day, and gets into a shouting match with Pete (Peter Serafinowicz), the more responsible of his two roommates. Pete accuses Shaun of only letting Ed (Nick Frost), his video game playing, pot dealing, perpetually drunk best friend, stay with them because he's "more of a loser than you." All of this is even before Shaun wakes up the next morning, depressed and hung over from a night of trying to drown his sorrows at the local pub, the Winchester, to discover that London has turned overnight from a bustling metropolis into a city of the undead. This is the moment when Shaun of the Dead takes off as both a horror movie and a comedy.
Much of the film's comedy comes from simply pushing the usual zombie thriller and romantic comedy clichÃ©s too far. In one of the most hilarious and paradoxically chilling sequences of the entire movie, Shaun stumbles blearily through his morning routine completely blind to the zombies in the streets and the dead bodies lying in gardens. This sequence parodies the idea that the audience always gets a glimpse of the impending disaster before the characters. We have been seeing signs of the zombie infestation since the beginning of the film, but Shaun and Ed fail to notice it until a girl in their garden falls and impales herself on a pipe that goes completely through her body, then struggles back up and keeps staggering towards them.
At this point Shaun and Ed decide to ignore all rational advice and venture out of their apartment (which is not really a safe place anyway since Pete has been bitten by a zombie, and will soon become one of the undead himself) to find Liz and Barbara and take them to the safest place they can think of; the Winchester. All does not go according to plan, however, and Shaun, Ed, Liz, Barbara, and Liz's roommates David and Dianne (Dylan Moran and Lucy Davis) end up walking through the backyards of the London suburbs, having lost both their car and the blunt objects they were using as weapons for defense against a zombie attack. Things only get worse from there, and by the time the hapless group reaches the Winchester an argument concerning Shaun's treatment of Liz has exploded between Shaun and David and one of their number has fallen victim to a zombie bite. Shaun and David's argument is a wonderful example of standard romantic comedy writing that is funny because of its juxtaposition to the army of the dead waiting outside the pub.
This sort of exaggerated comedy begins in the opening credits when we see the people of London moving zombie-like through their daily routines; many of them appear later in the film trying to feast on the flesh of Shaun and his cohorts. The satirical edge continues until the end of the film, where various TV clips lampoon the careless way that people trivialize immense tragedy. Moments of slapstick are likewise woven into the entire movie; some notable scenes include Shaun and Ed sorting through Shaun's record collection to determine which albums are of low-enough quality to use as weapons against the undead and, in what is possibly the best use of a Queen song since Mike Meyers rocked out to Bohemian Rhapsody, Shaun, Liz, and Ed smashing out a zombie's brains to "Don't Stop Me Now."
Despite the hilarity of the comedy, the movie manages to do what any good horror film should do; pack a frightening punch. The feeling of fear is introduced early in the movie as glimpses of the zombie epidemic create a building sense of unease, and continues until the fate of the living is finally decided. The zombies may be ridiculously slow and dull-witted but they can be terrifying, especially when large numbers of them are bearing down on Shaun and his friends. It is this combination of comedy, horror, and good old-fashioned romance which guarantees that the first of the RomZomComs is well on its way to becoming a cult classic.