My Review of "Shaun of the Dead"

Shaun of the Dead came out back in 2004. I think this horror comedy was revolutionary at the time. Back in those days movies tended to stay in their genres. This movie made fun of the fact that it was a horror movie and was well aware of itself. Now you can see this type of movie all the time. I remember it first with this one.

The movie starts out with the introduction to our main character Shaun. He's an everyday guy living in London. With that he's got a nice girlfriend, an adequate job and a slobbering leech of a friend, Ed. His girlfriend Liz has had enough. Shaun life doesn't seem to be going anywhere and she's worried that she's going to be stuck in her life if she stays with Shaun. This is why she decides that maybe it's best that they break up.

Horrified and distraught Shaun wants to change his life around. He starts seeing that he's not really living a progressive life. It's kind of runs parallel to the zombie theme of the movie. Shaun lives his life like a zombie already so he doesn't even notice the zombies running around in the city.

That's part of the fun in this movie. We see all the juxtapositions between regular everyday life in London and the zombie pandemic. This movie plays on the fact that you know it's a zombie movie and tries to mess with your head. There are a lot of joking situations where you think a zombie's going to show up but it's something as innocent as a homeless person asking for change.

When Shaun finally realizes there is a zombie epidemic going on he springs to action. He wants to save the people that he loves the most. Since he's a screw up you're going to expect a ton of dumb things along the way. Shaun always seems to get everyone in a worse situations than they originally were. Rationally you can see how stupid his actions are but you have to know his character. To the movie's credit, they do a pretty good job in making us understand why he thinks his ideas will work though.

There are a ton of laughs but the laughs turn dark closer to the end of the movie. It's weird but they sneak different senses of humor into this movie. This gradually changes as the situation changes for our heroes. At first it's a lot of tongue in cheek humor with the movie aware of the fact that we know what's going on. Then you have absurd antics and reactions from our heroes. Finally you get a more dark sense of humor as certain situations get a little more dire. Everything fits to the situation at hand.

This is a British movie so some might not understand some of the phrases and sayings. Although despite the fact it's a British movie there are some phrases and sayings that haven't aged too well over time.

Still I love these characters and for such a small movie they did a great job in keeping everything stress heightened and intense. Watching it back in the day was a revelation and I have to say this one stood the test of time.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this movie. People not from the area or that time can still have a good time watching this movie. I for one still do have a little bit of nostalgia when watching this movie. Only small bits of it feel outdated. This is why I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. I could go back and watch this one over again. Plus I don't mind recommending it to my friends.