Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004): UK / France
Reviewed by Richard Feilden. Viewed on DVD.
Generally speaking there are two ways you can go with your Valentine’s night film. You can follow the path of romance, hoping that the tale of true love being played out on the screen will fan the flames of passion in the room. Alternatively you can take the horror route. In that case you drop in a film designed to terrify your date into snuggling up just that little bit closer. Friday the 13th (the original please, not the remake), A Nightmare on Elm Street or Night of the Living Dead should suffice here. This is all well and good, but what if you are indecisive? You don’t want to waste the short hours of February 14th fretting over your decision to screen When Harry Met Sally and not Slumber Party Massacre 2. Well worry no more my faltering friends for there is a third way – a way that combines kissing and cannibalism, flowers and fangs, even love and lycanthropy. That way is Shaun of the Dead. Your prayers are answered – this is the perfect Valentines movie for the cautious cupid!
Shaun (Simon Pegg) has problems. He has a dead end job, a foul best friend, a worse housemate and a beautiful girlfriend – who has just dumped him. The perfect start then for a romantic comedy about a man who has to pick himself up, set his life straight, win back the girl and live happily ever after. This should be no problem; we’ve seen this a thousand times before. Just give the ex a couple of annoying friends who don’t think he is good enough for her, throw in a fractured family relationship and finish off with a zombie horde and it’s business as usual. Well, almost…
What makes Shaun of the Dead stand out is the attention that has been paid to both sides of the equation. The romance is romantic and the horror is horrific. You will definitely get your marriage and mutilation quotas filled. But where this film really stands out is the comedy. The font from which this springs forth is the writing team of Pegg and writer/director Edgar Wright. The observations that the two make about the world we live in are priceless. It takes Shaun some time to realize the world has changed, given that really, apart from the whole ‘eating people’ thing, the Zombies aren’t really that different from the shoe-gazing, isolated, mumbling people who usually surround us. George Romero may have done it first, but Pegg and Wright certainly do it funnier.
The cast is superb as well, with regular collaborator Nick Frost who is particularly good as Shaun’s lay-about best friend Ed. The two actors have developed such a rapport over the years (they are particularly good in the later Wright-Pegg-Frost film Hot Fuzz) that their friendship seems utterly natural. They are supported by a fine cast, including Penelope Wilton (well known to British viewers) and Bill Nighy (well known to everyone) as Shaun’s delusional mum and step-dad and Kate Ashfield as his put upon girlfriend.
The DVD provides immense value with a range of extras that puts most other releases to shame. They range from a promotional strip from British science fiction comic 2000AD, through the usual outtakes and extended scenes and on to audio commentaries featuring everyone from the stars and directors to the zombie horde. Of course, as wonderful as this is, if you go anywhere near these on Valentine’s night something has obviously gone horribly, horribly wrong. Save them for another day.
So, there you have it. The perfect film a perfect Valentine’s night, with a little left for the morning after. The rest is up to you!
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