Shaun of the Dead Information

Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather. At the same time, he has to cope with an apocalyptic uprising of zombies.

The film was a critical and commercial success in the UK and the US. It received a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 76 out of 100 at Metacritic. Shaun of the Dead was also a BAFTA nominee. Pegg and Wright considered a sequel that would replace zombies with another monster, but decided against it as they were pleased with the first film as a stand-alone product, and thought too many characters died to continue the story.

The film is the first in Wright and Pegg's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, followed by 2007's Hot Fuzz and 2013's The World's End.

Plot

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is an electronics store employee whose life has no direction. His younger colleagues show him no respect, he has a rocky relationship with his stepfather, Phillip (Bill Nighy), and a tense relationship with his housemate, Pete (Peter Serafinowicz), because of Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun's crude, unemployed best friend who lives on their couch. Furthermore, Shaun's girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), is dissatisfied with their social life, as it consists primarily of spending every evening at the Winchester, Shaun and Ed's favourite pub. They never do anything alone together; Shaun always brings Ed, and Liz brings her flatmates, David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis).

After a miserable day at work, Shaun meets an old friend, Yvonne (Jessica Hynes), who asks him what he and Liz are doing for their anniversary, which makes him realise he forgot to book a table at a restaurant, as he had promised to do. Faced with this, Liz breaks up with him. Shaun drowns his sorrows with Ed at the Winchester. The two return home late and spin electro records, only to have Pete confront them, who is suffering a headache after being mugged and bitten by "some crackheads." Pete berates Shaun and tells him to sort his life out.

The next morning, an uprising of zombies has overwhelmed the town, but Shaun is too busy dealing with his problems and hangover to notice. He and Ed become aware of what is happening after watching reports on TV, as zombies attack their house. After fighting back with weapons from their shed, they realise that they need to go somewhere safe. Shaun and Ed decide that the safest place they know is the Winchester, and they plan to collect Shaun's mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton), kill Phillip - who Barbara reveals has been bitten - then collect Liz and her flatmates. Shaun discovers that a naked Pete is still in the house and is now a zombie, and he and Ed escape in Pete's car. After collecting Barbara and Phillip, they end up having to switch cars because Ed deliberately crashed Pete's car in order to drive in Phillip's Jaguar. They head over to Liz, Dianne, and David's flat and collect them. Before they make it to the Winchester, Phillip dies of his bite, after making peace with Shaun. Abandoning the car as Phillip turns into a zombie, they set off on foot, bumping into Yvonne and her own band of survivors. Discovering that the path is infested with zombies, they devise a plan to sneak by, but after arriving at the pub, Ed and Shaun get into an argument and the zombies are alerted. David smashes the window while Shaun distracts the zombies. The five takes refuge inside the pub, and Shaun joins them after momentarily evading the zombies.

After several hours, the zombies return and converge on the pub. Shaun discovers that the Winchester rifle above the bar is functional and they use it to fend off the zombies. Barbara reveals a bite wound she picked up along the way and dies, becomes a zombie, and a heartbroken Shaun reluctantly shoots her. David is dismembered and disemboweled by the zombies, as a frantic Dianne unbolts the door to rescue him, exposing Shaun, Liz, and Ed to the zombies. Ed prepares a Molotov cocktail to fend them off, but Pete arrives and bites him. He manages to get over the bar and Shaun uses the cocktail to set fire to the bar. They escape into the cellar, in which they contemplate suicide, but discover a service hatch to ground level. Shaun and Liz escape through the hatch as a mortally wounded Ed stays behind with the rifle. Back on the street, as Shaun and Liz prepare to fight the zombies once more, the British Army arrives and they are rescued. Yvonne, who has also survived, shows up and tells Shaun and Liz to follow her. They approach the safety of the trucks, reconciled.

Six months after the outbreak, the uninfected have returned to daily life, while the remaining zombies, retaining their instincts, are used as cheap labour and entertainment. Liz and Shaun have moved in together in Shaun's house, and Shaun is keeping Ed, who is now a zombie, tethered in the shed and playing video games.

