A Terrific Coming-of-Age Story

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2018)

In Shaun of the Dead, it goes through 2 days of Shaun Riley's (Simon Pegg) mundane life. Going to work at Foree Electric, visiting his mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton) and his step-dad Philip (Bill Nighy), spending time with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), his best friend Ed (Nick Frost), and Liz's friends David (Dylan Morgan) and Dianne (Lucy Davis) all at once at the Winchester. This all changes one day when zombies walk the earth, not that Shaun notices at first. But once he notices, he's determined to save Liz and his mother by fighting off the zombie hordes as best as he can. Throughout this film, he finally grows up and accepts responsibility for his actions and learns to deal with problems on his own.
Throughout the film, Shaun consistently shows that he has no experience accepting responsibility. Whether it's taking Liz on a date, spending entire nights at the local pub the Winchester, or refusing to accept his step-father as his real dad now, Shaun never grows up. Before the zombies arrive, we slowly learn that he has never changed and most likely never will.
Once the zombies arrive, however, Shaun has to take on responsibility. In this life or death situation, he's the only one who will take charge and try to save his friends. This is similar to another Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright movie, The World's End, where Simon Pegg's character, Gary King, has to realize that there's more to do beyond drinking and that he has to stand up to an evil force to save his friends' lives. He chooses to fight them rather than give in and be forced to be their slaves. Throughout Shaun of the Dead, he has to make more and more important life choices, deciding between risking himself and saving others, he has to learn to grow up for once in his life, to make decisions and be ready to face the consequences. When it comes down to it, Shaun makes decisions that are questionable, but he learns to live with them and think critically about what to do, something he has never done before.
Lighting is a large part of the film as it represents the fear Shaun is experiencing during the scene, yet he decides to face that fear to be able to save his friends. The darkest scenes in terms of lighting are almost always in scenes where Shaun has to make a terrible choice, such as killing his mother or deciding to leave Ed behind to be eaten by zombies so he can escape. A repeated element always brought to light in the film is the color red. While this obviously shows up a lot because of the blood from the zombies, it also leaks from his pen and is prominent while he is at work. The color foreshadows what is to come and that there will be much more red in the future.
Overall, Shaun of the Dead is a simple story about a man who learns to grow up while fighting zombies, forcing him to learn how to deal with an adult life and accept some responsibility.