Horror-Comedy 101

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2015)

You know that feeling when, after dragging yourself through the dregs of modern comedies, you find yourself asking where all the good comedies are? Well, today I realized just how many crappy comedies I'd seen lately and so decided to watch one which I knew was good, but (to my shame) had never seen before: Shaun of the Dead. Much to my delight, it was every bit as good as I'd heard.
Shaun (Simon Pegg) lives together with his best friend, the fat/overweight Ed (Nick Frost). Ed works as an assistant in an electronics store not one block away from his house and Ed...well, Ed sells pot every now and then. They also share the house with Pete, a businessman (of course) who can't tolerate Ed's uselessness. Shaun is having relationship troubles with not only his girlfriend Liz, but also his mom and step-dad. Then the zombie apocalypse breaks out and Shaun will find himself on a journey, not just to survive, but also to repair said relationships. It's fun for the whole family, really.
What's so refreshing about Shaun of the Dead are the amount of visual jokes. Nary a minute goes by without there being a visual gag. So many comedies are reliant on verbal punchlines that it's nice to see a film that's aware of the possibilities of its own medium. The way it repeats these jokes is also brilliant. Shaun walking to work is a classic example: first, he gives a homeless guy some change and the next day, when the homeless guy's zombified, the absent-minded Shaun doesn't notice the difference, so apologizes for the fact he has no change. The way jokes are told purely through framing and editing is also fantastic, like the way it's slowly revealed in the opening scene that Shaun and Liz aren't the only ones sitting at the table.
I do have to say I found the drama a tad overbearing, particularly towards the end. I get that you need a story to prevent the film from becoming an aimless string of jokes, but correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I was watching a great comedy? All of a sudden, everyone and their mothers are dying and it's all a bit too dramatic for my tastes. It's not that these bits are poorly directed or acted; that's not it at all. Rather, it just feels a bit too out of place given the all the great gags that came before.
I also think director/writer Edgar Wright and co-writer Simon Pegg could've done a bit more with the jump-scares. There's a handful of jump-scares that are just...there. Jumpscares are one of the biggest clichés in horror, so it's a pity they didn't find a way to parody them or subvert them in some way.
In the end, the amount of terrific jokes and visual gags are so great in number, any complaints are quickly rendered superfluous. Hot Fuzz, here I come!