I’ve got no great infatuation with zombie films, but I found this in a store for £3 and thought it might be a nice view for a good laugh, and my friend a couple of years ago recommended this to me. Although I had my doubts, parody has become a blighted genre of late, if you are any familiar with contemporary American cinema you will know what I am talking about. But considering this was British, I thought it might be different. And indeed it was.
One of the things that really get to me in parody movies is how way over the top they go. I known, it’s a parody, but it truly borders on the pointless. Shaun of the Dead, however, shows us how a good parody film should be made. It borrows from its inspiration, but at the same time is quite loving to its source. Most American parody films are vile and mock their source, which makes us question what the whole purpose is. It is clear that the filmmakers loved the old zombie films, and make a lot of reference to these films, but also manages to make fun of the clichés and plot holes without mocking them. One thing I found interesting was that this film was clearer shot and looked more professional than one of its sources, Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978). It is usually the other way around, but considering Romero’s original films were fairly low-budget it does make some sense. The effects are good, although quite scarce, at least compared to Dawn of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead is clever in putting a fairly normal romantic comedy plot into the zombie film. Not so cleverly though they used very similar fast paced editing techniques seen in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch (2000). First off, these techniques are superficial and redundant. They do not necessarily add to the narrative, and although they did in Snatch, don’t here. There is quite a bit of good directing though, one of my favourite parts is a long take where the camera pans with the protagonist as he goes to get something from the store. This is repeated twice, the second time after the zombies have started to take over, however the characters actions remain exactly the same.
This is one of the most interesting comedic points the film makes, how most people in the beginning of the film don’t notice the zombies. A scene where two of the main characters see a zombie in their garden, they respond with: “Oh my God. She’s so drunk!” The film makes a point in many ways how some of us are mindless zombies anyway, not to mention the ending, but it is a fairly original idea and is executed well, although a similar idea was done on The Simpsons a couple of years earlier. The most important thing to ask though is if the comedy works. I would say it does, the film is cast well and the comedy is very good. It’s not over the top, but slightly understated. There is a lot of in your face comedy, and quite a bit of subtle hidden comedy bits you won’t necessarily get on the first view. The film also plays well with its genre conventions, and mixing the two really works well. Another thing that separates this from most of the garbage that comes from America is that it’s quite dark for a comedy. There are several parts that aren’t that funny, but quite sad, and some moments make us actually care about the characters, while the American equivalent makes its characters out of tinfoil. I believe fans of zombie films will love this, because it makes gracious references to its sources and heighten the genre.
I was very surprised by this film, and in a good way. I just watched it to have something easy to watch, and while that was right; it turned out to have a lot more potential than I thought. The directing goes from being annoying to very good, but the comedy is rarely left out, and when it is, it’s for something more interesting. Recommended to film viewers in general.
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