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Shaun of the Dead
Directed by Edgar Wright.
Story: Dawn of the Dead in London, for laughs. Running Time: 99 minutes.
Take a host of British actors from recent black TV comedies, take the mick out of a zombie flick currently doing the rounds, throw in a budget big enough to get convincingly icky make-up and you have Shaun of the Dead.
I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: Plenty of comedy violence. To enjoy this film you should be: Into British black comedy dramas.
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The success of a film like this largely depends on two factors - the cast and the script.
If judged on the cast alone, we're looking at an all-time classic.
Simon Pegg long ago nailed the boring-job-tries-hard-but-always-cocks-up character Shaun and delivers the part well.
Nick Frost finds his alter-ego too, with the overtly slobby and useless best mate.
Kate Ashfield is simply perfect as Shaun's girlfriend struggling with Shaun's mediocrity -
she is one of the few performers on screen anywhere who are so good at their profession that you genuinely can't tell
the difference between their acting and a fly-on-the-wall shot of their everyday life. She seems real,
in a way rarely seen and it's a crying shame that we don't see more of her on our screens.
Lucy Davis and Dylan Moran make up the numbers as the friends-couple, but they both suffer from
having created superb characters in the past (Dawn in The Office and Bernard in Black Books),
so their performances here, albeit suitable, stand out only as shadows of their previous work.
Bill Nighy capitalises on his eerie side to good effect as Shaun's step-dad, and Penelope Wilton
repeats her Calendar Girls beginning-to-lose-grip-on-reality performance as Shaun's dappy mum.
For some reason they went to the trouble of employing Martin Freeman (The Office's Tim), Tamsin Greig (Black Books)
and Matt Lucas (George Dawes and Little Britain), but only gave them 10 seconds on screen and 2 words between them -
I can't think of a time when so much talent has been so spuriously wasted, however I guess it serves as a
demonstration of the strength of the cast as a whole. Oh, and Peter Serafinowicz (from Hardware) –
you might want to try some horror roles, your zombie was genuinely chilling.
The direction and editing fit together beautifully, clearly some effort has been taken to create
a fresh and polished feel – the perfect example being the long, single-shot mobile-camera scene that follows
Shaun from his house to the corner shop and back. The scene is repeated in the post-zombie world, with Shaun
unaware of the wandering undead. Every detail of the scene is carefully changed in such a way as to represent
the destruction of the civilisation, yet still remaining sufficiently congruous for the viewer to believe that
Shaun might notice nothing different. The slick editing is evident in the momentary cut-scenes, with half-second
glimpses of flush-sink-handclap-right-let’s-go easily and effectively conveying a change of scene.
As for the script, it starts well with the first half hour setting the scene nicely with some sharp
gags and plenty of rib-tickling, though not guffawsome moments, which continue well into the zombie-bashing.
Unfortunately, once into the finishing sprint, the drama usurps the comedy and thus swallows much of its charm.
The levity continues even in the most serious moments, resulting in an uncomfortable hybrid that isn’t dramatic
enough for a drama and isn’t funny enough for a comedy. A script’s power in a film like this is generated by
putting ordinary people in extraordinary situations and making it believable – and this is much of the reason
why the build-up works so well. Lines such as, “he’s got an arm off!” are pure genius and will work every time -
and personally I can watch overblown head-bashing with a spade all day long. But once the rampant zombie hordes
start climbing through the windows, the believability leaves through the back door and strands Shaun and co. with
gags rapidly running out as fast as shotgun shells. It's still entertaining enough - I would happily watch this
terrific cast reading the dictionary - but the unsatisfying second half fails to live up to the promising standard
set by the opening scenes.
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