Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

After watching (and loving) “Hot Fuzz”, the second entry in the unconnected “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy”, I had very high expectations for “Shaun of the Dead”? So was this movie better than its successor?

No. “Shaun of the Dead” is ok, the film’s premise is pretty well executed, there were a few mildly amusing moments and the cast all give good performances. But it was nowhere near as funny, smart, entertaining or action-packed as “Hot Fuzz”; I don’t want to revisit it anytime soon.

I think the primary reason why I didn’t connect with “Shaun of the Dead” was that, unlike the action movie genre that is parodied in “Hot Fuzz”, I’m not a fan of the genre that this movie is based upon. I assume that most people love “Shaun of the Dead” because they are massive fans of the Zombie genre, so they understand all the references and jokes in this film. But aside from the video game “Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare”, I haven’t really had any experience of Zombie media, so I didn’t relish all the in-jokes and commentary on classic Zombie stories.

The cast are all great in “Shaun of the Dead”; Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are both as excellent as ever, they have great chemistry that brings warmth and sadness to their character’s relationship.

Something I really appreciate is that “Shaun of the Dead” was clearly made on a shoestring (£4 million to be precise) but the cast and crew were still able to create a very technically well-rounded film with that budget, because they used what little money they had wisely and didn’t waste it all on good catering.

“Shaun of the Dead” is funny… I guess. There’s a particularly enjoyable running gag in which Shaun has to come up with a plan to survive the Zombie apocalypse and we watch as the plan changes each time, the editing in these moments was very brisk and efficient. But aside from that, the jokes were few and far between, meaning that “Shaun of the Dead” is very grim and melodramatic.

And finally, this seems like an odd complaint to make about a semi-horror movie, but “Shaun of the Dead” can be pretty unpleasant. Maybe this was because I expected it to be a riotous comedy like “Hot Fuzz” with ridiculous and over-the-top violence thrown into the mix, but “Shaun of the Dead” takes its violent moments very seriously, which took away from the entertainment value of the film.

The one scene that really got on my nerves was one right at the end of the movie, in which a major character is graphically disembowelled and dismembered. I think the audience are supposed to dislike this character anyway, but as I watched their innards get torn from the bloody hole in their stomach, I couldn’t help but wonder “Jeez, what did they do to deserve this?!”

In conclusion, I understand why people love “Shaun of the Dead”, it’s an incredible achievement (technically speaking) with some stellar performances and surprisingly touching moments. But personally, I didn’t like it.