They're Not Dead, But They're All Messed Up

by June Pulliam

01/17/2005

Shaun of the Dead. Edgar Wright. 2004

Faithful readers of this zine will know that I haven't been terribly impressed with zombie flicks of late. While I found 28 Days Later technically interesting, the story was flawed, and the remake of Dawn of the Dead was absolutely mind numbing, causing me to want a refund of my admission price and of the time wasted from my life seeing the damned thing.  Shaun of the Dead, a comic parody of all zombie flicks, and several other films as well, was a welcome change from so much bad filmmaking.  Written by director Edgar Wright and lead actor Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead gives viewers not only two hours of hearty laughs while seated in the theater, but also much to think about on the way home.

Of all the zombie movies I've ever seen, this is one of the few to put the phenomena of the living dead into a social context. Most zombie films begin like video games--a hapless human is going about his or her business on what appears to be a perfectly normal day when, when after the first sixty seconds of the film, a zombie appears, teeth gnashing, and the protagonist we hardly know spends the duration of the film running a gauntlet of the reanimated dead and occasionally fighting with the living. Although the creation of the zombies itself is explained through various means, including radiation (Night of the Living Dead), a mutant virus (28 Days Later), or just for the hell of it (Dawn of the Dead), their symbolic raison d'eter really doesn't matter, since for all of their presence in the genre, they aren't really characters so much as props.

Shaun of the Dead too begins with zombies, but just not of the living impaired variety. The film begins with a shot of our hero Shaun in a pub on a typical Saturday night, glassy eyed, pint in one hand and cigarette in other. Vying with his pint and trying to get the attention of her chinless, less than average looking boyfriend is Liz, who complains that their current dating and living situations make true intimacy impossible. Both Shaun and Liz are constantly surrounded by roommates, friends of sorts who must be taken into consideration whenever plans are made. The upshot is that private dates seem nearly impossible to arrange. In addition to this scene, the first five minutes of the film make it painfully obvious that everyone in the modern world is already a zombie of sorts, a mindless, consuming machine nearly indistinguishable from anyone else, so when the zombies do arrive, they're not immediately noticed at first because they're redundant.  We see scenes of people walking in a daze to work, riding the bus while staring straight ahead, or standing behind cash registers while emotionlessly checking out customers.

But at least Shaun and Liz aspire to be something more than nearly thirty-something zombies, going through the motions day after day in their tedious white collar entry-level jobs. Alas, the weight of the world is too much for Shaun to easily break free of his monotonous life. He seems to be an utter failure professionally. We see him trying to inspire the teenaged sales force he manages at a generic electronics box store, only to have them tune him out in the middle of a meeting to answer their cell phones--and return calls.  Shaun also seems to be failing in his personal life as well.  He tries to be both a good son and good boyfriend, but is failing miserably at both.  When Shaun's loathsome stepfather comes by his place of employment to remind him to visit with his mother and to bring some flowers, this interruption is sufficient to jeopardize Shaun's other serious personal relationship, his one with Liz. He was also supposed to make arrangements for a special dinner, but becomes sufficiently distracted to forget to make the reservations.

Alas, he cannot make last minute arrangements for fine dining in all of London, and must ask Liz to meet him at their usual tedious watering hole, a pub called the Winchester (where the movie begins and ends).  Liz has had enough: she no longer believes that Shaun cares, so she dumps him. Thus Shaun spends the evening drowning his sorrows in drink at the Winchester with Ed, his corpulent drug dealing roommate who spends his days sitting in his own filth on the sofa and playing Nintendo.

Shaun has been so wrapped up in the drama of his own life that he's barely had time to notice how others around him have begun to drop on the streets from a mysterious ailment, or to connect these events with the increasingly bizarre behavior of others.  Come morning, however, Shaun and Ed can no longer ignore the changes that take place, since there is now a zombie in their own backyard.  In a wonderfully comic scene, a young female zombie attacks Shaun, but since Shaun and Ed assume she is drunk, Ed runs off to get a camera so he can take a snapshot of the girl trying to kiss his buddy (and in perhaps the funniest audio joke of the film, after Shaun shoves the girl away and she falls onto a spike, and then stands up, showing a huge hole in her abdomen, we hear Ed advancing the film on the camera while Shaun stands dumbfounded, until Shaun hears this and smacks his friend on the arm).

Desperate for information about what's happening, the roomies do a quick spin of the TV. dial, which reveals that the British Isles are beset with some sort of mysterious ailment that reanimates the newly dead and makes them crave human flesh.  But of course, Shaun and Ed know their popular culture, and don't need further confirmation when one of the talking heads on television suggests that the only way to stop a zombie is to destroy the head or the brain.  Instead, they run scrambling for the nearest weapon (which in the relatively gun-free U. K. is a cricket bat and a shovel), pulp some zombie heads, then drive off to check on Shaun's mother and Liz.  In a scene that references Guy Ritchie's gangster comedies, Shaun tells Ed of his master plan to escape and save the damsels in distress, and with each new version of his plan, the audience is treated to a quickly edited series of visual representations--with small differences each time--of the plan's working just as designed.  Their ultimate goal is to seek the safety of the Winchester, so named, apparently, as it contains the only gun and live ammo in all of London, and from there, get their pathetic lives on track.

Shaun of the Dead is one of the better comic horror and zombie films I've ever seen, since it is extremely knowledgeable of the conventions of both, and manages to create something new that is part comedy, part slapstick, part drama (Shaun eventually has to kill his mother, when she is bitten), and part gorefest.  The older members of the audience got a laugh out of an aptly placed "We're coming to get you Barbara" (I won't tell you where it is, though, so I don't ruin the surprise for you).  Others may have recognized parodies of Psycho (there's something behind a shower curtain, of course), Halloween (menacing--but usually benign once we see who they are--figures suddenly enter the screen accompanied by a swish and a crescendo of music), Reservoir Dogs (a hilarious standoff with broken bottles and a corkscrew in the pub) or even Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch (quick editing cuts narrated by someone who is masterminding a plan).

Of course, none of this works if the actors and screen writers can't pull it off, and in this case, they do, and admirably.  I would go so far as to say that this is the most professionally acted zombie movie I've seen, which is amazing considering this is Wright's directorial debut, and for the most part, none of the actors (aside from Kate Ashfield, who plays Liz) has film experience.  Perhaps this is because it is easier to play over-the-top comedy, where reactions are exaggerated for effect, than it is to do drama.  However, Shaun of the Dead includes more than its share of dramatic scenes, such as when Shaun sits across from Ed, eyes and face red from crying, tears still welling up, to talk about his lost relationship or the lack of direction in his life.  There is also a poignant scene in which, just before he is about to expire from a zombie bite, Shaun's stepfather surprises our hero by telling him that he understood that he could never replace Shaun's dad, but that he had always hoped to be a positive influence in his life.  Shaun's understated reaction in this scene is reminiscent of Ed Norton.  In fact, Pegg's acting technique recalls Norton's: small gestures, understatement, saying more by speaking softly rather than through an increase in volume.  And Pegg and Nick Frost, who plays Ed, have genuine chemistry.  They really do look like best friends.

Ultimately, the test of a good movie is the "what I would have done differently" test.  It is next to impossible to find a scene in this film that I would have changed.  Hell, I didn't even mind paying 7.50 to see it.  Suffice it to say that I have been telling everyone I know to see Shaun of the Dead.  Dear reader, consider yourself infected with the zombie virus.

Main Cast