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Spoofs are a tricky genre. They seem so easy to make but if that was the case than we we wouldn’t see so much crap these days. Even the guys behind Airplane and The naked Gun movies seem to have lost their touch. If you want a spoof nowadays we’re mostly stuck with trash like all the “Movie” films (Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie etc). Luckily once in a while some people with talent actually make a spoof that could be an example for the rest of the world who wants to make on. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are two of those talented people.
They bring us Shaun Of The Dead after they have entertained us on a high quality level in the cult comedy Spaced which basically nobody seems to know. At least not here in the Netherlands.
In Shaun of the Dad we enter the life of Shaun. He has just been dumped by his girlffriend when a large population of the people in London turn into the living dead. Now he must try to get his girlfriend back while fighting off Zombies and getting all his loved ones into a safe hide-out.
Shaun Of The Dead is brilliant comedy and spoof. What it does right for instance is create a real storyline for the movie to follow. Shaun, Liz, Ed, we all know people like that. They inject wit instead of your basic slapstick humor or simple jokes about bodily fluids. There is physical humor but most of it supports the movie, like the scene where a zombie falls onto a pipe. Great scene. That’s just what makes Shaun of the Dead great: it plays on multiple levels. It’s your basic Zombie movie, but it’s also a (romantic) comedy. There’s social commentary, action, humor and reconciliation.
Like George A. Romero the movie is packed with comments on the way we live, which is like Zombies. When stuck in traffic or in line at a register just look at the people around you: shuffling along like mindless zombies. This is the way we live and Shaun puts that under a magnifying glass and shows it to the world.
I loved all the little details in the movie. All sorts of small hints to other zombie movies and pop-culture. For movie buffs it’s a real treat to hear Ed say to Shaun’s mother: “We’re coming to get you, Barbara!”
Simply put: I love Shaun Of The Dead.
