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Shaun of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly
fits the bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the
ghoulish goods. With its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit
coupled with some truly genuine gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead
is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest that captures the
twisted imagination.
 It
is very difficult to experience a true riotous effect when it comes
to the zombie movie genre. After all, aren’t the majority of these
walking dead flicks meant to be cheesy and inherently comical in
nature? Well, the devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the
Dead certainly fits the bill as a monstrously subversive parody
that delivers the ghoulish goods.
With its British-oriented sense of stinging wry
wit coupled with some truly genuine gloomy gumption, Shaun of the
Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest that captures
the twisted imagination. Uniquely hilarious and horrifying, this
sensationalized send-up of zombie flicks would tempt a cannibal
to dine on veggies as a compromise. Convincingly crude and flat
out hysterical, this fleshy fable would make gory guru George A.
Romero (Night of the Living Dead) simultaneously proud and envious.
For the most part, there has been some decent zombie movies made
that have created an entertaining buzz during the past year or so.
Danny Boyle’s riveting 28 Days was atmospheric, intelligent and
riveting in its dark seediness. Plus, this year’s Dawn of the Dead
remake was pleasantly passable and thoroughly involving. But the
roguish Shaun of the Dead has the distinctive triple threat of being
a true and blue “3-F” candidate (funny, frightening, and frivolous).
Writer-director Edgar Wright and co-writer/Shaun star Simon Pegg
concoct an inventive and cleverly shrewd scare tactic spectacle
that resonates with absolute giddy charm. Along with the invaluable
assistance of cinematographer David M. Dunlap’s tenacious touch
behind the camera lens, there’s a penetrating look and feel to this
zany zombie romp that’s both cheeky and chilling in forethought.
The handlers maintain a remarkable balance as the
material knows how to use its seriocomic effect to perfection. The
turmoil is often ribald if not pleasingly subtle at times. And the
loopy laughs do pour out flowingly much like a river of blood from
a zombie’s missing eye socket. Hands down, Shaun of the Dead belongs
with Romero’s trilogy of masterful zombie films as one of the best
skin-snacking cinema bits to ever hit the creepy consciousness of
horror-harboring worshipers everywhere.
Twenty-nine-year old underachiever Londoner Shaun (Simon Pegg) is
the unlikely hero of our terrifying tale. He leads what is perhaps
an arbitrary existence as a slacker-in-waiting. He has a not-too-exciting-job
working at an electronics store and basically goes through the everyday
ho hum motions. On the homefront, things aren’t that encouraging
as well.
Shaun lives with fellow housemate Ed (Nick Frost),
a plump and pointless unemployed drug-induced hanger-on whose only
vices consist of constantly playing mindless video games or frequenting
the local pub The Winchester with his buddy Shaun. In associating
with lump-on-the-log Ed, Shaun is routinely stunting his own growth
as a responsible adult that needs to grow up and start searching
for an ambitious bone in his bored body.
When contending with the sluggish influence of Ed’s irresponsible
ways, Shaun also has to deal with his demanding but sensible girlfriend
Liz (Kate Ashfield) who insists that he get his act together and
ditch the slovenly Ed if he knows what is good for him. Thus, Shaun
has to choose between the leisurely lunkhead Ed and stay content
in his permanent stagnation or adhere to Liz’s challenge to abandon
the listlessness of his livelihood and venture beyond the self-imposed
foolishness. Just what will Shaun do to rescue himself from such
a delirious dilemma that concerns his ambivalence toward adulthood?
Better yet, will Shaun be a little more creative in treating his
galpal Liz to a better time than hanging out with her at the claustrophobic
Winchester?
Soon, Wright’s edgy exposition will tap into its sardonic overtones.
As the audience deals with agonizing Shaun’s disillusionment and
detachment, we are caught up in more than our perplexed protagonist’s
personal conflict. Very steadily, the camera focuses its winking
eye on the other sources of disillusionment and detachment going
on that surrounds an indifferent Shaun.
Curiously, we witness the strange hypnotic habits
of random people looking dazed and confused as they begin to exhibit
emptiness in their stoic approach to performing what was considered
previous animated tasks in their daily living. Workers, commuters,
street punks, lovers—they’re all engaged in a slow-moving ritualistic
glazing that restricts the usual norm of this community’s functioning.
Robotic movements from blank-faced citizens and the flaming vehicles
in the sordid streets of London aren’t registering at all with the
aloof Shaun. The disconnection of Shaun’s emotional baggage is so
alarmingly ridiculous because he doesn’t even realize that the society
around him is completely off the mark in normalcy.
Shaun of the Dead is a glorious goof on the rigid standards of stiff-lipped
British protocol and the raucous results of what happens when the
corruptive forces of cannibalism offsets its prim and proper societal
structure. It’s profanely absurd and deliciously disturbing to see
how something as grim and ghastly could go unnoticed as some sort
of sham in the way we are conditioned to selfishly be so self-absorbed
with our own inner struggles that we ignore the overall mass-related
concerns at hand. The bottom line: it’s how we cope as a collective
unit when it comes down to grouping despair and desperation on a
wide scale.
Both Wright and Pegg are so observational and insightful about the
varying elements of unpredictable human nature well beyond the flesh-ripping
platitudes. Maybe it’s that suggestive British sense of humor—the
caustic comedy of having English middle-class bystanders immersed
in such misery and macabre mayhem while coping with other dimensions
of angst that is just too hilarious for words.
It is so clear and calculating to see how inspired
these wacky British horror-comedy collaborators were in their ode
to celebrating the high-minded savagery of George A. Romero’s bonus
blood-thirsty showcases. The wicked joke at hand is indeed a visceral,
horrific hayride to say the least—the brain-bashing tendencies of
having slow-walking body part beasts munch on human ham sandwiches
is a deadpan humorous metaphor for how lost we really are as misguided
people with fragile psychological shells as protected armor.