Cast

• Simon Pegg as Shaun
• Nick Frost as Ed
• Kate Ashfield as Liz
• Lucy Davis as Dianne
• Dylan Moran as David
• Penelope Wilton as Barbara
• Bill Nighy as Phillip
• Jessica Stevenson as Yvonne
• Peter Serafinowicz as Pete
• Rafe Spall as Noel
• Martin Freeman as Declan
• Reece Shearsmith as Mark
• Tamsin Greig as Maggie
• Julia Deakin as Yvonne's mum
• Matt Lucas as Cousin Tom
• Mark Donovan as Hulking Zombie

Production

The film is notable for Wright's kinetic directing style, and its references to other movies, television shows, and video games. In this way, it is similar to the British sitcom Spaced, which both Pegg and Wright worked on in similar roles.

The film was inspired by the Spaced episode "Art", written by Pegg (along with his writing partner and co-star Jessica Stevenson) and directed by Wright, in which the character of Tim (Pegg), under the influence of amphetamine and the PlayStation video game Resident Evil 2, hallucinates that he is fighting off a zombie invasion. Having discovered a mutual appreciation for Romero's Dead trilogy, they decided to write their own zombie movie. Spaced was to be a big influence on the making of Shaun, as it was directed by Wright in a similar style, and featured many of the same cast and crew in minor and major roles. Nick Frost who played Mike in Spaced has a starring role in Shaun as Ed. Peter Serafinowicz and Julia Deakinwho played Duane Benzie and Marsha in Spacedappear in Shaun as Pete and Yvonne's mum, and Pegg's Spaced co-star Jessica Stevenson plays Yvonne.

The film's cast features a number of British comedians, comic actors, and sitcom stars, most prominently from Spaced, Black Books and The Office. Shaun also co-stars Dylan Moran, who played Bernard Black in Black Books, Martin Freeman (Tim Canterbury in The Office), Tamsin Greig (Fran in Black Books, Caroline in Green Wing), Julia Deakin (Marsha in Spaced), Reece Shearsmith (Dexter in Spaced and a member of The League of Gentlemen) and Matt Lucas (writer/co-star of Little Britain). In addition, the voices of Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen) and Julia Davis (Nighty Night) can be heard as radio news presenters, as can David Walliams (Little Britain) who provides the voice of an unseen TV reporter. Trisha Goddard also makes a cameo appearance, hosting a fictionalised episode of her real-life talk show Trisha. Many other comics and comic actors appear in cameos as zombies, including Rob Brydon, Paul Putner, Pamela Kempthorne (Morticia de'Ath in The Vampires of Bloody Island), Joe Cornish, Antonia Campbell-Hughes (from the Jack Dee sitcom Lead Balloon), Mark Donovan (Black Books) and Michael Smiley (Tyres in Spaced). Coldplay members Chris Martin (who contributed to the soundtrack by guest singing the cover of Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" with Ash) and Jonny Buckland also cameo as zombies in the film.

The film was shot over nine weeks between May and July 2003.

Locations

The production was filmed entirely in London, on location and at Ealing Studios, and involved production companies Working Title Films and StudioCanal. Many exterior shots were filmed in and around the North London areas of Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Finsbury Park and East Finchley. Zombie extras were mainly local residents or fans of Spaced who responded to a casting call organised through a fan website.

Shaun's place of work is an actual electrical appliances store located at Tally Ho, North Finchley.

The scenes filmed in and around the "Winchester Tavern" pub were shot at the "Duke of Albany" pub, 39 Monson Road New Cross, South London - a three-storey Victorian pub popular with supporters of Millwall F.C. which was converted into luxury flats in 2007.

Reception

Box office

In the United Kingdom, Shaun took £1.6 million at 366 cinemas on its opening weekend and netted £6.4 million by mid-May. In its opening weekend in the United States, Shaun earned $3.3 million, taking seventh place at the box office despite a limited release to only 607 theatres. The film has earned $30,039,392 worldwide in box office receipts since its release.

Critical response

Shaun of the Dead received critical acclaim, with the film receiving a score of 91% at the comparative review website Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 76 out of 100 at Metacritic which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Nev Pierce, reviewing the film for the BBC, called it a "side-splitting, head-smashing, gloriously gory horror comedy" that will "amuse casual viewers and delight genre fans." Peter Bradshaw gave it four stars out of five, saying it "boasts a script crammed with real gags" and is "pacily directed [and] nicely acted."

