Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Posted on Oct 11, 2006 under Comedy, Horror |

Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright
Starring
- Simon Pegg
- Kate Ashfield
- Nick Frost
- Lucy Davis
- Dylan Morris

I think it’s about time for America to admit it: we really don’t dominate the zombie movie genre. We’ve contributed a few luminaries to the field, which really wouldn’t exist in its modern form without Romero, but it’s always been foreign filmmakers who’ve carried the torch (or wore it into the ground, depending on your point of view), salted here and there by some homegrown indie auteurs, who were themselves influenced as strongly by, say, the Italian Romero imitators as by Romero himself. As much as we like to that sense of ownership over zombie movies, the only genres I can think of which owe less to American cinema are kung fu movies and pepla.

What drives home that realization is the fact that the best couple of zombie movies in recent years have both come from Great Britain. 28 Days Later (2002) upped the adrenaline level to produce a taut and spellbinding thriller; in contrast, Shaun of the Dead provides a lighthearted but respectful sendup of the standardized zombie movie scenario. One might instinctively worry that a “comedic” zombie would end up being a satire or farce, something more along the lines of an installment of the Scary Movie franchise, but as this movie’s ardent fans will readily attest, Shaun of the Dead never ventures into pure parody or ironic self-aware smirkiness. Instead, the humor comes from the storytelling focus simply encapsulated in the tagline used on the DVD case: “A romantic comedy. With zombies.”

“What marketing gimmick with those energy drink guys think of next?”

The focus can be seen in the pacing of the story; none of our characters even realize that anything’s gone wrong with the world — anything like, say, the dead rising and eating the living — until a full half hour has passed. Because the titular Shaun (Simon Pegg), unlike most of the cardboard characters who populate zombie movies, aren’t simply waiting around for the undead to appear to justify their existence. Shaun’s got enough middle-class problems and worries to keep him occupied without his life becoming a horror movie. He’s a twenty-nine-year old assistant manager in an appliance store; his roommate and best friend since childhood, Ed (Nick Frost), is a loutish layabout who confines Shaun’s life to the local pub and saps whatever glimmers of ambition happen to arise. Shaun’s girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) both appreciates his easygoing nature and yet is frustrated by his unwillingness to become more — to commit to change, to take charge of his life, even to find someplace else for them to eat aside from the Winchester Pub.

Our story, then, doesn’t begin with skeletal hands thrusting up from mouldering graves, or even from news reports of violent attacks by strangely decomposed-looking assailants; it begins with Shaun failing a test in his relationship with Liz, and getting dumped. He has no prospects at work; his relationship with his mother is compromised by the longstanding tension with his stepfather Philip (Bill Nighy); and Ed is too much of a self-absorbed slob to even recognize that this dead-end existence isn’s Shaun’s dream life.

And THEN the dead start rising.

“And they said that study-at-home fence-pounding course wouldn’t come in handy!”

It says something about modern middle-class self-absorption (And I’m under no illusions that this is in any way exclusively British) that it takes so long for Shaun, Ed, or their other roommate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) to figure out what’s going on. Reports on the news sound exactly like every other serious-yet-boring report when you’re flipping past, looking for something good to watch. A little bit of trash strewn about the streets on your way to the market isn’t all that noticeable, if you’re not a morning person. The occasional shambling zombie could easily be mistaken for a shambling homeless person, especially the zombie who actually IS a homeless person. And the sallow-faced glassy-eyed recently deceased person they find stumbling around their back yard? It’s no mystery that they assume her to be drunk, is it? I mean, who is going to leap to the conclusion that their corner of suburbia has become zombie-infested without overwhelming evidence?

And what makes the movie delightsome is that Shaun’s and Ed’s reactions and survival plans are entirely believable. Not terribly intelligent, no, but certainly not stupid in the entirely counterintuitive way that most zombie movie characters’ actions are. Sure, the news says to stay indoors and not to try to reach loved ones, but come on — Shaun’s mom and his recently-ex girlfriend is out there somewhere, and honestly, how hard could it be? Just nab some wheels, grab their loved ones, and make it back to the most defensible location they can think of: the pub.

“Look, the pub! …Look, at least it’s not a shopping mall.”

The DVD box bears a laudatory quote from Peter Jackson, although it credits him as “Producer/Director, Lord of the Rings Trilogy” and makes no mention of Dead Alive (1992), which is the reason that someone wanted to get a quote from Jackson in the first place. But this movie isn’t much like Dead Alive, apart from the simple label of “zombie comedy.” (”You mean there’s more than one way to make a comedy with zombies?”) Jackson’s movie is meant to be as over-the-top as possible, finding comedy in pure gory excess as he grams the movie with as much gruesome shtick as possible. Shaun of the Dead does have a full helping of gore, and plenty of zombie gags, but the point of the movie isn’t excess; rather, it’s mundanity. If the dead do rise, how will some stunningly normal people, people with mainstream problems and resources, react? And because this movie isn’t a dedicated farce, there are moments of sober emotion which are perfectly legitimate within a comedy framework, without feeling like scenes tacked on to show some obligatory depth. Two such scenes stand out for me: Shaun drinking in the pub with Ed just after being dumped, silent tears filling his eyes as Ed obliviously does his orangutan impression to “cheer him up,” not realizing that he’s merely demonstrating the abysmally pointless life that’s staring Shaun in the face. And Shaun’s reaction to his mother’s infected bite and incipient zombiehood.

However… and boy, I know this is going to raise some hackles… the level of enthusiasm with which this movie is touted in the genre movie community says more about the other movies that form its context. It’s the same reaction I had when Gladiator (2000) won Best Picture; sure, it was good solid entertainment, but what does it say for the moviemaking industry that it could seriously be considered the best movie of the year? In the same vein, Shaun of the Dead is certainly a competent piece of entertainment, made with energy and skill, but the fact that it’s treated as an exceptional movie says more about how little we expect from the movies as a whole.

“FREEBIRD!!!”

Because really, everything in this movie is something we’ve seen before. From the larger story motifs (Hapless nice guy with slobby friend and frustrated girlfriend? Check) to the more genre-specific details (Using improvised weapons on zombies? Check), it’s not so much an intentional homage as a natural outgrowth of plenty of other movies. The moving “I’m going to try not to come back” scene from Dawn of the Dead (1978) is echoed strongly in Shaun’s mom’s death, and even the “acting like zombies to fool the zombies” idea has been used a number of times since I first saw it in Redneck Zombies (1987).

Now, before you fire off that angry email, please remember: I’m not saying this movie does it poorly. The “acting like zombies” scene is done very well. (Like I’m going to say that Redneck Zombies did ANYTHING it did better than anyone else.) And to be honest, Ed’s orangutan impression in pretty darned good. What I’m trying to point out is this: that a GOOD movie which draws well on what has come before shouldn’t be jawdroppingly amazing; if it is, we’ve become far too complacent in expecting mediocre entertainment from an industry that has no excuses. Honestly, if Detroit produced cars like Hollywood produces movies, the highways of America would be impassable for the twisted metal and charred corpses.

When fireaxes are outlawed, only outlaws with have fireaxes.

All of which means… that I’ve gone off on a tangent. So here’s the lame wrap-up: Shaun of the Dead is clever, well-paced, and populated by believable yet humorous characters. It breaks no ground, but it uses well the earth that has been turned by those who came before.