Film Reviews

Shaun of the Dead

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Bill Nighy
• Details: UK / 98 mins / (15PG).

As the title indicates, Shaun of the Dead is a light-hearted, loose limbed riff on both George A. Romero's 1978 low budget classic and the recent remake. Written and directed by the team behind cult Channel 4 comedy Spaced, Shaun of the Dead follows our titular character (Pegg), a 29-year-old man drifting through life. He's an assistant, assistant manager in an electronics store who spends most of his free time hanging out with his deadbeat dealer best mate Ed (Frost) in their local boozer. Remarkably enough, this frightening lack of ambition begins to grate on the nerves of Shaun's girlfriend, Liz (Ashfield) and she issues him with an ultimatum. But Shaun soon has bigger things on his mind as London and the surrounding areas are taken over by flesh eating zombies. What should our heroes do? Head to the pub, of course!
Played almost exclusively for laughs - with the exception of one particularly gruesome death, heavily inspired by Society (1989) - Shaun of the Dead is something of a who's who of comedy talent, with the likes of Dylan Moran and The Office's Lucy Davis working comfortably with the alumni of Spaced. Indeed, stock sit-coms influences are never far away - the characters don't extend far beyond two dimensions and the plot seems to have a mind of its own when the mood takes it. Still, I could be being a little harsh. In comparison to the likes of other recent comedy-horror flicks, such as the Scary Movie trilogy, Shaun of the Dead is infinitely more measured and restrained in its delivery. Pegg and his co-stars are talented comedy actors - Nick Frost, in particular, impresses with his deadbeat delivery - and Wright keeps the film moving at a respectable pace. Yes, it's completely undemanding fare. But c'mon, what else did you expect? Really?

Review by Garreth Murphy