Review of Shaun of the Dead (2004) by Moviemastereddy — 02 Apr 2016

There is something intrinsically ridiculous about zombie movies. No matter how scary they want to be, the spectacle of famished corpses lurching and groaning with their insatiable hunger for flesh and blood is worth at least a titter. The British horror comedy "Shaun of the Dead" skillfully plays off that ridiculousness by implying that Britain may already be populated with the living dead, metaphorically speaking.

By treating the genre as a joke, this satire, whose title plays off George A. Romero's 1979 golden oldie, "Dawn of the Dead," yields ironic dramatic dividends. As the number of zombies popping out of their graves multiplies exponentially, the monster population density on the streets of North London makes things increasingly creepy. The motley Londoners who face down the creatures are so inept and unthinking in their response to the catastrophe that the uncharitable part of you may decide that they deserve their probable (but not guaranteed) fates during what panicked television commentators label Z-Day.

Simon Pegg, who wrote the screenplay with the director, Edgar Wright, plays the title character, a hapless 29-year-old clerk in an appliance store who is still living a chaotic frat-house existence with two roommates. When the zombies strike, Shaun foolishly imagines that if he and his friends can make their way to the friendly neighborhood pub, the Winchester, they will be safe.

The movie follows their embattled journey through London fighting zombies and scaling backyard fences as they plod toward their supposed sanctuary.

Along the way they happen upon a box of old LP's and pause long enough to argue about which precious discs to sacrifice by deploying them as head-severing missiles. But when they toss albums by Sade and others at enemy throats, their aim is off.

As for that sanctuary, never mind that the Winchester has windows that can be smashed and that it harbors no reserves of food more nutritious than barroom snacks. Shaun's blind faith that the seedy pub in which he has soused himself on many an evening is one of the film's biggest jokes.

The movie, which opens today nationwide, allows the diminishing flock of survivors in Shaun's entourage one genuinely clever maneuver: on their way to the pub, they avoid being noshed to death by passing themselves off as fellow twitching corpses in the zombie parade.

Accompanying Shaun on his pilgrimage to safety are his best friend, Ed (Nick Frost), a loutish, idiotic practical joker who seems to suffer from terminal attention-deficit disorder; Shaun's on-again, off-again sweetheart, Liz (Kate Ashfield); and her roommates, Dianne (Lucy Davis) and David (Dylan Moran).

The movie's silliest character is Shaun's indefatigably prim and polite mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton), who, late in the game, meekly confesses that she sustained a zombie bite and will soon metamorphose into a monster. Her transformation prompts the movie's cruelest joke, in which her weeping son blasts Mommy's head off with a rifle.