Shaun of the Dead

Genre: Comedy/Horror

Director: Edgar Wright

Screenplay: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Morgan, Penelope Wilton, and Bill Nighy

Shaun lives his life catering to his best friend, Ed, with no want for a bigger picture, which is why his girlfriend, Liz, leaves him. While trying to embrace the fact that Liz is gone and yet still concocting a plan to get her back, something darker is happening to the world around him. People are turning into zombies. As soon as Shaun accepts this new dilemma, he is determined to rescue Liz and his mother with the help of Ed and get them to the only safe place they can think of, the pub.

I really adore British movies and the dry humor, so when it was mixed with horror, I fell in love. Yeah, they’re fighting zombies, and they’re laying all their hopes on a beloved pub that will be their sanctuary. Who needs to figure out why there are zombies or how to take care of them. This doesn’t seem to be a good recipe for success, but this film actually works. Plus, although brief, the addition of Bill Nighy to a cast is never a bad thing. This movie is good fun if you enjoy dry humor and can laugh at blood and flailing limbs.

There is one problem that I did have with this film. At the end Shaun is faced with the horrible reality that his mother is about to turn into a zombie and that he will probably have to kill her. A tough matter regardless the zombie situation, yet this is a comedy. They did not however choose to lighten up the situation, but chose to make it very dramatic. The scene was so out of place compared to the rest of the film that I was completely removed from the main plot and then thrust abruptly back into the hilarity. I just felt that they needed to make the transition a little more harmonious to the rest of the tone of the film.

I give this film 3 Buttery Kernals.