But they do it selectively: Flinging Dire Straits or Sade in the name of survival is acceptable, but not an original pressing of New Order’s “Blue Monday.”Īfter holding off the zombies with a cricket bat, Shaun eventually holes up at his favorite pub with Ed, his mum (Penelope Wilton), a couple of friends and his ex-girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield) - who was sick of always going to said pub, one of the many reasons she dumped the selfish, useless Shaun.
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Wright layers subtle tension builders - an incessantly ringing phone, an increasing number of emergency sirens, the sound of a driver laying on his horn - but even when things start looking bad, “Shaun of the Dead” never takes itself too seriously.īack to the music for a moment: In a laugh-out-loud sequence, Shaun and Ed defend themselves from zombies in the backyard by throwing albums from Shaun’s collection at their heads.
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Possibly the most obscure of all: The electronic party anthem playing as Shaun rides the bus to his dead-end job, which you’ve probably heard at every professional sporting event in the past couple of years but don’t know the name of, is called “Zombie Nation.” While Shaun is flipping channels on the telly and ignoring breaking news reports of destruction and carnage, he runs across Morrissey, The Smiths’ lead singer, crooning, “Panic on the streets of London. “Ghost Town” by The Specials plays in the film’s beginning. “Shaun of the Dead” is also incredibly self-aware in its hipness, especially in its music selection, but not obnoxiously so.
Romero’s 1968 cult classic, “Night of the Living Dead” and its sequel “Dawn of the Dead,” sources of great inspiration for Pegg and director Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the script, it has a certain irresistible B-movie charm. Similar to “An American Werewolf in London” (1981), it’s a horror movie that’s funny, intelligent - and, yes - horrific, and seamlessly so. It’s that kind of comedy that makes “Shaun of the Dead” a rare successful hybrid. Dark Shadows Annabelle: Creation The Conjuring 2 Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Conjuring Ouija: Origin of Evil Army of the Dead Fear Street Part 1: 1994. He leaves money on the counter before walking out and returning home. Once he enters the convenience store, bloody hand prints stain the glass refrigerator door and a puddle of something gooey in the aisle causes Shaun to slip and slide. The street Shaun crosses and the curb he stumbles over are teeming with trash, smashed cars and some more of the undead. He goes through the same routine, only this time the zombified panhandler staggers toward him with glazed eyes, groaning for spare change.
Zombies have begun invading Shaun’s quiet little ’hood - but he’s too clueless to notice. (Wright’s only other feature at that time was the Western parody A Fistful of Fingers.) In several other interviews, both Wright and Pegg have revealed that this spirit of pessimism was a sentiment shared broadly among other crew members as well.The second time happens the next morning. Romero classic, directed by a filmmaker who was not yet a household name. Shaun was a scrappily budgeted zombie movie with a title parodying a George A. In retrospect, it’s easy to see where that attitude came from. In a 2013 interview, Wright recalled a particularly discouraging moment in which an extra playing a zombie mistook the director for a crew member, looked over at him, and declared, “Whew- straight to video for this one.” Put together for roughly $6 million, Shaun of the Dead intrigued critics and scared up $30 million at the box office upon its release, propelling Wright’s film career and becoming a cult classic in the process.īut things weren’t always shaping up that way on set. In the film, Pegg plays the titular Shaun, a slacker who leads his girlfriend and dysfunctional band of friends after London is taken over by a zombie outbreak. It was the first feature collaboration between director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg (who also co-wrote Shaun) and Nick Frost, who had previously worked together on the Britcom Spaced. On April 9, 2004, an improbable zombie-meets-romantic comedy called Shaun of the Dead debuted in theaters.