SHAUN OF THE DEAD

UK, 2004, 105 minutes, Colour.
Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Lucy Davis, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy.
Directed by Edgar Wright.

What's worse than having to face up to comedians' doing parodies of horror genres suspecting that the jokes will be
lame or forced and that the satire will be inane or flat, or both? Plenty of things, of course. However, one approaches a parody of Dawn of the Dead (recently re-made itself) with caution.

Gradually, the caution disappears. This parody is not badly written. In fact, some of it is quite funny. Some of it is
quite clever. Really, it is witty in some of its parody of horror movie conventions and behaviour. Yes, it is much better than anticipated. It is quite enjoyable.

Star, Simon Pegg, and director, Edgar Wright, have collaborated on the British TV comedy series, Spaced, in which
they played with this living dead theme, how two dim-wits don't notice what is going on around them and, when they do, make something of a mess of trying to escape. Filmed in London suburbs, it does give the impression that if everybody in the street and beyond had turned into the living dead, it all might look something like this as the survivors attempted to drive, cross streets, take refuge in the local pub... An agreeable surprise even for those who think that zombie films are sacred and not to be joked about.

1. An entertaining parody? Perception of English society - and its being faced with a Dawn of the Dead disaster? Coping? The humour of survival?

2. The London settings, the flats, the pub, the streets? The ordinariness of English and London life with zombies walking around, menacing, destroying? The musical score? The humour of the songs - and the lyrics with the irony of what was happening?

3. The tribute to the horror genre, to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (the remake re-released at the same time as Shawn of the Dead? The unexplained disease, people becoming zombies, the living dead, consuming each other, menacing the living? The threat to the living and their survival? The serious side and their having to destroy the living dead, Shawn having to destroy his mother? The comic side and the parody of the horror films?

4. No explanation given of the plague, the voice-over at the beginning of the film, the radio and television commentaries? The information from the television, of how to cope with the living dead, of destroying their heads and brains_ (and the TV commentator six months afterwards reflecting on how he actually gave this information on television)? The picture of the living dead, ordinary people, multicultural, multiracial London? The transformation of families? The only two survivors being Shawn and Liz?

5. Simon Pegg as Shawn, an ordinary young man, waking up, sharing the flat with Ed and Pete? Ed as a slob? Pete as upwardly mobile and critical? Friends from schooldays and from university days? Shawn's life at home, Ed unemployed and playing the video games? His going to work? His selling the televisions and other equipment? The young man and his giving the lectures? Taking the mobile phone call, their being very young and uppity? Shawn and his going to the Winchester every evening, sitting around talking, gradually revealed that Liz was there, that David and Diane were there as well? The empty life? The Dawn of the Dead, the deadpan ways in which he coped, the deadpan dialogue and irony? Going out, coming back in, barricading? The break-off with Liz and the failure of getting the dinner date? His wanting to rescue her? His concern about his mother, the phone calls, the clashes with his stepfather? The plan, Pete becoming a zombie, taking his car, Ed's reckless driving? Getting his mother, getting Philip, Philip being bitten, the ride in the car, turning the music down (and Philip doing it after he had died)? Their escaping, going to Liz, Diane and David? Getting out, the vehicle, their trying to get through to the pub, the crash of the car, going over the back fences, the pratfalls? Rehearsing to be the living dead, crossing the street, Shawn getting the zombies to follow him? Getting into the hotel? The siege, the proprietor and his being difficult to destroy? The various plans, David and his being upset, Diane's reaction? Their being destroyed, Shawn's mother and her bite, his having to shoot her? Liz and the escape to the cellar, getting out? Their being rescued by the former girlfriend and her squad whom they had earlier met? Surviving? The irony of Shawn and Liz together after all these events, going down to the cellar and the zombie Ed playing video games?

6. Ed, the slob, his inane remarks, his insensitivities, games, not cleaning up the house, bad driving, yet a good friend, helping in the crisis? His oafish remarks, behaviour?

7. David and his being prim, critical of Shawn, in love with Liz? Shawn challenging him? His decision to go with the group, following, in the pub, his reaction and breaking the window, his change of heart, his being taken by the zombies? Diane, in love with David, the failed actress, rehearsing them to be zombies, her death?

8. Barbara and Philip, Shawn's devotion to his mother, her absentmindedness, Philip and his being the stepfather, critical - but reconciling before he died? The mother, absentminded, her being bitten, her death?

9. Yvonne, her helping out, with her squad, the rescue?

10. The aftermath, everything returning to normal - and the parody of ordinary life? The parody earlier in the film as Shawn went to the bus and everybody sitting there in fact like zombies? The film's humour, irony, parody, respectful zombie films, the horror genre - and the question of what ordinary life is like and its parallels to being in a horror film?