WORDS Evans Bailey
Shaun (Simon Pegg), is a loser. Thirty-something, he works a dead-end job washing machines and TVs. He lives in a dumpy flat with two buddies from college -- one asshole and one dimwitted, part-time pot dealer, Ed (Nick Frost). When his girlfriend gives him an ultimatum request for one dinner date after he spends their anniversary at the local pub, the Winchester, Shaun is too lazy to get a reservation in time. He also thinks his step dad hates him, but isn’t man enough to talk it out. His sole ambition is to go to the Winchester (“we do the quiz”) and laugh while Ed imitates an orangutan.
Sounds like a classic set up for a coming of age tale, right? The man-child gets a mentor or maybe faces some adversity, or both, and one montage later he can barely recognize his former self. He takes responsibility, takes initiative, and is interested in more than just the bottom of a pint glass.
That’s probably what would happen in a shitty film. But Pegg, Frost, and director Edgar Wright (who co-wrote with Pegg), have something entirely different in mind. It’s nothing short of the zombie, sorry, “zed word,” apocalypse!
The first zom-rom-com, Shaun of the Dead, is a fresh, funny film, which follows Shaun on the very bad, no-good day when the dead rise to feast on the living. Even after the zombies show up, he can’t quit the Winchester. Before stopping for a pint and a little listen to Queen from the jukebox, he first has to lead his mum, step dad, girlfriend, her flatmates (David and Lucy), and sidekick Ed on a violent romp through the zombie-infested gardens and streets of London. Back at the pub, he keeps his shit and what’s left of his gang together (except literally for David), while the oncoming hordes force all of his immaturity issues right to the forefront. Shaun finally meets his problems, and a slew of the undead, right on the head and finishes the film a better man.
The high quality of the film is the product of the sharp writing from Pegg and Wright, who also teamed up on the underrated Hot Fuzz and this year’s World’s End. They make too many calls and reference to classic zombie films to mention, but showed such appreciation for the genre that George Romero cast Pegg and Wright as zombie extras in Land of the Dead. In the midst all that tongue in cheek, though, the film weaves equal parts slapstick, trivia nerd bait, touching moments and gory violence befitting any undead infestation into an engaging story. Combined with Wright’s energetic direction, Shaun is truly “fried gold.”