Date: September 23, 2004
Source: IESB.NET
Author: David West
A romantic zombie comedy (rom-zom-com) set in England tells the tale of roommates Shaun and Ed (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost) as underachievers with money, woman and flesh eating zombie problems in "Shaun of the Dead". As Shauns soulmate Liz (Kate Ashfield) re-evaluates their relationship after Shaun forgets their dinner date, he finds himself without a girlfriend. Meanwhile Shaun and Ed are oblivious to the fact that there are train delays and people passing out on the streets as well as suffering from tremendous headaches. When Shaun and Ed finally turn off the Playstation, they realize that the people in their neighborhood aren't just drunk and rude, but are in fact the walking dead out to kill everything in sight. Shaun seizes this golden opportunity to redeem his relationship and save his family as well as make some hilarious observations about the living impaired flesh eaters.
"Shaun" is not a spoof, it's a hilarious and original dark comedy that is faithful and true to the zombie horror genre. The comedy comes from the reactions and comments the characters make due to all the death, violence and general mayhem. However, as Simon points out, "The zombies themselves are not humorous. They're not figures of fun; they're a serious malevolent presence."
We had a chance to speak with Simon Pegg (Writer/Star) as well as Edgar Wright (Director) and found them to be huge fans of the genre that give painstaking attention to detail. "Shaun" has many great moments that will benefit from repeat viewings due to the subtle touches of humor the audience doesn't catch the first time around. "It took a full two months of phone calls to get the rights to all the references we made in the film", says Wright of all the homage's and related film and television material used while filming. In fact they both had a very good working relationship with George Romero, creator of zombie classics "Night of the Living Dead", "Day of the Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead". Wright quoted Romero as saying "This is my favorite horror movie. Other than my own". "Creators of the 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead" highly approve of our rom-zom-com and will have a trailer of "Shaun" when their DVD is released", says Pegg.
Realism is a huge factor in the story-telling of "Shaun of the Dead". "Most of the film was shot in daytime due to the fact that a majority of horror films take place at night. We wanted this to feel like it was happening on an average day in your neighborhood", says Wright of daytime shooting. Maybe there was a little bit too much attention to detail when Simon stated that, "Nick Frost shaved his pubic region to give his laid back character Ed...a..believable itch down there. We're cross-breading the zomibified existence of late twentysomethings with a full scale zombie invasion".
A great film was brought to life...err...afterlife by enthusiastic film makers who had an epiphany while playing "Resident Evil" on Playstation and watching zombie classics. Already a hit overseas, American audiences should bite, groan and stomp their way toward the nearest theatre to see "Shaun of the Dead".
Shaun of the Dead Opens Sept 24th
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