a brilliant satire becomes a brilliant film

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2004)

"shaun of the dead" is a rarity: a film that spoofs other films and then becomes something... more. right now, there's too many indie filmmakers who are making "spoofs" of horror films, to a disadvantage. they're never as clever as the film they are supposed to be making fun of. i'm not just talking about the "scary movie" series, but all the straight-to-video crap that's supposed to be funny, and just... isn't. "shaun of the dead" goes so far beyond mere satire that it's an excellent horror film, period. that's because the script, my simon pegg and edgar wright, is not only self-aware (in-jokes like references to "28 days later" and of course "we're coming to get you barbara!" will have horror geeks in stitches) but it takes itself seriously. they're smart enough to know a one-joke movie can't be sustained for 2 hours. i was afraid that it would, since the joke is how shaun is walking around, surrounded by real zombies, and they're no different from the regular zombie-like living people who live there. but they develop key secondary characters, and -- no spoilers, promise -- you really care about them when one of them dies. you see them as real people, and their deaths aren't played for laughs. you feel like an actual person is dying, even if it's because a zombie bit them. well done, chaps.
the best thing about the DVD, which i got for Christmas (just in time), is that you can turn on close captioning to see what the hell these people are saying! i saw the film in the theater and missed half of the dialog, because the British accents were too strong. call me a stupid yank, but i don't think i'm alone here. that's why it's a big bonus, along with all the other great DVD extras, most of which i haven't looked at yet.