The first of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, Shaun of the Dead has become an iconic staple of horror-comedy. This film not only showcases Edgar Wright's creative directing but some hilarious performances from the cast as well. Even though it is apparent that Wright's style is still developing, this movie is quintessential in the world of zombie cinema.
As far as zombie films go, this has secured its place as one of the best. The use of the horror-comedy genre is incredible and utilized well by all of the writing and the cast. Even though the majority of this film was horror, the comedy still blended in well in the dialogue and visuals. This movie also paid its respects to the older generation of undead films as well, including Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. The most apparent similarity shared between these films are the simple plot of survival. The plot revolves around Shaun and his best friend Ed, along with Shaun's mom, girlfriend, and friends, and how they manage to survive the oncoming zombie apocalypse with humor and style. Shaun and Ed are huge slackers while the other characters seem to have some clarity in their lives, but this makes for a hilarious dynamic between the characters. Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Nick Frost (Ed) are great in their roles, and it is interesting to see how these actors work so well together, considering they did two more films with Wright. These two pave the way for making this movie such an engaging relationship comedy, which also turned out to be a trend in the other two films of the Cornetto trilogy.
Wright's writing in this movie is incredible and he works excellently at the writing/directing combo. My only issues are that the story took a bit too long to introduce the zombie aspect of it all. While the exposition was great, providing lots of humor and introduction to our characters, I feel that more of that humor could have gone towards the zombie scenes. The story also got a bit repetitive and dull after a while, but thankfully it picked up towards the conclusion. Wright's now-recognizable style also suffered in this movie a little bit. I could tell that he was still figuring out how to utilize it without letting the two tones of the movie clash with each other. It was still effective, but the film felt a bit empty towards the middle because of that conflict.
What Wright did do right, however, was practically everything else. His directing and use of visual humor is unmatched. It was so appealing to see how all of the details and running gags came full circle towards the end. The flatmate that turned into a zombie, the gate crashing down, the other group of survivors, and all of the running jokes worked so well with each other to tell this witty tale. The editor, Chris Dickens, also aided in the humorous use of worldbuilding. The quick editing, minute montages, and synchronization with the music (i.e. Don't Stop Me Now by Queen makes one of the best scenes in the film) all tell this story brilliantly.
Shaun of the Dead is a fantastic homage to classic zombie movies while providing a funny story for all audiences to follow along with. The visual gags and writing make this film worth every second, but its style still suffers a bit. However, I would still obviously recommend this movie to any fan of witty filmmaking.
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