So for those that don't know by now, I like Shaun of the Dead. I'd go as far as to say it's my favourite movie ever - not just horror (and if you've ever talked to me about movies you already know this)!
I wanted to review Shaun of the Dead, but since I’m a little bit biased, here’s what I did:
I asked a friend of mine to watch the movie with me, for
her first viewing of it, so I could get a
fresh perspective on the film. When I asked her afterwards, she said her
favourite scenes were the infamous Record Throwing scene, the two parallel
“shop run” scenes, and the “Don’t Stop Me Now” scene. These are some of the
most interesting scenes from a production standpoint too, so I’m going to talk
about them one by one, and pick apart what makes them great (in my opinion).
But first, a bit of trivia. George A Romero loved the movie
so much, and the way that it made homage to his “of the dead” series, that he
asked Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to cameo in 2005’s “Land of the Dead” as
zombies!
The record throwing scene is a brilliant way to work in a
ton of music references – it’s lead into by a scene called “Funky Pete” in the
scene selection of the movie (named so because they replaced every F Bomb with
the word “funk” in some releases). The records that were and were not allowed
to be thrown in the scene were all great choices, as were the ones they decided
to chuck - and the line about Sade being Liz’s nicely ties in Shaun still
clinging to his relationship with Liz. As stated in an interview with the
Guardian, Simon Pegg actually asked permission from the lead of Dire Straits to
have them throw a specific album of theirs, but unfortunately it didn’t come to
much. Sade however apparently allowed them to “trash Diamond Life [the Sade
album thrown] without hesitation”.
The effect used when Mary falls onto the garden umbrella
holder is phenomenal (they did a behind the scenes comparison and the amount of
effects work it took is something to be admired) and is one of the most
realistic looking gore effects in the movie, while remaining less graphic than
the fare of many other similar horrors. This seen is both visual spectacle – on
a small scale – and comedic timing at it’s finest. I won’t spoil the jokes for
you if you haven’t seen it, but each one flows very well and they all have both
an element of “if you know you know”, while remaining funny to anyone who
doesn’t get it thanks in massive part to the delivery.
The Shop Run scene is one of the most interesting from a
behind the scenes perspective – the story that’s been passed around via
interviews (and then by fact channels and compilations etc) is that Edgar
Wright being a fledgeling director in the world of movies was looked at with
little respect by a large part of the crew – apparently not believing he could
pull off some of what he was setting out to do. As such, Wright filmed both
versions of the Shop Run scene within the same day to prove his directorial
chops, and the near identical nature of the street between the two scenes is
something to behold. Wright stated in the same Guardian article previously
mentioned that it was inspired by a late night shop trip after playing the
Zombie game “Resident Evil.” He said: “I was taken with how deserted and eerie
the streets were”. It shows Wright’s eye for detail in set and also in
character moments, and it sets up a similar style of parallels that follow in
many of his movies (and mesh well with his repeat/running jokes, for example
Pete’s catchphrase and “you’ve got red on you”).
Finally, the Don’t Stop Me Now scene is the reason I even
know about the movie to begin with. The choreography is phenomenal and the
synched up combat to the beat would be amazing already – and then you add in
the fact that it’s actually a Queen song in this zombie comedy, and you
get what amounts to be one of the greatest scenes in zombie and horror history.
The slapstick is both grounded and yet also absurd, the part where even David
flipping switches is to the music – it blends music and action in a way Edgar
Wright is truly the master of. To finish off this post, I should add that they
were already settled on “Don’t Stop Me Now” being in the scene before they’d
even asked if it could be. Simon Pegg sent a letter to Brian May (guitarist of
Queen) and “he was lovely about it” which makes me very happy, knowing it
wasn’t just an exchange of money but of actual passion for the craft and Brian
May just generally being a lovely bloke.
So there are my thoughts on Shaun of the Dead based on a
prompt of three scenes which my friend enjoyed the most when I made her watch
it, like I make all my friends watch it. If you thought this movie sounded good
and you somehow haven’t seen it I’d suggest checking it out!
Also, here's the article by The Guardian that reiterates a lot of what's said here - I personally learned much of it from video essays and word of mouth but when looking around for sources I found this article to be more reputable than "some YouTuber I watch".
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