I’m not usually one for comedy, especially when it comes to films and the even more dreaded ‘romantic comedy’ genre which takes the word dire to whole new levels. With this in mind you would have thought that a film with the tag line “A romantic comedy. With zombies.” would be a right turn-off, but you’d be wrong!
Shaun of the Dead – 9/10
I first saw ‘Shaun of the Dead‘ in the cinema when it first came out. At the time I wasn’t sure what to expect but I loved it. It’s British humor at its very best, but at the same time there’s nothing quite like it. I didn’t do a proper review on the site origionally because I was bogged down in exams but I recently got a chance to watch the DVD and though I might comment for what its worth!
For starters it isn’t really romantic and it isn’t really horror – its a comedic mix of both with a load of zombies thrown in for good measure. The astute amongst you might notice the titles similarity to the 1968 classic ‘Night of the Living Dead‘ which it spoofs a lot of content from but crucially not in a derogatory way. The films contains a myriad of nods to other classics too numerous to mention.
The movie centers around Shaun (Simon Pegg) who is your below average thirty-something who it seems has no real goal in life. He drives his long suffering girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) around the bend with his mindlessness and seems to pay more attention to his fellow, rather deranged, pals and house-mates. Without warning the undead begin to walk the earth (or at least a small suburb in London!) and it’s a race against time for Shaun to not only rescue Liz but his mum and friends as well.
As you can imagine there’s a lot of blood-and-guts and zombies. Throughout this rather surreal ride there are plenty of moments when you’ll be laughing but feel guilty for doing so at the same time. One such moment comes when a zombified girl gets impaled on a steak but then gets up continues of her rampage – its pretty horrific but hilarious at the same time! Any director that can achieve both extremes at the same time must be pretty good in my book!
It’s a cult classic in the making. All-in-all if you don’t mind rather low budget British comedies with a bit of gore then this is for you.
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