Other Titles • Shaun of the Dead (2004) • Tea-Time of the Dead
Synopses for Shaun of the Dead (2004)
1.
British horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead is a scream in all senses of the word. Brain-hungry zombies shamble through the streets of London, but all unambitious electronics salesman Shaun (Simon Pegg) cares about is his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), who just dumped him. With the help of his slacker roommate Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun fights his way across town to rescue Liz, but the petty concerns of life keep getting in the way: When they're trying to use vinyl records to decapitate a pair of zombies, Shaun and Ed bicker about which bands deserve preservation--New Order they keep, but Sade becomes a lethal frisbee. Many zombie movies are comedies by accident, but Shaun of the Dead is deliberately and brilliantly funny, while still delivering a few delicious jolts of fear. Also featuring the stealthy comic presence of Bill Nighy (Love Actually) and some familar faces from The Office. --Bret Fetzer
2.
Shaun is in a rut. He’s 29 and coasting through life, never threatening to fulfil his potential. He lives with Ed (Good name! Er, Ed the Ed) his best friend from junior school and Pete, his lesser friend from college. Pete and Ed don’t get on, perhaps because Ed is a somewhat lazy B-class drug dealer who doesn’t clear up after himself and Pete is a slightly irritating stuck up business man, devoid of any vestige of the amiability that got him and Shaun together in the first place.
Then there’s Liz, Shaun’s girlfriend, also 29. An attractive, fun-loving, intelligent woman who is understandably starting to think about the future, something Shaun tries resolutely to ignore. She is getting increasingly uneasy about the amount of time Shaun spends with Ed. Any intimacy they manage to achieve socially is usually at The Winchester, a local pub, with Ed present. And having grown tired of the triangle, Liz has taken to bringing out her two friends David and Di, the former a fastidious know-it-all, the latter a dizzy wannabe actress. Liz is frustrated and Shaun has his head in the sand. Shaun’s love life is not a happy one. Lastly there’s Shaun’s Mum, Barbara. She is lovely, a caring, doting everymother, whom Shaun adores.
Unfortunately, twelve years ago, Barbara married Philip, a pompous, bossy, bully of a man who became Shaun’s stepfather and drove an awkward wedge between mum and boy. Shaun’s family life is…. We join Shaun on a Friday night in the pub with Liz and Ed and David and Di, trying to have a relationship conversation with his patient girlfriend. The resolution of this is an affirmation that Shaun will change for the better and to prove it, he will take Liz to a renowned fish restaurant the next night and give her the third anniversary meal they never had. All he has to do is book it. But Saturday is a strange day. Things seem distinctly odd. Suicides on the Underground hold up the tube trains. People are fainting in the street, TV seems to show constant news footage of some unexplained calamity and did that tramp just try to eat a pigeon?
After a long confusing day, Shaun gets home only to realise he has forgotten to book the restaurant and his alternative suggestion of going to The Winchester is the final straw for Liz, who decides to finish her relationship with Shaun, despite his passionate protests. Saturday ends up in the pub, in the dark, drunk and full of remorse. After an argument with Pete and the day’s events clouding his mind, Shaun decides to change. Tomorrow, he will get his life together.
He will square things with his estranged girlfriend. He will visit his Mum. Everything will be fine. Unfortunately ‘the dead’, have risen in London. Yesterday’s strangeness has transformed overnight into a full on Zombie apocalypse. Despite the obvious initial shock, Shaun is intent, Zombies or no Zombies, on fulfilling the promises he made to himself and sets out to rescue his girlfriend and his Mum and take them to the safest place he can think of, The Winchester. Of course things don’t go entirely to plan as Shaun, and of course Ed, are joined by David, Dianne and Philip as well as Barbara and Liz, and the journey to the pub is far from uneventful.
Once in the pub, tempers become frayed and a long running feud between David and Shaun comes to the boil. As the group fight for their lives with pool queues, bar stools and an antique rifle, they are slowly whittled down by the encroaching hordes of the undead, who are desperate to get into the pub and eat the survivors...
3.
