3.5 stars rather than XLent- still see it

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2004)

The BBC has shown the original Night and Dawn of The Dead over the weeks since Dawn's remake was released at the end of March 04, so any fans can compare all four films if they've seen them (and in my case, read the 1978 Dawn of The Dead novel).
In that context, coming at the end of three "serious" Zombie flicks in a fortnight, "Shaun" is just what I needed but the producers obviously aimed for a release date around that of Dawn's remake. The characters are developed far enough for you to miss them if they bite the dust and even if they conflict with Shaun & co, which didn't happen with Romero's series as he preferred the "people not knowing each other thrown together" angle with "Night" and "Day" of the Dead (In "Night" nobody would have had a publicly acknowledged black friend in late 60s Deep Southern US), and in original "Dawn" it's two pairs of characters who know each other through work.
I don't do spoilers but I will say that the running theme from Romero's flicks of what happens when the people close to you become victims, is also explored in this film with much more immediate honesty and doesn't let the viewer laugh off a pessimistic moment. In fact once they reach somewhere they think they're safe, the laughs are put on hold for the proper horror to really get a grip. It's an excellent mix of horror and comedy and certainly the most unique way I've seen of making romcom fodder interesting to a male audience (as in 99% of the usual mush, they always end up together with a lot less work). Zombie fans need to listen out for the music at the start and on the credits, but also the dialogue and check out the name of Shaun's workplace.
I enjoyed it but will probably buy the DVD rather than watch it again on the big screen. We'll have to see if going for the laughs allows it to beat 28 Days' $45million gross in America. Horror fans have had to put up with much worse enforced attempts at comedy with gore (witness the Freddy series). It's not laugh out loud funny all the way through but that wasn't the intention. It's well worth watching in my opinion.
The only criticism I couldn't refute was the ripping-off of Sam Raimi's chained-together camera zoom effects. However people not into films won't care about that. See it.