Shaun Of The Dead
When George Romero set out to make the second of his legendary âLiving Deadâ zombie trilogy (Dawn), he succeeded in making a better film than the murky original by not only making an epic, blood and guts, gore filled horror movie, but he also achieved the not so mean feat of including some legitimate social satire and commentary by (through the use of the shopping mall setting) basically stating that in many ways, the most ideal existence for anyone in our society is to just be a mindless, consummate consumer which allows one to enjoy the latest trends, buy the latest products, and overall achieve a kind of blinders forth sedation with little to no regard to the needs of the individual spirit (a rarely touched cinematic theme whose other notable examples include Ned Beattyâs thunderous speech in Network and much of the alien master plan in They Live). In short, most of us are already zombies to begin with, regardless of whether weâre literally dead or not. Flash forward 25 years from Romeroâs classic and itâs hardly debatable that weâve actually gotten even worse and then even moreso in recent years since, but still any attempt to do a zombie movie update on these ideas would no doubt have a tough road to hoe, as scores of low budget, badly written, near amateur level zombie movies have come down the pike since, not trying hardly at all to invoke any kind of deep thought but rather instead displaying cocky kids using Mommy / Daddy money to make their own zombie movie mostly just so they can show off their own homemade special gore effects and give their little friends an excuse to wear ghoul makeup and lurch around in front of a camera. Any attempt at doing a straight, serious update (short of the needless remake) of Romeroâs concepts was clearly doomed to failure and even taking on the direction of a comedic approach (also not a new idea) was itself a rather iffy proposition at best, but when the challenge was taken up in 2004 by the core creative team of the BBC sitcom Spaced (Director Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost), the initial thought was that it wouldnât do much business outside of its home country in Great Britain, as Spaced was widely considered to be one of those âinsideâ type comedy shows with a small but rabid fanbase where much of the comic mileage was based around the repeated useage of certain catchphrases along with various winks and nods to the audience that any viewer would have to be completely plugged and programmed into in order to fully enjoy and appreciate it. That being said, while this movie contains arguably a few too many nods and winks of its own to the original show, the opening scenes showing the residents of London (clearly dejected and defeated by life itself) miserably going about their daily lives in such a way that they almost appear automated themselves even before the zombie apocalypse begins sets the stage for a modern day horror / comedy classic with a wicked twist, as it asks us, what if our main characters who are forced to deal with the chaos are pretty much themselves just slackers / losers more concerned with playing their video games rather than worrying about some perceived âbright futureâ ahead? Moreso, what if they were so caught up in their own little world that they almost completely failed to notice that the actual world around them was crumbling apart for real (mostly because they almost never watch the actual news)?? Into this scenario we bring Shaun (Pegg) and Ed (Frost), two guys who spend as much time as possible at their beloved local pub (The Winchester) as they go through life with absolutely no direction whatsoever, with Shaun barely clinging to any kind of an existence by working in an electronics store and maintaining a relationship with a girl who wants nothing more than for him to stop hanging around with his best buddy so much, while Frostâs Ed (almost the real star of the film) is a lovable fat slob who sells some weed on the side while remaining proudly and gainfully unemployed (as they live with a third roommate who is a classic example of an uptight prick), but we soon see that despite the notion that he is âholding backâ Shaun, the two of them would be completely lost in this world without the other, as Edâs irresponsible, motivation free lifestyle somehow steers Shaun clear of the mind numbing insanity that a 9 to 5 routine dictates, while Shaun provides for Ed his only true advocate, the only person whom he knows will go to bat for him anytime, anyplace whenever others choose to judge him for how he lives his life and put him down as they urge Shaun to move ever forward with his life. Once the zombie apocalypse gets going proper, our main characters finally realize that something is amiss when they catch a couple of zombies in their backyard, leading to an hilarious game of target practice using some old vinyl records before they carry out a well meaning, yet idiotic plan: Go and first pick up Shaunâs mother and stepdad (Bill Nighy), then scoop up his estranged girlfriend and her two romantically involved roommates (even though living in a highrise they are already relatively safe), and then for no sensible reason whatsoever head on over to their favorite (and now closed) local pub where they can all just sit there and get drunk until all of this blows over, or so they think. During this time, much of the humor is built off of Shaunâs increasingly exasperated mental state in contrast to what appears to be Edâs seeming indifference to the whole end of the world state of affairs, a true slacker all the way up to the end who almost proudly seems to make stupid mistakes throughout the film while the rest of the characters are used by the two leads as if they were just props (even though we get to see the most sanctimonious of them get treated to a good old fashioned zombie evisceration as only the best gory films can do). But itâs really the filmâs examination of depicting the modern day 20 something culture of having plenty of no hope, no future who could care less types and running with it throughout while showing the bond between these two lifelong best friends (one desperately flailing to make a foothold in our world while the other is completely resigned to doing nothing to change his life for the better) that is the heart of the story while deftly mixing it with Romeroâs satiric themes that still hold up today, even managing to get a little emotional and serious towards the end as well. And Pegg and Frost do indeed make a superb team here, generating laughs more out of their camaraderie and chemistry rather than just depending on stupid, cheap humor, giving new meaning to the word bromance and displaying a fresh, original, and even possibly realistic approach to how certain types in our society (on both sides of the pond) would deal with an impending doomsday by steadfastly insisting on continuing to do the things that they love the most no matter what (even if it means their lives) as opposed to just simply panicking or to so desperately become overcome with such a huge amount of fear that one just winds up sitting in the corner rocking back and forth in a catatonic state all while hoping for someone or really anyone to come and rescue them. And as a companion piece to Romeroâs Masterpiece complete with a similar title, it easily enters into the ranks of the (admittedly rare) zombie films that manages to rise above the temptation of imitation when it just comes to Romeroâs literal style and thus become a classic in its own right, bringing new ideas to the table while also making us laugh all the way to the end of the worldâŚ
9/10