With the recent rash of zombie flicks that infested theaters over the past couple of years, a film like “Shaun of the Dead” is an inevitability. Steeped within the tradition of gore films like George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” director Edgar Wright spins the generally serious film formulas into a new style of farce, even injecting a bit of romance into the mix.
To be completely accurate, the film is a “romantic zombie comedy,” or a “ro-zo-co,” as the creators dub it. It’s “When Harry Met Sally” meets “Dawn of the Dead,” with a little bit of Monty Python. Geared toward the British sense of humor – including plenty of dry jokes involving polite Brits or foppish prudes – there are a surprising amount of American comedic influences, making the film resemble the crude gross out movies of the Farrelly brothers more often than an episode of Red Dwarf. And there are plenty of moments of gross humor, considering that there are hundreds of walking, decaying dead bodies.
Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a loser stuck in a dead end job and recently dumped by his longtime girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). After a night of drinking his woes away with his boarish best friend, Ed (Nick Frost), he wakes up to discover that the entire town is overrun with zombies. Shaun and Ed must rescue Liz and Shaun’s mother (Penelope Wilton) from the undead horde, eventually ending up at the only safe place they know: the local pub. Along the way, Shaun must try to win back Liz, as well as take out as many zombies as possible.
At first glance, the film seems like a horror nerd’s wet dream, cracking inside jokes that only die-hard fans would get – many of which are directed towards Danny Boyle’s insistence that “28 Days Later” was not about zombies. However, there’s enough general humor that would appeal to any person. In a brilliant sequence, Shaun and other human survivors beat a zombie with pool cues in rhythm to a Queen song, an obtuse reference to the “Singin’ in the Rain” sequence from “A Clockwork Orange.” While many people may not recognize the homage, it’s still a sidesplitting scene.
If the film had any flaw, it would be that it suffers from taking on too much. While the idea of a romantic comedy with zombies is a clever idea, it takes away from the satirical elements that is the main intent of the film. Before the relationship between Shaun and Liz really turns sour, the film is at its best; but when the zombies are thrown in, that’s when the flavor of the film turns to its richest substance, but without a proper resolution. In a surprisingly conservative twist, the film resolves with a happy ending that is not entirely credible, but also more smarmy than absolutely necessary. If the film had just stuck to a complete spoof of zombie flicks, it might work out a little better. But, like any romantic comedy, it ends up stuck in disgusting sentimentality rather than all out farce. It may be that the only thing more disgusting than zombies are romantic comedies, but “Shaun of the Dead’s” mix has enough zombies to make up for any relationship.
Jason Bolte can be reached at [email protected]
