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"The attackers seem slow and shambolic."
Mar. 1st, 2005 02:00 amI watched Shaun of the Dead tonight, and I must say: that's the way to do a zombie movie. (As opposed to Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which I watched on Saturday. But let us purge it from our memories. Bah-tzing!) Shaun is only secondarily a zombie movie; it's really about a no-longer-young-adult British slacker whose life is crumbling due to neglect until a zombie apocalypse happily turns things around for him. That said, the zombies were both scarier and more fun than those in RE:A, and as a zombie movie it succeeds remarkably well, while also being falling-off-the-futon funny. It's very British, as the newscaster's quote in my subject line should tell you; think of it as Four Weddings and a Funeral, but with not so many weddings and rather more funerals.
They do push the satire a bit hard at the end, and I think we see the seams a bit when they try too hard to be funny—like when Shaun is flipping channels on the TV and different stations keep finishing each other's sentences in amusing ways—but when they're being straight about it, when a panicky and disbelieving Shaun tells Ed not to use "the zed word", it works very well. I'll happily add this to my zombie-fest traveling movie show, along with Night of the Living Dead (the original), Dawn of the Dead (ditto), 28 Days Later, Dellamorte Dellamore, Evil Dead, and Braindead. (Yes, I know 28 Days Later isn't strictly a zombie movie. Bite me—they serve the same narrative role.)
It's got a bunch of minor gore and one or two tummy-churning moments (plus one tummy-shredding one—ew), but it should be safer for the squeamish than your usual horror film. I'd recommend it even to non-horror fans; it really is funny enough to pull you in. Through the window. And eat your brains.
(But...can dogs look up?)
They do push the satire a bit hard at the end, and I think we see the seams a bit when they try too hard to be funny—like when Shaun is flipping channels on the TV and different stations keep finishing each other's sentences in amusing ways—but when they're being straight about it, when a panicky and disbelieving Shaun tells Ed not to use "the zed word", it works very well. I'll happily add this to my zombie-fest traveling movie show, along with Night of the Living Dead (the original), Dawn of the Dead (ditto), 28 Days Later, Dellamorte Dellamore, Evil Dead, and Braindead. (Yes, I know 28 Days Later isn't strictly a zombie movie. Bite me—they serve the same narrative role.)
It's got a bunch of minor gore and one or two tummy-churning moments (plus one tummy-shredding one—ew), but it should be safer for the squeamish than your usual horror film. I'd recommend it even to non-horror fans; it really is funny enough to pull you in. Through the window. And eat your brains.
(But...can dogs look up?)
