Or in the case of this movie, they called it a Rom Com Zom which success spawned a whole cluster of copycat movies. But there is only one ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and it’s the best out there. This was the first and (my opinion) the best of the Cornetto trilogy. They are unrelated stories that contact the same actors playing the main roles with the same director. Which neatly leads me into the usual information. Released in 2004 and directed by Edgar Wright it was produced by Nira Park and was written by the star and the director in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Made using just $6.1m it went onto return $30m from the box office, even the critics like it with IMDb going generous for them with 7.9 from 10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it more than I did with 92%. They came up with the idea when working on the TV series ‘Spaced’ that starred Pegg and Jessica Stevenson who has a small role in this movie. With Simon being a big fan of the George A. Romero dead series, this is a hat raising acknowledgement of their appreciation. This third of the three films stars Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, and Penelope Wilton. With Pegg, Frost and Wright being the three constants through the trilogy. Onto the plot? OK
Shaun is directionless in his life he sells electronics and lives with an old colleague mate with another friend who seems to sponge of him and stays permanently at his home. He doesn’t get on with his stepfather and gets dumped by his girlfriend incredibly early in the movie. With a broken heart, the sponge (Ed) takes Shaun to their second home the Winchester Pub to get him drunk. By the morning, a zombie apocalypse has taken over the world and turned London into a Zombie party land. The two take their time to come to terms with this fact and then hitch a plan to save the day. The plan is to go to Shaun’s mum pick her up kill the stepfather as he had been bitten. Go to Shaun’s ex and take them all somewhere safe. i.e., the Winchester Pub that once they are inside, they will be safe apparently. All they must do is convince everyone to come along and then to successfully complete a plan to physically get there.
What a great comedy horror romance movie this is. There are so many references to other movies and their own work (Spaced). Which doesn’t distract from the story so without knowing those nods to other things you can still watch this movie and love it. There is a good reason for that and its an easy one to explain. It’s a bloody great movie. The humour is great the characters are great, and you love them and even have affection for the zombies as well. It has a kind heart despite having some very gory scenes and a blood lust like no one’s business. Its rude and sweary but it does all of this with a plomb. Its so well worked and cleverly constructed that it saw enough success to make the next two movies and inspired a whole host of copycat movies that with Zombieland aside really didn’t get anywhere close. The fact they linked the movies with just a different flavour cornetto and familiar faces is a real bonus for them and simply works. You can do a lot worse than grabbing a bag of popcorn and settling in for an evening to watch this movie.
Next up is another comedy, no Zom in this one those but there are piles and piles of cash though... you worked it out yet?
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