Jump to content

Shaun of the Dead

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.64.191.225 (talk) at 22:03, 12 November 2010 (→‎Cultural references). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Shaun of the Dead
File:Shaun-of-the-Dead.jpg
UK release poster
Directed byEdgar Wright
Written byEdgar Wright
Simon Pegg
Produced byTim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Nira Park
StarringSimon Pegg
Nick Frost
Kate Ashfield
Lucy Davis
Dylan Moran
CinematographyDavid M. Dunlap
Edited byChris Dickens
Music byPete Woodhead
Daniel Mudford
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
April 9, 2004 (2004-04-09) (UK)
Running time
99 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
LanguageEnglish
Budget£4 million
Box office$30,039,392

Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British romantic comedy horror film directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather. At the same time, he has to cope with an apocalyptic uprising of zombies.

The film is the first of what Pegg and Wright call their Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy with Hot Fuzz as the second and The World's End as the third.[1]

The film was a critical and commercial success in the United Kingdom, and the United States. It received a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 76 out of 100 at Metacritic. Shaun of the Dead was a BAFTA nominee.

Plot

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a 29-year-old salesman whose life has no direction. His younger colleagues at work show him no respect and he has a rocky relationship with his stepfather, Phillip (Bill Nighy). He also has a tense relationship with his housemate, Pete (Peter Serafinowicz), because of Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun's crude best friend who lives on their couch and deals marijuana. His girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), is unsatisfied with their social life, because it consists primarily of spending every evening at the Winchester, Shaun's favourite pub, as well as the fact that they never do anything alone together - Shaun always brings Ed and she has to bring her flatmates, David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis). After a miserable day at work, Liz breaks up with Shaun when he fails to book a table at a restaurant for their anniversary. Shaun drowns his sorrows with Ed at the Winchester. Ed, saying that Shaun doesn't need her, ironically quotes "It's not the end of the world." Just at that moment, a man (probably a zombie) bangs on the window sluggishly. They return home late to throw a breakup party, only to have Pete confront them. Pete, suffering a headache after being mugged and bitten by "some crackheads", berates Shaun and tells him to sort his life out. Shaun resolves to do so the next morning.

This revelation comes at the same time as an apocalyptic uprising of zombies, although Shaun is too hungover to notice at first. He and Ed finally realise what is happening after watching reports on TV and several zombies appear at the house, and they decide they need to ensure they are somewhere safe. Shaun and Ed arm themselves with weapons from the shed and realise that the safest place they know is the Winchester. They plan to collect Shaun's mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton), and Phillip, and Liz and her flatmates and head to the Winchester. They discover that Pete is still in the house and is now a zombie, but manage to escape in Pete's car. After collecting Barbara and Phillip, who is bitten in the process, they switch cars and drive in Phillip's Jaguar and head to Liz, Dianne and David's flat, and collect them. Before they make it to the Winchester, Phillip dies of his bite, after he manages to make peace with Shaun. Forced to abandon the car, they set off on foot, bumping into Yvonne, a close friend of Shaun's, and her own band of survivors. Discovering that the path is infested with zombies, they devise a plan to sneak by, pretending to be zombies, with the help of Dianne, who is an aspiring actress. Ed and Shaun get into an argument and the zombies, after watching the commotion, realise they are not dead and approach. David smashes the window with a dustbin and, while Shaun distracts the zombies, everyone takes refuge inside the pub. Shaun joins them after giving the zombies the slip.

After several hours, the zombies return. Ed inadvertently gives away their position when he wins on the fruit machine and the zombies converge on the pub. At that moment, the pub's landlords, also zombies, arrive and attack them. Ed manages to get the Winchester rifle above the bar working and they use it to fend off the zombies breaking in. However, Barbara reveals a bite wound she picked up along the way and subsequently dies. Realising she is about to become a zombie, David points the rifle at her, only to meet resistance from Shaun and Ed, and in the ensuing confrontation, Dianne reveals that she is aware that David loves Liz and not her. After Barbara returns as a zombie, Shaun shoots her, and punches David. David grabs the rifle and attempts to shoot Shaun, but discovers that the rifle is out of ammo. Before anyone can react to his attempt to kill Shaun, David angrily storms to the door. Dianne talks him away from it, and David begins to apologize to Shaun. At that moment, the zombies break through a window and drag him out, disemboweling and dismembering him. Frantic, Dianne unbolts the door to rescue David, exposing Shaun, Liz and Ed to the zombies. Ed prepares a Molotov cocktail to fend them off, but Pete arrives and bites him. He manages to get over the bar and Shaun uses the cocktail to ignite the bar. They escape into the cellar. Finding themselves cornered, they contemplate suicide, but discover a service hatch. Shaun and Liz escape through the hatch, and Ed, now mortally wounded from the ensuing zombie attack, stays behind with a cigarette and the rifle. Back on the street, Shaun and Liz prepare to fight the zombies once more, but at that moment, the British Army arrives and they are rescued. Yvonne, who has also survived, shows up and tells Shaun and Liz to follow her. They approach the safety of the trucks, reconciled.

