Review: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The other night, me and my other half had a much needed film night in. Pizza was ordered, the freezer was stocked with ice-cream, and we just needed to decide what to watch. Then he just happened to casually mention that he'd never seen Shaun of the Dead before. What! Well, that was one dilemma solved! When will you pair learn to hide your shameful non-movie watchingness, you just get shouted at from all angles!!

Shaun of the Dead is the first of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, and also fits into the extremely niche zombie rom-com genre! A Zom-com if you will! Shaun (Simon Pegg) isn't having a great time. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) has just dumped him; she's tired of spending every night at the Winchester pub with Shaun and his best friend Ed (Nick Frost). To drown his woes, Ed takes Shaun to the Winchester pub to cheer him up. Ed's speech is actually foreshadowing the rest of the film if you listen carefully!



So, Shaun and Ed get horrifically drunk, completely p*ss off their housemate Pete by playing electric music in the middle of the night, and wake up the next morning to find out that everyone around them has turned into a zombie. Despite the warnings of the news reporter on TV, Shaun and Ed set out to rescue his Mother (but not Philip, sorry) and Liz.  Just reminds me how much I love the scene when they are deciding on the plan:

"We take Pete's car, we drive over to Mum's, we go in, take care of Philip - "I'm so sorry, Philip" - then we grab Mum, we go over to Liz's place, hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for this whole thing to blow over. "

I don't watch horror films and the only other zombie film I've seen is Zombieland, so I can't really discuss the parody characteristics of Shaun of the Dead, but as a comedy, I absolutely love it. From terrible throwing skills to Ed's driving skills, this film makes me laugh just as much every time I watch it. I don't remember when I first saw it, but I know it was with my Dad, and we still talk about it and quote it all the time. We were on a caravan holiday and it just happened to be on TV one evening, and so we sat and watched it on a TV smaller than most tablet screens!

I too am not a horror fan but I am a zom-com fan (i'm not entirely sure if I came up with this or its a common thing to call them zom-com's but for the purpose of this post, I am staking claim!).  This was a great start to what turned out to be an awesome trilogy, I still love the scene where Shaun and Ed are throwing records at the zombie lady but don't want to throw the 'good ones'.  I laughed out loud nearly all the way through this film, its typical British humour paired with a zombie apocalypse - what more could you ask for?!

Don't be fooled though, because nestled in this loud-out-loud comedy are some serious moments that really grab you. I'm sure everyone must have seen this but spoiler alert anyway: the part where Shaun has to shoot his Mother brought a genuine tear to my eye.  I'm pretty sure the first time I saw this I cried, she was so lovely about it all as well!

I recently got a copy of Shaun of the Dead on DVD as I'm pretty sure the last copy is my Dad's, and there are a crazy amount of extras to go through. I've already watched the gag reel which is great, and there's a little section for the plot holes too. I'll make sure I get through all of it at some point! We need to have a movie night solely dedicated to the Cornetto Trilogy and its extras!!!

Now, I don't like giving out full scores because I tend to think that nothing can be perfect, but if any film deserves it from me, it's Shaun of the Dead.  Ooooh this is interesting, have you given a 10 before?  I don't remember seeing one!! I think Gone Girl is my only other 10 so far!

I did love this film, I can't give it a 10 because it's not up there with my other 10's but it's pretty close.