Movie Review – "Shaun of the Dead" by Tim Hannigan

I had a chance to check out a Sneak Preview of "Shaun of the Dead" last night, and I highly recommend this film to any film fan. This is the rare movie which has something for everyone.

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a late-twenties slacker, desperately clinging to his youth and trying to avoid any of the responsibilities of adulthood. He works at an electronics store with a bunch of teenagers, he sits around playing video games with his unemployed roommate Ed (Nick Frost), and takes his girlfriend to the same pub every night for drinks. Fed up with his lack of direction, his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashford) finally ends the relationship.

Shaun is so caught up in his own life he does not pay any attention to what is going on around him. There is a hilarious scene where he walks to the corner store, as per routine, and fails to realize the carnage around him as a zombie plague is unleashed on the United Kingdom. By the time it dawns on him (pardon the pun) that the streets are filled with flesh-eating zombies (although the characters in the film refuse to use the "z-word") he sets out to save his loved ones and prove to those around him that he can be a man of action.

The film is truly genre-defying. The heart of the film is a comedy. And it is a very effective comedy. People who would not normally enjoy horror films will still get their money’s worth on this film for the laughs alone. What sets this film apart from other comedies in the horror genre is that it is not laughing at the genre. It is not poking fun at zombie films. Rather, it finds comedic situations because of the characters.

The film is also a horror film. The end sequence is very scary, as the creatures that you have been having such fun with close in on the characters. And the characters are not the one-dimensional stereotypes found in many horror films. Because of the comedy, the audience really likes these characters as we get to know them over the course of the film. Watching zombies closing in on characters you actually care about makes the movie even more terrifying (as opposed to, say "Resident Evil Apocalypse").

As a fan of Romero’s "Dead" films it is also fun to watch for all of the references to that series. They range from the obvious ("We’re coming to get you Barbara") to the more obscure (check out the name of the electronics store). This film also delivers some gore-soaked moments, reminiscent of the Dead films. At a recent convention in Toronto, I attended a discussion with George Romero. He told the audience that they shouldn’t just make a zombie film, but that the film should be about something. The Dead films always stand head and shoulders above other films in the genre because there was an underlying theme commenting on society. This is missing from many horror films such as "Resident Evil" and even "Dawn of the Dead 2004". "Shaun of the Dead", however, manages to comment on our society while making us laugh and scream. In that way, it manages to capture the spirit of the Romero films with a new twist.

GRADE: B+

Review By Tim Hannigan
Tim is a contributing writer to MoviesOnline.