Six months after the outbreak, all of the uninfected have returned to daily life, and the remaining zombies, retaining their instincts, are used as cheap labour and entertainment. Liz and Shaun have moved in together in Shaun's house, and Shaun is keeping Ed tethered in the shed and playing TimeSplitters 2.

Cast

"Don't use 'the Z word'"
horror-comedy trope

[Shaun, a 20-something slacker, and Shaun's friend Ed, a video gamer, in Shaun's home, overhear a presenter's voice from a news broadcast]: " ––– Avoid all physical contact with the assailants."

...
[Ed]: Any zombies out there?

[Shaun]: Don't say that.

What?

That!

What?

That. The Zed-Word. Don't say it!

Why not?

Because it's ridiculous!

All right––– are there any out there, though?

[looking out home's letter-slot, Shaun sees an empty street] Can't see any. Maybe it's not as bad as all that. [Shaun turns his head and sees a pack of the living dead] Oh, no, there they are.[2]

— Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (2004 winner:
Bram Stoker Award for Best Screenplay)[3]

Production

The film is notable for Wright's kinetic directing style, and its references to other movies, television shows, and video games. In this way, it is similar to the British sitcom Spaced, which both Pegg and Wright worked on in similar roles.

The film was inspired by the Spaced episode "Art", written by Pegg (along with his writing partner and co-star Jessica Stevenson) and directed by Wright, in which the character of Tim (Pegg), under the influence of amphetamine and the PlayStation video game Resident Evil 2, hallucinates that he's fighting off a zombie invasion. Having discovered a mutual appreciation for Romero's Dead trilogy, they decided to write their own zombie movie. Spaced was to be a big influence on the making of Shaun, as it was directed by Wright in a similar style, and featured many of the same cast and crew in minor and major roles (as well as Pegg, Wright and Stevenson, Nick Frost — who played Mike in Spaced — has a starring role in Shaun as Ed, and Peter Serafinowicz and Julia Deakin, who played Duane Benzie and Marsha in Spaced, respectively — appeared in Shaun as Pete and Yvonne's mum, respectively).

The film's cast features a number of British comedians, comic actors and sitcom stars, most prominently from Spaced, Black Books and The Office. Shaun also co-stars Dylan Moran, who played Bernard Black in Black Books, and Lucy Davis, who played Dawn Tinsley in The Office. In addition to this, cameo appearances are made by Martin Freeman (Tim Canterbury in The Office), Tamsin Greig (Fran in Black Books, Caroline in Green Wing), Julia Deakin (Marsha in Spaced), Reece Shearsmith (a member of The League of Gentlemen) and Matt Lucas (writer/co-star of Little Britain). In addition, the voices of Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen) and Julia Davis (Nighty Night) can be heard as radio news presenters, as can David Walliams (Little Britain) who provides the voice of an unseen TV reporter. Trisha Goddard also makes a cameo appearance, hosting a fictionalised episode of her real-life talk show Trisha. Many other comics and comic actors appear in cameos as zombies, including Rob Brydon, Paul Putner, Pamela Kempthorne (Morticia de'Ath in The Vampires of Bloody Island), Joe Cornish, Antonia Campbell-Hughes (from the Jack Dee sit com Lead Balloon), Mark Donovan (Black Books) and Michael Smiley (Tyres in Spaced). Coldplay members Chris Martin (who contributed to the soundtrack by guest singing the cover of Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" by Ash) and Jonny Buckland also cameo as zombies in the movie.[4]

Locations

The production was filmed entirely in London, on location and at Ealing Studios, and involved production companies Working Title Films and StudioCanal. Many exterior shots were filmed in and around the North London areas of Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park. Zombie extras were mainly local residents or fans of Spaced who responded to a casting call organised through a fan website.

