Shaun of the Dead [MA]

Life is going nowhere for Shaun. He spends all his time at his favourite pub, the Winchester, with his freeloading best mate Ed, he has a shaky relationship with his mum and his stepdad, and he neglects his girlfriend Liz. For Shaun it’s going to take something major to get him to turn his life around…like the Dead returning to life to feast on the living. 

I do like Simon Pegg, I think he’s a good actor, but it has to be said that the movies he writes as well as stars in are the real gems of his career. The cover of Shaun of the Dead says that it’s “a romantic comedy…with zombies”. Says it all really. This movie is, without a doubt, one of the most hysterical, original, edgy, and clever comedies to grace our screens.

Life is going nowhere for Shaun. He spends all his time at his favourite pub, the Winchester, with his freeloading best mate, Ed, he has a shaky relationship with his mum and his stepdad, and he neglects his girlfriend Liz. For Shaun, it’s going to take something major to get him to take action and turn his life around… something like the Dead returning to life to feast on the living. 

I’m usually not one for the gory and violent comedy, but what’s great about Shaun of the Dead is that the violence and gore is only an ingredient to making the film and not something that keeps the film moving forward. The bigger picture, and indeed the central humour of the film, is Shaun having epiphanies about his life and its lack of direction and his taking action to prove to Liz, her friends, and himself, that he can change and achieve something. 

Shaun of the Dead is a wonderfully original film that can appeal to any audience because there are so many different elements to it. There is the obvious horror and gore element that will appeal to all bloodnuts in the audience. Then there is the romance, albeit somewhat awkward and unconventional that will appeal to all romantics, hopeless or otherwise. On top of both these elements you have wonderful displays of drama, suspense, terror, and really clever comedic moments. One of my personal favourite scenes is towards the climax of the film where the central trio are brutally bludgeoning a zombie. Each violent blow is done in time to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now and the action just looks as fun and natural as a pillow fight. It’s bloody brilliant! 

Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, Dylan Moran, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Peter Serafinowicz, and featuring familiar faces such as Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig, Shaun of the Dead is a brilliant film packed with action, violence, cannibalism, romance, blood, horror, and comedy. It’s literally a bloody fantastic film!