Awards and recognition

In 2004, Total Film magazine named Shaun of the Dead the 49th greatest British film of all time. In 2005, it was rated as the third greatest comedy film of all time in a Channel 4 poll. Horror novelist Stephen King described the movie as "...a '10' on the fun meter and destined to be a cult classic." In 2007, Stylus Magazine named it the ninth-greatest zombie film ever made. In 2007, Time named it one of the 25 best horror films, calling the film "spooky, silly and smart-smart-smart" and complimenting its director: "Wright, who'd be a director to watch in any genre, plays world-class games with the camera and the viewer's expectations of what's supposed to happen in a scare film." Bloody Disgusting ranked the film second in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article saying "Shaun of the Dead isn't just the best horror-comedy of the decade " it's quite possibly the best horror-comedy ever made." In December 2009, Now Magazine deemed Shaun of the Dead the best film of the decade.

George A. Romero was so impressed with Pegg and Wright's work that he asked them to appear in cameo roles in the 2005 film Land of the Dead. Pegg and Wright insisted on being zombies rather than the slightly more noticeable roles that were originally offered.

Quentin Tarantino dubbed the film as one of his top twenty films made since 1992.

In March 2011, the film was voted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra listeners as their second favourite film of all time. Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption came in first place.

Home media

The film was released on DVD shortly after its theatrical run in the US, with a DVD release around December 2004 in the US. Features included several audio commentaries, EPK featurettes about the film's production, pre-production video diaries and concept videos, photo galleries, bloopers, and more. The film also saw release on the HD DVD format in July 2007, with a Blu-ray Disc release following in September 2009.

Merchandise

In 2006, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced that it would be producing action figures based on the film as part of its "Cult Classics" line that features fan favourite characters from various genre films. The releases so far are:

• 12" Shaun with sound
• 7" Shaun, which was released in Cult Classics series 4. The sculpt was based on the 12" figure.
• "Winchester" two-pack, featuring 7" versions of Ed and a bloodied-up Shaun with the Winchester rifle.
• Zombie Ed, which is a re-deco of the "Winchester" Ed, to be released in Cult Classics: Hall of Fame.

Upper Deck Entertainment released a card for the popular World of Warcraft in 2007,an ally named "Shawn of the Dead", with the power of bringing back allies from the enemy graveyard.

Cultural references

Prominent are many references to George A. Romero's earlier Dead films (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead, with Dawn in particular being referenced). The title Shaun of the Dead is also both an obvious parody of and homage to the title Dawn of the Dead. Numerous lines, scenes and background details also directly refer to the Romero films, including the music playing over the Universal logo, a piece of synthesiser library music used during the hangar scene in Dawn of the Dead.

Soundtrack

The film's score by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford is a pastiche of Italian zombie film soundtracks by artists like Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. It also uses many musical cues from the original Dawn of the Dead that were originally culled by George A. Romero from the De Wolfe production music library.

On the soundtrack album, dialogue from the film is embedded within the music tracks.

1. "Figment" " S. Park
2. "The Blue Wrath" " I Monster
3. "Mister Mental" " The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
4. "Meltdown" " Ash
5. "Don't Stop Me Now" " Queen
6. "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" " Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Melle Mel
7. "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)" " Man Parrish
8. "Zombie Creeping Flesh" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
9. "Kernkraft 400" " Zombie Nation
10. "Fizzy Legs" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
11. "Soft" " Lemon Jelly
12. "Death Bivouac" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
13. "The Gonk (Kid Koala Remix)" " The Noveltones
14. "Envy the Dead" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
15. "Ghost Town" " The Specials
16. "Blood in Three Flavours" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
17. "Panic" " The Smiths
18. "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" (originally by Buzzcocks) " Ash featuring Chris Martin
19. "You're My Best Friend" " Queen
20. "You've Got Red on You / Shaun of the Dead Suite" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
21. "Normality" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
22. "Fundead" " Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
23. "Orpheus" " Ash

Comic strip

Pegg and Wright also scripted a one-off tie-in comic strip for the British comic magazine 2000AD titled "There's Something About Mary".

Set the day before the zombie outbreak, the strip follows and expands on the character of Mary, who appears briefly in the introductory credits, and is the first zombie whom Shaun and Ed are aware of, and details how she became a zombie. It features expanded appearances from many of the minor or background characters who appear in the film. The strip was made available on the DVD release of Shaun, along with two other strips that wrapped up "Plot Holes" in the film, like how Diane escaped and survived the Winchester incident, and Ed's fate after taking refuge in the basement of the bar.