Together with his mother, the stepfather, who will soon mutate into a zombie, and some friends, Shaun hides himself in his local pub “Winchester” and hopes to escape the horror there. Shaun of the Dead is a creepy zombie splatter movie with cult status and finest English humor.
The electrical goods salesman Shaun (Simon Pegg) doesn’t like his life at all at the moment. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) has dumped him, and his beloved friend Ed (Nick Frost) is no inspiration either – both are always dependent on video games. London is being hit by a zombie epidemic, first gradually, then quite vigorously.
Shaun also doesn’t notice anything about it at first and walks quietly through his street full of the undead and shops in the grocery store with bloodstained refrigerated compartment doors. But when the zombies stagger through his garden, don’t let themselves be driven away by targeted record projectiles and even the flatmate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) is bitten and himself becomes undead, the escape to the front is gradually announced.
Shaun and Ed persuade Liz, without whom Shaun would never escape, and their friends to seek shelter in their local “Winchester”. As Shaun suddenly develops a sense of family, his mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton) and her partner Philip (Bill Nighy) are also taken along.
The escape turns out to be more than difficult, because the “Winchester” is besieged by zombies, and by now Philip is already half dead, but his mother does not want to part with him. Finally, the small group practices “imitating zombies”. With rolled eyes and hanging arms they limp undisturbed into the pub and barricade themselves there. But here, too, they are not safe, and their small strike force is visibly diminishing. But Shaun grows beyond himself, because he does it for love.
“A strange film, staged with an obvious desire for the zombie genre, without getting lost in the game of quotations. “Without excessive use of fake blood, he develops a certain seriousness.”
Dictionary of International Film
The film’s tagline alone: “A romantic comedy. Zombies” sums up what this film is about. Shaun grows beyond himself and defeats the zombies for his great love Liz. This is done in a wonderfully wacky way, with pitch-black humour, well-placed film quotes – especially from films by George A. Romero – absolutely clichéd, crazy fighting scenes and bitterly evil side blows to society and the entire horror zombie industry.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost surpass each other in unintentionally funny jokes and reluctantly giving up their comfort zone in front of the TV. One almost has to try the clichéd sentence: “A must for horror fans”. “Shaun of the Dead” is the first contribution of the “Blood-and-Ice-Cream-Trilogy” by the authors Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (who also directs it). A lot of blood flows here, and every time at least one Cornetto ice cream is eaten in the film, as in the sequel “Hot Fuzz – Zwei abgewichste Profis”.
Don’t forget to check out the Shaun of the Dead game featuring some of the best moments from the movie.
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