×

Shaun of the Dead

Brit slacker humor takes a tasty bite out of Stateside genre movies. Hitting U.K. screens April 9, only two weeks after Universal's remake of George A. Romero 1979 zombie flick, "Dawn of the Dead," this could mop up red-blooded returns among Blighty's younger auds, given a hefty ad-publicity push from distrib UIP.

With:
With: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Jessica Stevenson, Peter Serafinowicz, Mark Donovan, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Rafe Spall.

Brit slacker humor takes a tasty bite out of Stateside genre movies with “Shaun of the Dead,” whose pun on the George A. Romero 1979 zombie flick, “Dawn of the Dead,” is the weakest joke in the movie. Hitting U.K. screens April 9, only two weeks after Universal’s remake of “Dawn,” this could mop up red-blooded returns among Blighty’s younger auds, given a hefty ad-publicity push from distrib UIP. Given the success of “28 Days Later,” pic could also score, with careful timing, as an offbeat, specialized attraction in the U.S., though it relies more on local comedy than genre thrills.

Though the genre has been around in movies since the ’30s, and Romero’s first undead outing, B&W low-budgeter “Night of the Living Dead,” dates back to 1968, “Shaun” qualifies as the fastest ever spoof of a mainstream Hollywood title to hit screens. (More by luck than judgment: “Shaun” has been in the works for a time, and U only greenlighted the Working Title production on condition it opened after the current remake.) Needless to say, Lloyd Kaufman must be crying into his pea-green soup.

That said, “Shaun” is still very much the work of the team behind the cult U.K. Channel 4 hit, “Spaced,” a mock sitcom about a bunch of terminal underachievers. Its key creators — star/co-writer Simon Pegg, helmer Edgar Wright and producer Nira Park — all reprise their roles here. A sense of purpose and creative cohesion, so rare in current British cinema, is evident from the first, very funny scene, in which doofus Shaun (Pegg) tries to make verbal amends to exasperated g.f., Liz (Kate Ashfield).

A “sales adviser” in a North London TV shop, Shaun is a 29-year-old failure who shares a house with his best pal, couch potato and practical joker Ed (Nick Frost), and their over-achieving college acquaintance, Pete (Peter Serafinowicz). Shaun’s entire social life revolves around his local pub, the Winchester, where he’s always in the company of Ed, and Liz is starting to get seriously ticked off. Opening scene, with Shaun being berated by Liz and Shaun’s two other friends, prissy David (Dylan Moran) and edgy Di (Lucy Davis, Dawn in “The Office”), sets up the timing and comic rhythm that sustains the whole movie.

Film eases into its main story with an offhandedness that reflects its two anti-heroes’ blinkered existence. As he walks to work, Shaun hardly notices denizens of the area are walking in a strange way; and, as he channel surfs at home, Ed doesn’t even notice the news reports on TV. Not until the third reel, when a big fat bloodstained zombie shows up in their garden, does the pair realize Blighty is being taken over by the undead. As they scramble for things to throw at the zombie, they start bickering over what classic record albums they’re prepared to bust.

After deciding Pete is also probably a zombie, Shaun calls his mom, Barbara (Penelope Wilton), to check if she’s OK and hears his stepfather, Philip (Bill Nighy), is acting rather strange.

Armed with a, uh, cricket bat and a shovel, Shaun and Ed set off to rescue her. The only safe haven they can think of — given their entire life revolves round a square-mile radius — is the Winchester. But by now the streets are crawling with gibbering zombies.

Pic is a classic example of a clever idea that could easily have run out of steam halfway. However, co-scripters Pegg and Wright structure it as a classic three-acter (set-up, journey, finale) with enough twists, character development and small set pieces to keep the comedy boiling. The subplots of Shaun and Liz’s rocky relationship, and Di’s and David’s nascent attraction for them help flesh out the third act.

However, aside from its movie-buff feel, at the end of the day the pic is reliant on a certain kind of low-key comedy that auds, especially non-British, will either get or not. Filmmakers see it as “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Undead”; in fact, it’s more like “Shaun and Ed’s Excellent Adventure (on a Budget).”

Helmer Wright showed what he could do with almost no money but a lot of imagination in his first pic, the English Western spoof “Fistful of Fingers” (1994), made when he was age 20. Though “Shaun” is from Working Title’s low-end shingle, WT², production values look like “Titanic” in comparison with “Fistful,” with sharp, good-looking widescreen lensing by Yank d.p. David M. Dunlap (graduating from second-unit work on studio pictures), and occasionally flashy use of sound and visual effects. Finale, which plays like a spoof of “Assault on Precinct 13,” is staged OK on a budget.