As a slap-in-the-face blood-splattering commentary, Shaun of the
Dead is harsh but perversely hearty in its crass convictions. The
filmmakers behind Shaun are widely known to English television audiences
thanks to the flaky sitcom Spaced (Wright directs the televised
comedy; Pegg and Frost star in it).
The spunky social satire is infectious and the
zombie attacks (and attacking of the zombies) are graphic yet occasionally
tongue-in-cheek. This is one zany zombie campaign that’s smart,
engaging, and percolates with zesty personality. Showing folks being
devoured like a hotdog at a sporting event is utterly insane in
the free-spirited manner that is so casually comfortable.
The performances are exceptional especially with Pegg as the disengaging
Shaun who seems so trapped yet oddly content in his dubious day-to-day
quagmire. With the big 3-0 around the corner and life seeming like
a staid chain of moments where his exasperated girlfriend and uncouth
pal surround him in the familiar comforts of his safety net drinking
hole, Pegg’s Shaun is the epitome of a lost guy in an unshakable
rut.
When Shaun actually snaps out of his nagging funk
and starts to care about something when combating the overzealous
zombies that he previously dismissed due to his inner strife, it’s
then that his woeful life becomes fueled with urgent meaning and
purpose. Shaun is hapless and hopeless but he wants to shake things
up a bit if only facing a new phase in his being wasn’t so daunting.
Surprisingly, Shaun steps up to the plate. And in doing so, he shows
some savvy as a spontaneous leader of this magnified crisis.
The supporting players are effectively exhilarating in their contributions
as well. Frost’s Ed is the consummate loser/lackey that wears his
dishonorable badge with pride. Ashfield’s Liz plays the suffering
companion with the right amount of pathos. Penelope Wilton (Calendar
Girls) and Bill Nighy (Love Actually) are joyously on cue as Shaun’s
mother and stepfather. And who can forget the flesh fiends in the
film that put on their bloody best behavior as carcass-eating creatures
wandering the uncontrollable London alleys.
The verdict is in about the rollicking Shaun of the Dead—you’ll
have an outrageous experience being cozy with the outlandish participants
that make up this weird wonderland of flesh-and-blood. This is one
exhaustingly compelling vehicle that you can literally sink your
teeth into! With the intentional pun intended, Shaun and his cannibalistic
cohorts will truly get under your skin.
Frank Ochieng
(c) 2004 Frank Ochieng
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OTHER CONTENT - November 2004
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Terry
Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil, the second book
in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on growing as an author, and his plans
to return to his earlier Word & Void series.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Sea,
Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world creation and comes
to the conclusion that there are basically two ways to do it. You can begin
from the top down, or from the ground up.
(ARTICLES)
Third
World
One of our famous one page stories by GF Willmetts.
(FICTION)
Black
Cat Investments Ltd. - Your Money Is Safe With Us
One of our famous one page stories by Rod MacDonald.
(FICTION)
San
Diego Comic-Con '04
So, it looks like half the people who voted in a Crowsnest poll a couple of
months back have never been to a convention. Which is a little sad when you
come to think of it - there's really nowhere else on earth you get to indulge
your genre weakness like a Con. If only because everyone else there is doing
exactly the same thing.
(CON REPORTS)
One
Page Stories Submissions (or What To Do, What To Write And How to Submit)
This is an experiment on the website for all of you writers and neo-writers
out there. One of the criticisms that I raise when working my way through our
slush pile is that writers need to learn how to tell a story with a limited
word count to make everything count and tell a good story.
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
(ARTICLES)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 2004
Interviews with Stephen R. Donaldson, Clive Barker, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,
Clark Kent's foster father, and John Clute, Dell Magazines' SF boat cruise,
fiction by Peter Crowther, and getting laid at a science-fiction convention.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon, robot fish, why
space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically, and has the Great Galactic
Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian probes?
(NEWS)
Resident
Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming gimmick by ushering
out the second installment Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The labored formula remains
the same regarding a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the
charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Frank's Take)
DreamWorks tries awkwardly in their blind ambition to continue the delightful
digital-animated ditties in the celebrated spirit that has been previously so
vastly successful at the box office. As a result, the DreamWorks creative machine
conjured up a spry but uneven underwater adventure in the derivatively upbeat
animated feature Shark Tale.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
Conran concocts a colorful creation dripping with cheerful arty set designs
armed with a refreshing old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this
opulent noir to its creative core.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly fits the
bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the ghoulish goods. With
its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine
gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest
that captures the twisted imagination.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Ghost
In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers the animation
is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of dimensionality, frequently
within the same frame.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Hero
(Mark's Take)
China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of an enigmatic stranger
who has killed a triad of assassins for the benefit of China's first Emperor.
The stranger tells the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's
enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic in style but becomes
muddled.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Les
Revenants (Mark's Take)
A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept of the dead returning,
but this time it is used for non-horror purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing
problems toward the middle.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Primer
(Mark's Take)
This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling scientific techno-jargon
just about right. The story is hard to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic
either. Definitely this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with
its minuscule budget.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Mark's Take)
Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea urban environment
and should entertain the whole family. The story is familiar but the jokes come
in a rapid fire.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Mark's Take)
This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike Leigh. Oblivious
lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become aware that the dead are returning
at trying to eat the living. This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie
movie, but even more at the foibles of English life today. The first half is
very funny and the second half is at least witty.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is the background for
this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is just a chain of action sequences,
one leading to the next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork
is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what
make the film worth seeing.
(FILM REVIEWS)
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