I was not too desperate to see this film, but I was convinced by the good press. That and the fact it’s from the same people that brought spaced to Channel 4, and I did enjoy those episodes of Spaced that I managed to catch.
Shaun of the dead is pitched as a ‘RomZom’ - a romantic comedy, with zombies. To be fair I think this more a play on the fact most British films are romantic comedies, as there was not romance in the film - unless giving your girlfriend a bunch of flowers intended for your mum is seen as romantic these days!
The film starts of with a kind of comment on society - that most of us behave like zombies everyday, doing the same things, making the same journeys, the same mistakes. This was captured with a scene on the bus with all its passengers looking vacant - but this was perhaps a little too obvious.
So no romance as such - what about the comedy? There were plenty of laughable scenes, and with a cast list that includes Simon Pegg (Spaced, Big Train, Alan Partridge), Nick Frost (Spaced), Lucy Davis (The Office), Dylan Moran (Black Books) and Peter Serafinowicz (Hardware) you would expect this. The scene in which Shaun and his best mate Ed are killing a zombie with records - but selecting which ones to throw first - classic!
Perhaps it would have been too much to ask to see more of Yvonne (Jessica Stevenson) and her group of friends also trying to escape the zombies - being played by Matt Lucas, Reese Shearsmith and Martin Freeman.
With it’s fair share of emotion - like Shaun’s step-fathers finally words to him before dying, and having to shot his mum - but I can’t say I felt touched given that the situation played off with the comedy made it all seem unrealistic.
Certainly an enjoyable film, it is probably 10 times more enjoyable if your a fan of the genre. There are little references all over the place (or so I’m told!). Yet the are other references - such as flicking through the TV channels - all showing news about the zombie attack except T4!
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