The scenes filmed in and around "The Winchester Pub" were shot at The Duke Of Albany in Monson Road New Cross, a three-storey Victorian pub popular with supporters of Millwall F.C. which was converted into luxury flats in 2007.[5]

Reception

Box office

In the UK, Shaun took £1.6 million at 307 cinemas on its opening weekend and netted £6.4 million by mid-May. In its opening weekend in the US, Shaun earned $3.3 million, taking eighth place at the box office despite a limited release to only 607 theatres.[6] The film has earned $30,039,392 worldwide in box office receipts since its release.[6]

Critical response

Critical reaction was highly positive, with the film receiving a score of 91% at the comparative review website Rotten Tomatoes (with a Cream Of The Crop score of 94%)[7] and a score of 76 out of 100 at Metacritic[8] which indicated universal acclaim. Nev Pierce, reviewing the film for the BBC, called it a "side-splitting, head-smashing, gloriously gory horror comedy" that will "amuse casual viewers and delight genre fans."[9] Peter Bradshaw gave it four stars out of five, saying it "boasts a script crammed with real gags" and is "pacily directed [and] nicely acted."[10]

Awards and recognition

In 2004, Total Film magazine named Shaun of the Dead the 49th greatest British film of all time. In 2005, it was rated as the third greatest comedy film of all time in a Channel 4 poll.[11] Horror novelist Stephen King described the movie as "...a '10' on the fun meter and destined to be a cult classic."[12] In 2007, Stylus Magazine named it the 9th greatest zombie movie ever made.[13] In 2007, Time named it one of the 25 best horror films, calling the film "spooky, silly and smart-smart-smart" and complimenting its director: "Wright, who'd be a director to watch in any genre, plays world-class games with the camera and the viewer's expectations of what's supposed to happen in a scare film."[14]. Bloody Disgusting ranked the film second in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article saying "Shaun of the Dead isn’t just the best horror-comedy of the decade – it’s quite possibly the best horror-comedy ever made."[15]

George A. Romero was so impressed with Pegg and Wright's work that he asked them to appear in cameo roles in the 2005 film Land of the Dead. Pegg and Wright insisted on being zombies rather than the slightly more noticeable roles that were originally offered.[16]

Quentin Tarantino dubbed the film as one of his top twenty films made since 1992.[17]

Home media

The film was released on DVD shortly after its theatrical run in the US, with a DVD release around December 2004 in the US. Features included several audio commentaries, EPK featurettes about the film's production, pre-production video diaries and concept videos, photo galleries, bloopers, and more. The film also saw release on the HD-DVD format in July 2007, with a Blu-ray release following in September 2009.

Merchandise

In 2006, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced that they would be producing action figures based on the film as part of their Cult Classics line that features fan favourite characters from various genre films. The releases so far are:[citation needed]

  • 12" Shaun with sound
  • 7" Shaun, which was released in Cult Classics series 4. The sculpt was based on the 12" figure.
  • "Winchester" two-pack, featuring 7" versions of Ed and a bloodied-up Shaun with the Winchester rifle.
  • Zombie Ed, which is a re-deco of the "Winchester" Ed, to be released in Cult Classics: Hall of Fame.

Upper Deck Entertainment released a card for the popular World of Warcraft Card Game in 2007, an ally named "Shawn of the Dead", with the power of bringing back allies from the enemy graveyard.[18]

Cultural references

Prominent are many references to George A. Romero's earlier Dead films (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, with Dawn in particular being referenced)[19]. The title Shaun of the Dead is also both an obvious parody of and homage to the title Dawn of the Dead. Numerous lines, scenes and background details also directly refer to the Romero films, including the music playing over the Universal logo, a piece of synthesizer library music used during the hangar scene in Dawn of the Dead. The film also features a Kid Koala remix of "The Gonk," which was used over the closing credits of Dawn.

Other than Romero's work, many other references to horror films are made, such as the series The Evil Dead, 28 Days Later and the films of horror directors Lucio Fulci and John Carpenter.[citation needed] More diversely, references to Blade, The Deer Hunter, Reservoir Dogs, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as the films of James Cameron and the Star Wars trilogy can be found.

