Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy by Edgar Wright in which a drifting London salesman must finally take charge.
At a Glance
- Director: Edgar Wright
- Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
- Producer: Nira Park
- Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Peter Serafinowicz
- Release: March 29, 2004 (London premiere); April 9, 2004 (United Kingdom); September 24, 2004 (United States)
- Runtime: 99 minutes
- Distributor: Universal Pictures, with a StudioCanal presentation credit; produced by Big Talk Productions and WT2
- Budget and gross: about £4 million; about $38.7 million worldwide
- Series: first film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy
Overview
The title is a pun on Dawn of the Dead, and the film is a love letter to George A. Romero, but Shaun of the Dead is more than a spoof. Wright and Pegg called it a “romantic zombie comedy,” and the joke at its heart is that Shaun’s life is so routine he does not notice the apocalypse for a whole morning. It is genuinely funny, often frightening and, in its last act, surprisingly sad. It turned Pegg, Wright and Nick Frost into international names, won over Romero himself and became one of the best-loved horror comedies ever made.
Plot
Shaun is 29, works a dead-end job at an electronics shop in north London, and spends most evenings at his local pub, the Winchester, with his best friend Ed, an unemployed slacker who lives on their sofa. His girlfriend Liz is tired of the routine and breaks up with him after he fails to book a restaurant for their anniversary. Shaun resolves to sort his life out: win back Liz, take care of his mum Barbara, and stand up to his stepfather Philip.
The next morning he walks to the corner shop and back without noticing that London has been overrun by the dead. Only when a zombie appears in the garden do Shaun and Ed catch on, fighting back with a cricket bat, a spade and Shaun’s record collection, debating which LPs to throw. Their plan is simple: get Mum, get Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint and wait for it all to blow over. They collect Barbara and a bitten Philip, who makes peace with Shaun before he dies, and pick up Liz and her flatmates David and Dianne. On the way they meet a mirror-image group of survivors led by Shaun’s friend Yvonne, and get past a horde by impersonating zombies.
Spoiler: The Ending
The Winchester is a terrible fortress. Barbara reveals that she was bitten, and Shaun has to shoot his own mother when she turns. David is pulled through a window and torn apart, Dianne runs out after him, and a bitten Ed is all that stands between the horde and the cellar. Ed stays behind with the rifle so that Shaun and Liz can escape through a hatch to the street, where Yvonne arrives with the army. Six months later, Britain has adapted: zombies are used for menial labor and game-show entertainment, Liz has moved in with Shaun, and the zombified Ed lives in the garden shed, where Shaun still plays video games with him.
Production
The idea grew out of Spaced, the sitcom Pegg and Wright made for Channel 4, particularly an episode in which Pegg’s character hallucinates a zombie attack while playing Resident Evil. Shooting took place over nine weeks in May and June 2003, on locations around London and at Ealing Studios. The film was Nick Frost’s feature debut. It also cast many friends from British comedy: Dylan Moran, Lucy Davis from The Office, Jessica Hynes, Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig all appear, and newsreaders and presenters play themselves in the final montage.
Themes
Shaun of the Dead is about the zombie that lives inside routine. Its opening shots deliberately mirror commuters and shop workers with the later undead, and the ending suggests society has simply found a new use for people going through the motions. Underneath is a coming-of-age story about a man who must choose between his oldest friend and adult responsibility, which is why the Winchester’s last stand lands so hard.
Trivia
- The film was nominated for three BAFTA Awards.
- Chris Martin of Coldplay appears both as a zombie and as himself on a charity telethon.
- Romero liked it enough to give Pegg and Wright cameos as zombies in Land of the Dead (2005).
- Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World’s End (2013) complete the Cornetto trilogy.
- It ranked third on Channel 4’s list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films.
- Peter Serafinowicz plays Pete, the flatmate whose “mugger” bite is the film’s first sign of trouble.