Solidly, wittily put together.

Rating: 10/10 (18 April 2004)

Let me first pre-empt this review with a little background. I love zombie movies. Admittedly, its a sub-genre that is over-populated and stories are recycled time and time over, but the Romero Living Dead trilogy is brilliant (particularly Dawn of the Dead), the recent DotD remake was pretty good and 28 Days Later is one of my favourite recent movies, probably my favourite British movie ever made. Which leads me to my second point. I am not a fan of British "comedy" films. Four Weddings, i'll allow, is actually very good mostly. Withnail and I is classic. But the rest are fairly samey and safe, without much of the fire and wit that British TV comedy seems to do very well at the moment.
As a former student, I must confess a guilty love of Spaced. I'm a film nut, so anything with references to cult movies is preaching to the converted. Added to that, Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson et al are not only gifted comedic performers, they are credible actors. Spaced was slightly different - the anti-Friends - and has a very specific appeal. It is with joy and hope for the future, that I can honestly say that Shaun of the Dead is worthy of sitting next to all the above on a DVD shelf.
The first 45 minutes zip past, littered with cinematic references and techniques (the smash cuts from Requiem for a Dream, for example), ticking all the boxes of not only the horror/Zombie rampage genre but also the level of humour expected of these performers. Essentially, if you've seen any of Pegg, Davis, Moran etc in their other well known roles, they are riffing on those personas under different names. Once the situation has been established and the plan formulated, the gags slow down a bit to (ahem) flesh out the plot and fulfill the cliches inherent to the setup.
Its here that the film may lose some of its fans as it really becomes less of a comedy and more of a sidewise-glancing genre entry. There are genuine shocks, a sense of impending doom and strangely touching farewells, not to mention a handsome helping of gore. I actually found this to be quite refreshing. It would have been easy to continue ripping away at the staples of the genre, but not as memorable. For one thing, Pegg firmly establishes himself as a leading man worthy of notice. Sure, he has a schtick in terms of comedy, but like, say, Owen Wilson, it is appealing and funny. Also like Owen Wilson, he can handle the dramatic chops when required. He displays a nice versatility and a good range of emotion and you really pull for his character by the end. The same goes for Lucy Davis, who steps out slightly from the shadow of Dawn to create someone quite believable and quietly humourous. The camera really loves her here and she glows.
A wonderfully, almost unnoticeable aspect to the film that I never expected was, half an hour from the end, I had little idea of where the film would go and the more time ran out, the more I was convinced no-one would make it out in one piece. How right was I? Well, you should find out for yourself.
Suffice to say that the film works wonderfully structurally, technically, comedically and dramatically, all the time very aware of and respectful toward the genre it is lampooning. It may slow down a bit in the last third, but stay with it and you may find the idea of a follow-up not so dreadful. Personally, i'd like to see a non-sequel with the same kind of characters placed in a different genre and story, unrelated in any way to this one (current rumours include Children of the Shaun and From Dusk Til Shaun, haw-haw).
It is good news for the British film industry that this film is being so well received here and internationally as we might finally shrug off the Full Monty/Hugh Grant romcom limitations inherent to UK successes in cinema, to see films of the quality of The Office reach big screens rather than small. If you dig cult films, alternative British comedy and something more worthy of rememberance than Two Weeks Notice, go see this film while its still around. It will be everything you expect and nothing you expect. How often do you say that about a British film?