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Shaun
of the Dead (2004)
 
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Directed
by:
Edgar Wright |
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COUNTRY
UK/France |
GENRE
Comedy/Horror/Splatter |
NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Shaun of the
Dead |
RUNNING
TIME
99
minutes |
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Produced
by:
Nira Park |
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Written by:
Simon Pegg
Edgar Wright |
Review
The
pairing of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright is definitely one to watch – in the future as well as
currently. There's a subtlety to
the mayhem they create in Shaun of the Dead, and there's also a
nobility and an unquestionable admiration for the medium, which makes this a
cheerful, enjoyable and, would you believe it, classy splatter film.
The object of inspiration is obviously George A. Romero's zombie movies.
The title is a pun on his 1978 sequel Dawn of the Dead, and the
nature of the beast (literally) is derived from Romero's universe. The
tone is fundamentally that of a comedy, however, and director Wright
makes the combination work deftly, alternating between tongue-in-cheek
humour, idiosyncratic ideas, and considerable thrillerish suspense –
similar to what Peter Jackson achieved with Braindead,
or Sam Raimi before him, particularly with Evil
Dead 2.
There's nevertheless a major difference
between them. Romero, Raimi, and Jackson wanted to
innovate the horror genre. They were all more stylistically ambitious
than Shaun of the Dead is.
Pegg and Wright want to have a good time and to make some of that fun
rub off on us, while at the same time paying tribute to the zombie subgenre. They succeed
remarkably well, largely thanks to their script, which
twists and turns in the right directions, managing to come off as a
likeable buddy movie while including a cute little romance in the
process. There are aspects of true skill in their filmmaking, like the way the completely outrageous concept is given fully
realistic media coverage. And unlike most horror films, Shaun of the
Dead even knows how to deliver a (sort of) vivid finale.
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