Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

“In the time of crisis, a Hero will rise…from his sofa“.

In 2004, director Edgar Wright and writer Simon Pegg brought to screen a brilliant zombie comedy that is destined to be a “cult classic”. The team of Wright and Pegg skillfully blended romance, horror, zombies and comedy in this rib-tickling potboiler. “Shaun Of The Dead” is not an out and out comedy. It is just as much a parody of the old zombie-horror movies as it is a tribute to them. So there is also plenty of gore to go along with the comedy. It’s an almost perfect mixture that leaves its target audience extremely satisfied.

Shaun (Simon Pegg), a 29-year old Londoner, lives with his flatmates, Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) and Ed (Nick Frost). The three of them are distinctly different from each other. While Pete is a responsible guy, Ed is the ultimate sloth. Shaun is somehwhere in-between. He is neither as irresponsible or lazy as the irascible stoner Ed; but he is also not quite as competent and reliable as Pete. Shaun works at a departmental store and though he is in charge of a team, he clearly lacks the leadership qualities. Shaun has a girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). But Shaun loves spending more time with his flatmate Ed who is also his best friend. He likes to go with Ed to a local pub called Winchester, drink some beer and listen to Ed’s fart jokes. But he also doesn’t want to lose Liz. So he makes sure that all three of them, i.e Liz, Shaun and Ed spend time together always in Winchester. Liz loves Shaun, but is clearly getting tired of these “romantic” night-outs involving Ed and Winchester. She wants to do something different and spend some time just with Shaun. An argument ensues between her and Shaun. Shaun somehow saves his ass that night by saying that he’ll book a table for just the two of them in some nice restaurant and spend some quality time with her. So next day when Shaun, negligently, forgets to to do that and in order to make it up to her asks her to come to Winchester, Liz has had enough and she dumps him. Just when Shaun thinks it’s all over, he gets an opportunity to prove to Liz that he is not such a loser at all. And the opportunity comes when the dead awaken. London is fast changing ito a zombie town and Shaun just might be able to save the day. So Shaun and Ed armed wih a cricket bat and shovel plan to rescue their loved ones and retreat to the Winchester where they can have a nice cold pint and wait for all of this to blow over.

The entire movie for most part toys with the old zombie films. And it’s done in a hilarious way. Shaun and Ed are so self-absorbed that they simply fail to notice things happening around them. In one particularly hilarious scene, Shaun wakes up and drags himself to the convenience store nearby and back while still half-asleep and fails to notice the walking undead around him. In fact, he mistakes one of them for a beggar and apologises to him saying he doesn’t have any change. These ultimate couch-potatoes do not realise while channel-surfing that London is being infested with the zombies. So when they encounter the first female zombie in Shaun’s garden, all they think is “Oh my god…she is soooooo drunk”. There’s another great scene where Shaun and Ed try to use Shaun’s vinyl records as frisbees against the zombies. They hear it on the TV that the only way stop the undead is by bashing their head or blowing their brains out. So they try to use the Vinyl records as weapons against the zombies. But before they can throw any of it, they have to analyse whether that disk is really throwable. “Purple Rain? No; Sign o’ the Times? Definitely not; The “Batman” soundtrack? Throw it.”. There is a another brilliant dream sequence where Shaun and Ed plan their heroic rescue attempt and kill Shaun’s step-dad (the amazing Bill Nighy). Edgar Wright employs a little flashy camera work. But it actually suits the tone of the movie. The humor just keeps coming and the visuals only enhance the humor. A lot of the humor here is subtle; like, Shaun’s zombie-like routine after just waking up…But Wright and Pegg make sure that there is something for everyone. Wright and Pegg play around with almost all the clichés of the zombie movie and provide us with great entertainment. Their brand of inventive humor keeps us chuckling throughout the movie. Sure the movie loses a little of its zing, once our party gets into Winchester. That’s when the humor dries up and only the fear of losing the loved ones takes over. This part is not really in-synch with the entire tone of the movie. But apart from the final 15-20 minutes, the movie truly rocks. But the ending scene showing us the uses of zombies after they have been tamed is again brilliant and leaves us with a big smile on our face.

Simon Pegg, who co-wrote this script, gives an amazing performance. He understands his character and makes sure that Shaun comes across as a slacker about whom we care, instead of a complete loser. Nick Frost’s Ed is a trifle annoying. But his bawdy style complements Pegg’s slightly restrained performance and together they prove to be quite a funny pair. Kate Ashfield doesn’t have a lot to do. But she does a decent job and so does the rest of the case.

“Shaun Of The Dead” may not be the best comedy. But it’s a brilliant and dazzlingly inventive comedy. Despite its lame last 15-20 minutes, this is truly a superior movie. I have never seen such a consistent flow of humor in a recent movie. Bless Mr. Wright and Mr. Pegg for bringing the undead back in this fashion! I’d definitely recommend this movie to all comedy-lovers.