Reviewed By
Vaughan Dyche

Analysis
Touted as a 'Romantic comedy with Zombies', you can't help but be intrigued by the opposing mix of interesting genres on offer in this hilariously blood splattered British movie. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the duo behind the hugely popular TV series 'Spaced', inject a high dosage of lads humour into a horror film that is big on gore and even bigger on the laughs.

Shaun is your every day guy-down-the-pub kind of chap. He works in a local electrical store and lodges with his mate Pete and Ed in a messy little house. Ed is a complete lazy shite who's idea of a hard days work is having a bath and going to the toilet, all in the same day. Shaun and Ed while away most of their evenings down the Wichester public house and, although Shaun feels deep down that this is a waste of his life, he just enjoy's his routine too much to change. Even his girlfriend Liz has had enough of his bleak and pointless existence and throws down the gauntlet in an effort to bring Shaun too his senses. Unfortunately, just as Shaun and Liz's relationship breaks down, London is grasped by a rather inconvenient outbreak of the dead rising from their resting places and eating other people. How rude!

This movie offers a lot of things to a lot of different people. It has plenty of outrageous blood and guts coupled with some frightening moments for the true horror fans, it has some hilarious dialogue and visual gags for that child inside and it even has a smear of tender and romantic moments. Separately they are nothing but sterile ingredients to something more promising, but together they meld into one of the funniest horror cakes ever to hit the big screen. With a strong cast made up of some of Britain's finest comedy actors featuring talent from TV shows such as 'The Office', 'Black Books', 'Spaced' and 'World of Pub', and big screen talent from 'Love Actually' and 'Calendar Girls' it becomes plain to see just why the black humour works so well.

Stuart Conran, the makeup effects wizard responsible for the zombie effects, has done a sterling job at creating the kind of rotten creatures that teary-eyed horror freaks will recognise from any Romero movie and, coupled with the fact that these zombies are of the ambling ilk, should satisfy those that leveled criticism at ’28 Days Later’ and the 2004 remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead’. Speaking of Romero, the filmmakers of Shaun were so aware of how much horror fans respected the trilogy of undead features that he created; they sent him the screenplay to ensure they got his seal of approval. When asked if he got their creative intension, he simply replied, “what’s not to get”? Perhaps aiming their inquiry more at the British sense of humour and its interpretation by a US audience, the reply had to be a massive boost for writers Pegg and Wright.

This is also a fine example of the way in which the British Board of Film Classification are finally coming around to understanding the filmmaker and the audience whom they censor for and, instead of slapping an 18 certificate on it because of the violent gore and colourful language, they have decided to go for a slightly more mainstream 15 instead. The film is clearly a comedy but several bloody scenes could easily have turned this into an adult’s only affair, but the BBFC look as though they are finally growing up and trusting the young adult.
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Key Area	Rating (out of 5)	Comment
Action		As you would imagine, destroying and evading zombies is bound to lead to the odd bit of action and even Shaun and Ed's lazy approach to life allows room for hacking and slashing. The end segments are particularly full of great zombie skirmishes.
Tension		If a film makes a seasoned horror veteran like me jump, then it has to at least contain several moments that build tension in an effective way. Shaun made me jump twice, so respect is due!
Violence/ Gore		Very gory in places but doesn't quite hit the top mark as a lot of the visual impact is diffused by the dim witted reactions of the hapless characters.
Bare Flesh	None	Hanging from the bone perhaps!
Plot		The main zombie plot is OK but the inner story of Shaun's commitment to his family and girlfriend and his ultimate stand against the creatures are what is really endearing about the movie.

Verdict Serious horror has it's place, what Pegg and Wright have created is the kind of movie that opens itself up to purveyors of other genres who have a healthy curiosity for amusingly odd pieces such as this. Whether it translates all that well to other countries is anyone's guess but if '28 Days Later' can do it, then Shaun definitely has a fighting chance. Brilliant.

Movie Pictures (Click picture to enlarge)