Performances are on the nail, with vets Wilton and Nighy blending easily into the younger fabric. Pegg dominates throughout, but both Frost and Ashfield contribute strong support, with the latter again showing she’s one of Blighty’s most underrated young movie actresses.

Shaun of the Dead

U.K.-U.S.

Production: A UIP (U.K.)/Universal (U.S.) release of a Universal Pictures StudioCanal and Working Title Films presentation of a WT² production, in association with Big Talk Prods. Produced by Nira Park. Executive producers, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Natascha Wharton, James Wilson, Alison Owen. Directed by Edgar Wright. Screenplay, Simon Pegg, Wright.

Crew: Camera (color, widescreen), David M. Dunlap; editor, Chris Dickens; music, Daniel Mudford, Pete Woodhead; production designer, Marcus Rowland; art director, Karen Wakefield; costume designer, Annie Hardinge; hair/make-up designer, Jane Walker; sound (Dolby Digital), Simon Hayes; special effects supervisor, Paul Dunn; zombie/prosthetics make-up, Stuart Conran; choreographer, Litza Bixtier. Reviewed at Warner Village West End 7, London, March 2, 2004. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 97 MIN.

With: With: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Jessica Stevenson, Peter Serafinowicz, Mark Donovan, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Rafe Spall.

More Film

  • Chris Morris Movie 'The Day Shall

    IFC Films Buys Chris Morris' 'The Day Shall Come' (EXCLUSIVE)

    IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to Chris Morris’ “The Day Shall Come,” an incisive satire about a misbegotten FBI sting operation. It marks the British filmmaker’s follow-up to “Four Lions,” a boundary-pushing comedy about a group of terrorist jihadis that hit theaters in 2010. “The Day Shall Come” premiered to positive reviews at this [...]

  • Panama’s Abner Benaim Sets ‘Plaza Catedral,’

    Panama’s Abner Benaim Readies ‘Plaza Catedral’ with Mexico’s Ilse Salas (EXCLUSIVE)

    Panama’s internationally best-known helmer, Abner Benaim (“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”) has moved into pre-production on his second fiction feature film, “Plaza Catedral,” which is set to star Mexico’s Ilse Salas, who has just won Mexican Academy’s Ariel Award for best actress for her performance in Alejandra Marquez’s Toronto hit “The Good Girls.” Salas [...]

  • ‘The Father’ Directing Duo on Laughing

    ‘The Father’ Directing Duo on Laughing Through Grief, and Film as Therapy

    Writer-director duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov are two of Bulgaria’s most acclaimed filmmakers, earning critical plaudits with their award-winning features “The Lesson” (2014) and “Glory” (2016). Part of their Newspaper Clippings Trilogy, the films were inspired by sensationalist media stories depicting the absurdity of life in post-communist Bulgaria. Grozeva and Valchanov took a break [...]

  • Cineflix Acquires Global Rights to Israel-Iran

    Cineflix Acquires Global Rights to Israel-Iran Spy thriller 'Tehran'

    Cineflix Rights has acquired exclusive global distribution rights to “Tehran,” the Israel-Iran espionage thriller created by Moshe Zonder (“Fauda”), Dana Eden (“Mother’s Day”) and Maor Kohn. “Tehran” follows the story Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad computer hacker-agent who travels to the Iranian capital, where she was born and raised, to undertake her very first mission, disabling [...]

  • Roger Garcia

    Roger Garcia Joins China's Hainan Film Festival as Artistic Advisor

    Film industry veteran, Roger Garcia has been appointed as artistic advisor to the Hainan Island International Film Festival in China. The festival will be held in Sanya, capital of Hainan, a province in southern China that is touted as a tropical tourism destination. For several years, Garcia held a similar post, as executive director, at [...]

  • Nova Lituania

    Karlovy Vary Review: 'Nova Lituania'

    In the late 1930s, prior to emigrating to the United States, Lithuanian geographer Kazys Pakstas proposed a radical solution to what he saw as the inevitable eradication of the nation through its assimilation into the German and Russian spheres of influence: The purchase and annexation of a large tract of land on the African or [...]

  • Mark Damon, CEO & Chairman, Foresight

    Film News Roundup: Mark Damon's DCR Finance Receives $25 Million Investment

    In today’s film news roundup, Mark Damon receives an investment from Cinevideotech, Hollywood publicists set their awards show, Rob Zombie’s “3 From Hell” and a 9/11 documentary “You Are Here” get release dates.  INVESTMENT Mark Damon’s DCR Finance Corp., co-headed with financer Adi Cohen and producer Jordi Rediu, has received a $25 million investment from [...]

More From Our Brands

Access exclusive content