IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Schocktober 2021 #29
Watched on Blu-Ray
The Cornetto trilogy came to a glorious conclusion about 8 years ago, when the final part "The World's End" had Simon Pegg and colleague Nick Frost stumbling through a sci-fi conspiracy. However, they have already stumbled through a London zombie apocalypse in 2004, which not only defined the style of the coming parts of the "Blood & Ice Cream" three-parter, but also represents both loving homage and cheeky parody of old zombie classics (above all Romero's "Dawn of the Dead"). This can already be seen in the undead themselves. In times when the flesh of the zombies is brimming with realism, the London infected, with their white pupils, pale skin and extreme inertia, are clearly a relic of times when Romero was still revolutionising the zombie film.
The fact that "Shaun of the Dead" was not just an embarrassing imitation of old films in the end is due primarily to its writing duo Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. They skilfully manage not only to avoid stereotypes and clichés, but also to balance almost cold-bloodedly dancing on the thin thread between ineffective imitation and ultra-effective gags, constantly referring to usual plot holes and the bizarre logic of old zombie classics. When Shaun and his group, more badly than not, sneak through a crowd of undead in a roaring zombie manner, lure a zombie crowd away by fidgeting or take out numerous brain addicts by a banal pat on the head with a cricket bat, the humorous reference is more than clear. Along the way, director Edgar Wright continuously makes use of more subtle elements of humour. Be it perfectly filmed situational comedy (Shaun's morning walk to the kiosk) or be it the dialogue, which never makes you burst into wild laughter, but with the tongue-in-cheek subtext constantly makes you smile. The discussion between Ed and Shaun alone about whether or not to call the zombies "zombie" is screenwriting at its best and a repeatedly quoted piece of film history. In retrospect, this scene even parodies current zombie productions that deny the existence of "zombie fiction" in their universe and in which the "Z-word" is not dropped even once.
Another feature of the Cornetto trilogy that has stuck, besides the extremely fast-cut zoom collages of banal everyday occurrences, is the brilliant way of "foreshadowing". When Ed sits in the pub with Shaun and virtually spoils the entire film plot in his monologue about what they should do the next day, when a radio news broadcast or song plays in the background in almost every scene, depicting the events of the film, this subtlety is at such a high level that you only notice it on the fourth or fifth viewing. Or the first time, when the subtitles are on, as they draw attention to the gimmicks heard in the background. A little more obvious are the foreshadowing in the dialogue, which cleverly points to the coming zombie craze.
"I was wondering if she wanted anything special for lunch. Cause these days a lot of people don't eat meat."
"It's not hip hop. It's electro. Prick. Next time I see him, he's dead."
Ultimately, it's the extremely successful and effective combination of these comedy elements of gauzy slapstick and subtle foreshadowing with the British humour ("You've got red on you.") that Wright, Pegg and Frost celebrated years earlier in "Spaced" that make "Shaun of the Dead" what it is. A loving homage to old zombie films, but one that works excellently even as a semi-romantic horror-comedy in its own right. "Shaun of the Dead" offers both shallow laughs as Shaun keeps tripping over the hubbub, and comedy at the very highest meta-level, which is only noticeable when pointed out directly or when you have 30 years of zombie movie experience. In between all this, a sympathetic semi-loser navigates the zombie apocalypse, tries to be a hero, saves his girlfriend, ends up sitting in the tool shed with his zombiefied best friend playing Timesplitters 2 on the PlayStation 2, accompanied by "You're My Best Friend" by Queen. ...
And Bill Nighy plays along.
