Edgar Wright’s first well-received feature was 2004’s zom-rom-com Shaun of the Dead, which surprised an awful lot of people (myself included) by being actually pretty damn good. Here’s five reasons why I love it (spoiler warning):
5, The other (better?) group: The main story of Shaun of the Dead, and I feel it’s not one I should have to explain, follows Shaun (Simon Pegg), his mate Ed (Nick Frost) and a small groups of other friends and relatives as they make their way across zombie-infested London to The Winchester, their local pub, where they plan to hide out until it all blows over. As you can guess, that’s not a terrific plan, and as a collective, their group is generally ineffective and useless. There’s a moment, however, where they run across another group, headed by Pegg’s Spaced co-star Jessica Hynes (then Jessica Stevenson), with a much better plan and a cast of actors who, at the time, were more well known/respected than those we were actually following (Martin Freeman, Reece Shearsmith, Tamsin Grieg, Julia Deakin and Matt Lucas). We meet up with Hynes again at the end of the film, at which point it is proved her adventure was a great deal more cinematic, and would have felt much more at home in a bigger budget, action-horror movie like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake from the same year, but that’s not what this film is. This is a more low-key, personal, British film about hiding in a pub during a zombie infestation, and I know what I’d rather watch.
4. He’s not my Dad!: Considering this is a romantic comedy with zombies in it, there’s a surprising amount of heartfelt moments and realistic relationships between the characters. Take Philip, for example. He’s played by Bill Nighy, which automatically puts him onto a winner in my book, because Bill Nighy is all kinds of awesome and can do no wrong (no, I’ve not seen him in the Underworld films, and no, I’m not going to). Philip is Shaun’s step-dad, who Shaun’s mother (Penelope Wilton, Nighy’s on-screen wife in The Best Exotic Margiold Hotel) keeps referring to as being Shaun’s Dad, which Shaun is not at all happy about. It’s a recurring gag that Shaun always corrects people with the phrase “He’s not my Dad!” which pays off in dividends after Philip and Shaun share a heartwarming moment before the former goes full Z-word. This film doesn’t ignore the fact that there are real relationships between these characters, and when the numbers dwindle it has a real effect on everyone.
3. Don’t Stop Me Now: When most people sit at home and remember one specific scene from Shaun of the Dead (this is something everyone does on a fairly regular basis, right? It’s not just me?) I think more often than not that scene features the main trio – Shaun, Ed and Shaun’s ex/current/who knows girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) – beating a zombified pub landlord with pool cues whilst Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now plays very loudly on the jukebox. It’s a great scene for many reasons, primarily because it’s absolutely ridiculous that the best available method of dispatching a burly zombie is by smacking it with a snooker cue to the beat of some classic 70s British pop-rock. Add in David (Dylan Moran) flashing the lights with the fuse box, Dianne and Barbara (Lucy Davis and Penelope Wilton) grooving to the music and Liz’s fire extinguisher attack (complete with it erupting as Freddie Mercury screams “Explode!”) and you have a really fun scene. This is probably the most entertaining way of portraying the moment in a zombie film where the tide turns and our heroes’ stronghold is overtaken with the living dead that I’ve ever seen in a zombie movie.
2. Ed: Simon Pegg is always the lead and usually the straight man in the Cornetto trilogy, but Nick Frost could be the MVP, and Ed is a laugh riot. He’s crude, and a bit of a fool who completely fails to comprehend the severity of the situation at hand. Glued to his phone and more intent on playing the slot machines than facing the apocalypse occurring all around him, it’s not that hard to imagine some people I know behaving exactly this way if (when?) the zombie outbreak occurs. It’s not just Ed’s brash nature or disengaged attitude that I love either, it’s also Frost’s delivery. He’s been an underrated comedic actor for some time now, and I’m glad to see his career picking up speed with a role in the upcoming Unfinished Business (although judging by the trailers Dave Franco will be the breakout star from that). Across all three Cornetto films Frost plays very different characters, and is wonderful in all of them. Ed is a selfish, irresponsible man-child. Hot Fuzz‘s Danny Butterman is a lovable oaf who tries hard, means well, but can’t help being a fool, and The World’s End‘s Andy is, initially at least, a bitter teetotal stick in the mud. I love Nick Frost, and that love began in Shaun of the Dead, so he deserves a high spot on this list. And his Clyde impression is amazing.
1. Foreshadowing and callbacks: There is so much foreshadowing across all three of the Cornetto films. So damn much. But I don’t think there’s quite so much in the other two as there is in Shaun (or maybe there is, and I just haven’t watched them enough times yet). Be it Shaun’s near-identical trips to the shop, pre- and post- outbreak but each being almost identical, or the way he and Ed unintentionally outline the entirety of the plot the night before the outbreak occurs (bloody Mary, bite at the King’s Head, couple at the Little Princess, stagger back here and bang, back to the bar for shots). The whole script is a tangled web of cross referencing and callbacks, which I’d love to spend all day repeating to you but really, just go and watch the film again. Every time I watch it I spot something different (like Michael Smiley reprising his role as a zombified, high-vis lycra-clad Tyres in a couple of shots). There’s a reason Edgar Wright is my top director working today, and that’s because he’s really bloody funny.
What do you love about Shaun of the Dead? Let us know in the comments.