31 Days of Halloween Day 10: Shaun of The Dead
October 16th 2010 22:48
I do admit, I like me some cheesy, silly, stupid movies. But I will only admit to liking them in more than just blue hyperlinks if they have a hint of nerdiness, too.
Luckily, this movie, concluding what appears to be (in hindsight) my British long weekend of horror flicks, has a decent dose of it.
I really can't believe I've only just seen this. In two years, I'll probably finally see Avatar. A lot of my friends and family members still talk about this movie, and I have had to nod my head and laugh as if I've also watched it, but inside I felt like a pathetic liar. Because I was. Well, no more! I may have hyped it up, but I honestly did enjoy watching it, and it was a refreshing departure from the other movies I have been reviewing lately. Perhaps I'm just too much of a wuss for horror movies, because this is really more of a comedy, and was in fact, jokingly marketed as "a romantic comedy with zombies". As you do.
We open the movie with Shaun (Simon Pegg), showing us just how dreary and predictable his life is, starting with his morning routine: jam on toast, being yelled at by his uptight, workaholic housemate for leaving the door open, buying a strawberry Cornetto and Diet coke from the corner shop and getting smacked in the head with an idiot child's football. At work, he manages a group of pimply-faced, disinterested, SMS-addicted teenage (figurative) zombies, who laugh at him when he says he's not going to be there forever. He's 29, and even though his life is going nowhere, he seems to enjoy his routine, which always ends at the same pub - The Winchester.
This is where his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) decides to dump him, fearing she'll turn into one of the (figurative) zombies who keep coming there day in, day out. While Shaun has clearly come to love his routine, she is getting sick of it, leaving him to get cry and shit-faced with Ed (Nick Frost), his pot-dealing, slobbing couch potato housemate whose only contributions are binge-drinking debris and a rather piss-poor orang-utan impression.
Hungover (or possibly still drunk) the next morning, he suddenly decides that his breakup with Liz was a catharsis, and that he has to change to win her back. Unfortunately, this moment happens to coincide with a nascent zombie outbreak affecting the greater London area, which threatens to make things difficult.
The undead invasion isn't without its merits, though - it seems to have calmed down their uptight housemate, has shuffled some of Liz's priorities (slightly), brings Shaun closer to his stepdad (in a way), and encourages Shaun and Ed to finally sort out their vinyl record collection (while using them as weapons). In fact, a routine that both romantic leads seem to tire of ends up being the very thing that saves them. Well, most of them.
With humour slotted into all the right places (inbetween references to movies to which it's paying homage, and sickening violence), the pacing never lags, and the comic timing developed by Pegg during his Spaced years has not gone to waste. He manages to portray Shaun as both likable and pathetic, getting us to root for him rather than write him off as some fruitless, inconsiderate dosser. On that note, Frost is also convincing as an irritating but affable moron, and is almost definitely comparable to at least one of your mates. There are also some solid turns from the awesome Nick Moran and Lucy Davis as Liz's flatmates David and Diane, and two quite heartfelt and "typical British parent" performances from Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton.
Glad I watched it in the end and even if the zombie metaphors (teenage shop workers, supermarket checkout operators, bus wankers) were a bit heavy-handed, they make up for it with some guffaw-inducing moments. Of note is the scene in which the group realise the street around the pub is crawling with zombies, and in order to get past them, Diane uses her skills as a failed actress to teach everyone how to act like one of the undead. But, as this movie is bound to contain a few deaths, some of the humour is quelled by some pretty serious moments, and I found the choice of deaths to be a bit fun-ruining. Other than that, it's definitely worth a watch.
Luckily, this movie, concluding what appears to be (in hindsight) my British long weekend of horror flicks, has a decent dose of it.
I really can't believe I've only just seen this. In two years, I'll probably finally see Avatar. A lot of my friends and family members still talk about this movie, and I have had to nod my head and laugh as if I've also watched it, but inside I felt like a pathetic liar. Because I was. Well, no more! I may have hyped it up, but I honestly did enjoy watching it, and it was a refreshing departure from the other movies I have been reviewing lately. Perhaps I'm just too much of a wuss for horror movies, because this is really more of a comedy, and was in fact, jokingly marketed as "a romantic comedy with zombies". As you do.
We open the movie with Shaun (Simon Pegg), showing us just how dreary and predictable his life is, starting with his morning routine: jam on toast, being yelled at by his uptight, workaholic housemate for leaving the door open, buying a strawberry Cornetto and Diet coke from the corner shop and getting smacked in the head with an idiot child's football. At work, he manages a group of pimply-faced, disinterested, SMS-addicted teenage (figurative) zombies, who laugh at him when he says he's not going to be there forever. He's 29, and even though his life is going nowhere, he seems to enjoy his routine, which always ends at the same pub - The Winchester.
This is where his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) decides to dump him, fearing she'll turn into one of the (figurative) zombies who keep coming there day in, day out. While Shaun has clearly come to love his routine, she is getting sick of it, leaving him to get cry and shit-faced with Ed (Nick Frost), his pot-dealing, slobbing couch potato housemate whose only contributions are binge-drinking debris and a rather piss-poor orang-utan impression.
Hungover (or possibly still drunk) the next morning, he suddenly decides that his breakup with Liz was a catharsis, and that he has to change to win her back. Unfortunately, this moment happens to coincide with a nascent zombie outbreak affecting the greater London area, which threatens to make things difficult.
The undead invasion isn't without its merits, though - it seems to have calmed down their uptight housemate, has shuffled some of Liz's priorities (slightly), brings Shaun closer to his stepdad (in a way), and encourages Shaun and Ed to finally sort out their vinyl record collection (while using them as weapons). In fact, a routine that both romantic leads seem to tire of ends up being the very thing that saves them. Well, most of them.
With humour slotted into all the right places (inbetween references to movies to which it's paying homage, and sickening violence), the pacing never lags, and the comic timing developed by Pegg during his Spaced years has not gone to waste. He manages to portray Shaun as both likable and pathetic, getting us to root for him rather than write him off as some fruitless, inconsiderate dosser. On that note, Frost is also convincing as an irritating but affable moron, and is almost definitely comparable to at least one of your mates. There are also some solid turns from the awesome Nick Moran and Lucy Davis as Liz's flatmates David and Diane, and two quite heartfelt and "typical British parent" performances from Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton.
Glad I watched it in the end and even if the zombie metaphors (teenage shop workers, supermarket checkout operators, bus wankers) were a bit heavy-handed, they make up for it with some guffaw-inducing moments. Of note is the scene in which the group realise the street around the pub is crawling with zombies, and in order to get past them, Diane uses her skills as a failed actress to teach everyone how to act like one of the undead. But, as this movie is bound to contain a few deaths, some of the humour is quelled by some pretty serious moments, and I found the choice of deaths to be a bit fun-ruining. Other than that, it's definitely worth a watch.
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I love this movie. Easily the best horror-comedy ever. Although I do like Young Frankenstein a lot. And I have a soft squishy spot for Peter Jackson's Braindead, and not just because I worked on it. And Re-Animator's a hoot too. As is The Return of the Living Dead[/LINK]. Okay, and Innocent Blood is a blackly comic romp. Hmmm. So there's a few horror comedies I don't mind.
But [LINK=http://www.horrorphile.net/movie-review-of-shaun-of-the-dead/]Shaun of the Dead is the best.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by The Film Geekette
The Film Geekette