It’s time for me to admit that I’m one of those people who like to maintain some order within theirDVD collection. I’m not so far gone as to alphabetise them, but I do line my shelves in a specific genre order – horror leads into sci-fi, which leads into thriller and drama, then comedies, chick flicks, musicals, and finally, classics. Within each genre you can find certain subgenres; horror is the best, with slasher, torture porn, creature flicks, and Stephen King movies all having a singular section. Zombie movies also hold a place. Which brings me to Shaun of the Dead. Movies like these are hard for me to categorise; is it a zombie flick, belonging to the horror section, or is it simply another comedy, belonging in the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost sub-section of bad bro-comedies.
Shaun (Simon Pegg) is an aging salesman, sharing a flat with an old mate Ed (Nick Frost), dating a woman called Liz (Kate Ashfield). Shaun starts noticing odd signs, newspaper stories, news breaks, street scenes, they all add up to a strange sickness plaguing the streets. After getting dumped by Liz, Shaun decides to straighten out his life, reuniting with his mum, winning Liz back, and all round “succeeding”. Unfortunately, a slight problem comes about when the dead start rising.
Obviously, if it’s a Pegg/Frost due there’s going to be comedy, but the far out gore factor in some scenes begs the question of its horror tendencies. The zombies are great – their development from human to corpse is fantastic, and the blood and bite makeup is pretty good. But Shaun of the Dead lays mostly in the comedy genre, or at least, it lies in the Pegg/Frost comedy genre. I’ll leave it to you to determine if killing a zombie to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” is actually comedy or not.
Shaun of the Dead is good for a few easy laughs, mainly in the zombie slaughtering department. As usual, you can get a few giggles from Pegg and Frost’s on screen chemistry. You want them to survive, which is something. The two work wonderfully well together, even if they play the same role in every movie combo to date. I’m not a huge fan of the pair – Hot Fuzz was funnier then Shaun of the Dead, and what I’ve seen of Paul is ok – so I wasn’t as impressed with Shaun of the Dead as I could have been. A zombie comedy works well in Zombieland, but I don’t think Pegg/Frost have the necessary sophistication to pull off something similar. Two and a Half Stars.
I’m not sure I completely understand your review, I agree this film does blur some lines between genres, but does that take away from it is a whole? You’re saying its not actually funny, but is it supposed to be? I agree it’s not really laugh out loud funny, but it has a lot more than a typical “keep you laughing so you never realize there is no plot” type of movie. There is a massive underlying theme in this film that I really appreciate, the idea that one’s life can become so boring and stagnant that zombies could be taking over and you wouldn’t even notice. This seems like the device of a comedy, and it works well, although its not hysterically hilarious. There are also a number of other witty moments, which are very enjoyable, although not knee slappingly funny, for example, the scene where the group passes the other random group of humans which are their “bizzaro equals.” This is pointing out the obvious stereotypes of the characters in the film, and showing an extreme sense of self awareness, insomuch that the characters still do work for the plot. While there are successful comedic elements, there are as well successful horror elements, which you yourself admitted with the makeup, blood, etc. There are also some excellent horror moments, for example, when they find the first zombie in the garden, they accidentally kill her in a scene which is shockingly more brutal than we the audience and they the characters expected. So while I agree with your argument that “Shaun of the Dead” falls between the cracks of a few different genres, I think that is part of what makes it a good film. I won’t say it is great, but given it was pretty original when it first premiered, I will give it a healthy three and a half out of five stars, and a thumbs up as a refreshingly entertaining movie.
I think we will have to agree to disagree. Pointing out obvious stereotypes in a movie may show a basic level of self awareness, but any writer keen enough to figure this out should have changed it. I’m a writer, and I’ve studied film writing, and the first thing you’re taught it that writers are encouraged to break stereotypes, not follow them/point them out. If you have to include a stereotype, you try to hide it. On the flip side, if the audience is so extremely dull that they need the writers to point out the movies stereotypical group of people, then they’re not smart enough to realise irony in that scene anyway.
Shaun of the Dead was marketed as a comedy, and I’m afraid it just didn’t live up to that standard. The makeup was great, and the gore was intense, but I do believe this genre-mashing did detract from movie as a whole. At one time, its a comedy, at another, its a horror. In the scene you mentioned, when they kill the first zombies, they follow a terrifically gore filled scene with another, ridiculous attempt at comedy – killing zombies with LP records. The attempts at mashing these two genres into one leaves the audience so disappointed, because neither is truly achieved. Like most of Simon Pegg’s comedies, you have to be a half wit to find it funny. Seriously, beheading a zombie with a record? Please. The underlying theme you mentioned had the potential to be hilarious, but the attempts at genre-mashing detracted from it so much that after the first few zombie scenes it lays forgotten in the background.
This film had so much potential, but never truly delivered. Two and a half stars was generous.
Shaun Of The Dead is a horror/comedy type movie for people who might not like the bloody,brutal,killing type movies that much. Because it frightens you and makes you laugh at the same time.
Good work.
Malcomb