Edgar Wright's horror-comedy film, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, follows the title character (Simon Pegg) through his mundane life in London. Joined by his immature and ever-present roommate, Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun excels at nothing except drinking pints of ale and watching television, which causes friction with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). Before Shaun can save his relationship, however, he's got to fend off a horde of zombies that are slowly taking over the city. Armed with a cricket bat and a vague sense of direction, Shaun must rescue his friends and loved ones, and bring them to the only safe place he can think of--the pub.
Cowritten by Wright and Pegg, SHAUN OF THE DEAD succeeds remarkably well at combining droll British humor with good, old-fashioned zombie cinema. While the movie is often hilariously amusing, it takes its horror pedigree seriously, offering up moments of genuine suspense, and even a healthy dose of gore. Pegg is oddly charming as the put-upon lead slacker, and Frost is appropriately oafish, but the living dead themselves also take up a fair amount of screen time, shuffling and limping in their best Romero form. For lovers of zombie films and other chills-and-chuckles outings like EVIL DEAD II and DEAD ALIVE, SHAUN OF THE DEAD is an instant cult classic.
4.
On Friday, Shaun (Simon Pegg) is in a rut. At 29, he's coasted through life and still hasn't gotten very far, usually winding up at the local pub, the Winchester. His roommate Ed (Nick Frost) looks up to him when he can take his eyes off the TV, that is. Liz (Kate Ashfield) is re-evaluating their relationship, particularly after Shaun fails to do something special for their anniversary on Saturday.
That day, there are train delays, people fainting in the streets, TV news reports for unexplained calamities and did that homeless man just try to eat a...? No, it can't be...But, it is - the dead have risen. Saturday's isolated incidents mushroom into a full-on zombie assault and, once daylight breaks, it's Sunday bloody Sunday. As manners and flesh take a beating, it's time to separate men from meat, humans from zombies, and living from undead. Shaun and Ed grab whatever is at hand (cricket bat, shovel, LP) to repel the attaching zombies, summoning reserves of strength they didn't know they possessed and straining muscles they forgot they had. Rounding up friends and family, they press on towards the sanctuary of the Winchester All that stands (or lopes) in their way are hordes of the flesh-eating undead...
5.
Get ready for a gut-busting, bone-mashing good time in the hilarious horror comedy, Shaun Of The Dead.
There comes a day in every man's life when he has to get off the couch...and kill some zombies. When flesh-eating zombies are on the hunt for a bite to eat, it's up to slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his best pal to save their friends and family from becoming the next entree. Satisfy your bloodthirsty appetite with the movie that masters of horror and film critics alike are hailing as the funniest and scariest movie of the year. Novelist Stephen King gushes "it's a 10 on the fun meter and destined to be a cult classic." and Newsweek calls Shaun Of The Dead "a bloody hoot!" It's a screamingly hilarious zomedy that will have you dying with laughter.
6.
It's no disparagement to describe Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s zombie-rom-com Shaun of the Dead as playing like an extended episode of Spaced. Not only does the movie have the rather modest scope of a TV production, it also boasts the snappy editing, smart camera moves, and deliciously post-modern dialogue familiar from the sitcom, as well as using many of the same cast: Pegg’s Shaun and Nick Frost’s Ed are doppelgangers of their Spaced characters, while Jessica Stevenson and Peter Serafinowicz appear in smaller roles. Unlike the TV series, it’s less important for the audience to be in on the movie in-jokes, though it won’t hurt if you know George Romero’s famous Dawn of the Dead trilogy, which is liberally plundered for zombie behaviour and mythology.
Shaun is a loser, stuck in a dead-end job and held back by his slacker pal Ed. Girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is exasperated by his lack of ambition and unceremoniously dumps him. As a result, Shaun misses out on what is apparently the end of the world. In a series of beautifully choreographed and edited scenes, including hilarious tracking shots to and from the local shop, he spectacularly fails to notice the death toll and subsequent zombie plague. Only when one appears in their back garden do Shaun and Ed take notice, hurling sundry kitchen appliances at the undead before breaking out the cricket bat. The catastrophe proves to be the catalyst for Shaun to take charge of his life, sort out his relations with his dotty mum (Penelope Wilton) and distant stepdad (Bill Nighy), and fight to win back his ex-girlfriend. Lucy Davis from The Office and Dylan Moran of Black Books fame head the excellent supporting cast. --Mark Walker
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