Shaun of the Dead

Shaun and Ed fight zombies for an hour and a half.

A comedy that takes a bit of stomach to enjoy, but contains some great characters and action. Unbelievable and flawed in countless ways, this film looks like it was a lot of fun to make.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who had even greater success with ‘Hot Fuzz’ work (/play) well together as a comic team.

I enjoyed two aspects of this film particularly.

Firstly, I love how oblivious Shaun and Ed are to the fact that a devastating plague of zombies is tearing across the world. This rings a bell of truth in my head, since only yesterday, there was a tornado less than 3 miles from my house and the only thing I knew about it was that it was very windy. Zombies are walking around throughout the film before Shaun and Ed even notice – and it’s only when they notice that it becomes a problem. At first, they assume the zombies are simply drunk people – which I suppose is no happy reflection on British culture. It was that irony that got me laughing in a sort of twisted, nervous way. What have I missed?

The second great thing about this film for me was the parallel film that was happening alongside. Shaun passes Yvonne – played by Spaced co-star, Jessica Stevenson at frequent points in the film, always with a sense of awkward recognition. I liked the idea of this cross over between stories of survival.

It made me realise the narrowing effect of films – caring only about a certain story and nothing outside it. I wonder how similar to that we are in the way we think. Are we the protagonists in our life story?