Shaun of the Dead:

If You Haven’t Seen This, Be Ashamed

Written by Alex Dykes

for Advanced Composition, East TN State U, December 2011

I’m no movie buff, I prefer to read, so when I like a movie enough to buy it, that’s saying something. Shaun of the Dead is one such film.

In 2004, the year Shaun of the Dead came out; I had already heard reviews on it from England, so when it made it over to the U.S. around September, I already had tickets for the Carmike one of the local theaters. I had never heard of Simon Pegg or Nick Frost or even Dylan Moran for that matter, but I had seen the reviews and they were too much to pass up. Horror-comedy is a genre of which I am an adamant fan, with movies like Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein and Peter Jackson’s Braindead (now called Dead Alive in the States and elsewhere) on the roster, I was prepared for disappointment, but hoping for the best.

The movie starts with the unlikely hero Shaun (Simon Pegg) who in the first bit of the film, pre-hilarious-zombie-apocalypse, we see has a job at a tech store where he gets no respect, a lazy friend Ed (Nick frost) who stays on his couch, and a relationship with a woman named Liz (Kate Ashfield) that promptly ends, after he forgets to book a table at a restaurant for their anniversary. The film features other antagonists such as Shaun’s angry roommate Pete, Liz’s awkward friends David and Dianne and Shaun’s step-father Phillip.

After Shaun’s break-up with Liz, Shaun and Ed go off to the Winchester, the bar that Liz cited in the break up as the only place that they ever visited, on “dates” or otherwise, and proceed to get drunk. At one point in the evening, a shadow approaches the frosted glass near the entrance of the pub and lazily beats on it, arguably the first zombie in the film, though it’s hard to say as Edgar Wright likes throwing a bunch of “false zombies” in the film, just to keep you on your toes. The next morning Shaun awakes and walks to a corner market, car alarms going off in the background and zombies everywhere, and obliviously grabs a few things from the blood covered store, all of which he doesn’t catch in any way whatsoever due to his hangover.

The movie goes on in a similarly ridiculous and hilarious fashion with everything from a scene in the back yard of Shaun’s apartment where they throw random household items, including Shaun’s record selection, depending on who’s on the record, at slowly approaching zombies, who they originally thought to be drunk:

Ed: Purple Rain? (from left to right: Liz, Shawn, Ed)

Shaun: No

Ed: Sing o’ the Times?

Shaun: Definitely not.

Ed: the Batman soundtrack?

Shaun: Throw it.

Then to a scene at the Winchester where the beat the zombified barkeeper with pool sticks in a sort of choreographed manner to the beat of Queens song Don’t Stop Me Now.

This film is riddled with references to many other zombie titles that any fan of the genre would be thrilled to see, some subtle, some not so much. In the above bar scene Shaun yells, “Kill the Queen”, referring to the song, however also referencing the Resident Evil movie in which the main antagonist is a computer program called the Red Queen. Another reference is the line “We’re coming to get you Barbara”, which is a quote from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. The title itself is a parody and homage to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Throughout the film also are references to the television series Spaced of which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are stars.

One of the shining aspects of this movie, and in all fairness, to most horror-comedies, is the dialogue. However, it’s executed so well in this film that it doesn’t seem like it’s just the way it’s done, but rather how it needed to be. In one scene while Shaun is trying to get ahold of the authorities, the following dialogue ensues:

Ed: Shaun, what's going on?

Shaun: Shit, it's engaged!

Ed: How about an ambulance?

Shaun: It's engaged, Ed.

Ed: A fire engine?

Shaun: It's one number, Ed, and it's busy! Okay? What you want a fire engine for, anyway?

Ed: Anything with flashing lights, you know?

In another scene where, in their panic, they manage to hit a pedestrian:

Shaun: Are you all right?

Ed: Come on, let's just go.

Shaun: Hello?

Ed: He's going to be dead either way.

Shaun: Ed, that's not the point!

[the body rises and moans, zombified, at Shaun and Ed]

Shaun: Oh thank God for that.

The entire film is spot on with dialogue like this and it’s an absolute riot!

Within the genre of horror-comedy, people look to both laugh and to be scared, as would be implied by the title. While there are a few rather gory scenes throughout the film, if you’re a fan looking specifically for campy blood and gore that just happens to be funny, this is not a film that I would suggest. This is everything we all love about horror, but cast in the light of a comedy film. More Young Frankenstein and less Dead Alive. In many cases the film has been cited as being a “romantic comedy with zombies”, which I consider to be a fair assessment.