Aside from its inspiration, Shaun also features many visual references, cast members and inside jokes from Edgar Wright's TV series, Spaced.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The film's score by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford is a pastiche of Italian zombie film soundtracks by artists like Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. It also uses many musical cues from the original Dawn of the Dead that were originally culled by George A. Romero from the De Wolfe production music library.[20]

A short clip of the music video to The Smiths' single "Panic" is shown in the movie, where the line "Panic on the streets of London" is heard while Shaun is flicking through TV channels. Also the song "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen is heard in a scene at the pub where Shaun, Liz, and Ed bludgeon the zombified owner of the pub to the beat of the tune. Additionally, "Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation is heard during one scene while Shaun is on a bus. The US theatrical trailer also features "Pretend We're Dead" by L7 (from the Bricks Are Heavy album), although that song appears neither in the film nor on the soundtrack.

On the soundtrack album, dialogue from the film is embedded within the music tracks.

  1. "Figment" - S. Park
  2. "The Blue Wrath" - I Monster
  3. "Mister Mental" - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
  4. "Meltdown" - Ash
  5. "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen
  6. "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Melle Mel
  7. "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)" - Man Parrish
  8. "Zombie Creeping Flesh" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  9. "Kernkraft 400 (Osymyso Remix)" - Zombie Nation
  10. "Fizzy Legs" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  11. "Soft" - Lemon Jelly
  12. "Death Bivouac" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  13. "The Gonk (Kid Koala Remix)" - The Noveltones
  14. "Envy the Dead" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  15. "Ghost Town" - The Specials
  16. "Blood in Three Flavours" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  17. "Panic" - The Smiths
  18. "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" - Ash featuring Chris Martin (Originally by Buzzcocks)
  19. "You're My Best Friend" - Queen
  20. "You've Got Red on You / Shaun of the Dead Suite" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  21. "Normality" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  22. "Fundead" - Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
  23. "Orpheus" - Ash

Comic strip

Pegg and Wright also scripted a one-off tie-in comic strip for the British comic magazine 2000AD entitled "There's Something About Mary".[21]

Set the day before the zombie outbreak, the strip follows and expands on the character of Mary, who appears briefly in the introductory credits, and is the first zombie whom Shaun and Ed are aware of, and details how she became a zombie. It features expanded appearances from many of the minor or background characters who appear in the film. The strip was made available on the DVD release of Shaun, along with two other strips that wrapped up "Plot Holes" in the film, like how Diane escaped the Winchester, and Ed's fate after taking refuge in the basement of the bar.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Interview with Simon Pegg". BBC Website. 2008-10-01. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  2. ^ Pegg, Simon; Wright, Edgar (29 March 2004). "Div X Titles Subtitles 44563 English: Shaun of the Dead: 1". Shaun of the Dead. London, England: Universal Pictures. 00:37:06–00:37:38/subtitles 543–553. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  3. ^ Mann, Laurie. "2004 Bram Stoker Award Winners". AwardWeb: Literary Award Information and Photos. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  4. ^ Coldplay Official Site: The Oracle Knows Everything
  5. ^ "'Zombies' pub put to the sword". South London Press. 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-12-14. [dead link]
  6. ^ a b "SOTD at Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  7. ^ "Shaun of the Dead (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
  8. ^ "Shaun of the Dead". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
  9. ^ Nev Pierce (7 April 2004). "Shaun Of The Dead (2004)". BBC. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  10. ^ Peter Bradshaw (9 April 2004). "Shaun of the Dead". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  11. ^ "50 Greatest Comedy Films". Channel 4. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
  12. ^ ""Shaun of the Dead" DVD News". Rebecca Murray. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  13. ^ Stylus Magazine’s Top 10 Zombie Films of All Time - Movie Review - Stylus Magazine
  14. ^ "Shaun of the Dead, 2004". Time. 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  15. ^ "00's Retrospect: Bloody Disgusting's Top 20 Films of the Decade...Part 4". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  16. ^ Simon Pegg interviews George A Romero
  17. ^ "Tarantino Reveals His Top 20 Movies (Since Reservoir Dogs)". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2010-04-12.
  18. ^ "Shawn of the Dead Card Preview". UpperDeck.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-16. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  19. ^ http://www.shaunofthedead.com/plot/pop-culture/
  20. ^ Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg commentary, Shaun of the Dead (DVD). Universal Pictures
  21. ^ Shaun of the Dead: "There's Something About Mary" (by Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Frazer Irving, in 2000 AD #1384, 2004
Wikiquote has quotations related to Shaun of the Dead.

Template:Link GA Template:Link GA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shaun_of_the_Dead&oldid=396395711"