Remember all those zombie flicks, with hordes of shuffling, disfigured dead looking for fresh, succulent human flesh? Remember the thrills as our band of uninfected heroes—and at least one hot heroine—constantly stayed one step ahead of the un-dead?
These staples of the Hollywood “shock and thrill” brigade spread the new popular myth of the zombie all around the world. And now, with “Shawn of the Dead”, the Brits take this all-American genre and brilliantly adapt it for Brit characters, situations and, of course, humour!
The protagonist, Shawn, is not having the best of times; his girlfriend (Liz) has broken up with him, and his best mate (Ed) is a loud, large man with the sensitivity of a block of granite. Naturally, he heads for the local pub with Ed.
Against this backdrop, we (the viewers) begin to notice zombies in the background and shadows. This is where the Brit offbeat humour begins to shine through: we have several close encounters between the un-dead and the blissfully unaware Shawn and Ed. A brilliant example: Shawn and Ed leave the pub, singing drunkenly and followed by a shambling zombie. He groans at them, but the boys just assume he’s joining in the song!
The next morning, Shawn and Ed wake up to hangovers and a zombified girl in the garden. At first, they assume that she’s just plain drunk; but then the truth hits them, and a full-scale “zombie-human” struggle is on! As Shawn and Ed scramble around town, killing zombies and rescuing loved ones, we are treated to one funny bit after another.
“Shawn of the Dead” is an extremely entertaining parody, right from the setting in modern, urban Britain; you are just so used to seeing zombies in stereotypical American towns. Instead of the traditional guns, Shawn and Ed use cricket bats, spades, and even LPs to attack the zombies!
If you like to laugh, you might want to see this movie.
If you don’t like to laugh, you NEED to see this movie!
My favourite line:
A character, describing the zombies: Just look at the faces: they are vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who’s lost a bet.
My favourite scene:
When the group takes shelter in the local pub, they are attacked by a zombie and the jukebox is accidentally switched on; we have this brilliant sequence with three people hitting the zombie with pool cue sticks in perfect synch with a Queen hit. To top it, a character fumbling with the light switches provides a brilliant live concert effect, with lights strobing over the hordes of zombies just outside. :-)