British comedy is reanimated

Rating: 9/10 (16 April 2004)

AFTER the debacle that was Sex Lives Of The Potato Men, the accolade of being heralded as the saviours of British comedy may very well have been cheapened. Nevertheless, in Shaun of the Dead, writer/actor Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright succeed in resurrecting the idea that originality and brilliance can still be found on our shores. Described as a rom-zom-com (romantic zombie comedy), the team behind Channel Four sitcom Spaced tell the story of the ambition-starved and freshly-dumped Shaun (Pegg). Shaun, in his misery and inebriation, at first fails to notice that the dead are coming back to life but, when he and his lazy best friend are attacked, he springs into action to save his ex, her friends, and his mum. Far from being a spoof of zombie films, this is actually a much more loving and faithful recreation of the genre than the recent remake of Dawn of the Dead. Pegg and Wright clearly worship the movies they continually reference and the humour arises from the character's realistic reactions to what is going on around them (the girly scream of `Ooh, he's got an arm off' being a prime example when our hero encounters one the first undead). From the woeful attempts to destroy the zombies with a record collection, pool cues and empty beer cans, the whole thing is an honest and hilarious appreciation of how an ordinary man would deal with the apocalypse. The transition from comedy to a much darker and horrific second half is also handled well and keep an eye out for the ceaseless number of cameos. The comedy is, perhaps, a little too narrow for a global audience but it works absolutely superbly on home soil.