Shaun of the Dead is one of the best zombie movies out there, both a hilarious parody and an enticing story in its own right. It's one of the best from Edgar Wright's directorial catalog, supplemented by a great cast and creative cinematography. If you're a fan of zombie movies, or just looking for a good comedy where a manchild has to step up to the plate, I'd highly recommend this modern classic.

Without going too far into detail, the film follows Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his deadbeat friend, Ed (Nick Frost), alongside a whole group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse scenario; Shaun uses the chance to make up with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield).

Well, that's really just scratching the surface. Despite its apocalyptic premise, there's lots of time spent establishing characters, setting up threads to get resolved later on, and overall just setting the stage before shit hits the fan. It may be a satirical comedy, but I actually found myself caring way for these survivors than in most ensemble horror films.

The cast have great comedic timing and performances, but what really stole the show for me was the cinematography led by David M. Dunlap. Like most films he and Wright work on, there is such a great pace and style to every scene. You can tell the framing of every shot was intentional and the slick cuts from scene-to-scene make the film feel like its moving at a swift pace even before the zombies show up. The visuals are helped by a subtlely great musical score underlying the film with ambient jazz and good use of licensed music. It's a directorial style I'm obsessed with and I will always love this movie for the vibes alone.

Shaun of the Dead is a lot like other Edgar Wright works in that maturity and adulthood are major themes. Though the film has an ensemble cast, it's really all about Shaun and every character seems to be some kind of reflection of him. This is especially obvious with the other two male leads: his friend, Ed, and Liz's twat friend, David (Dylan Moran). They both represent the two extremes of percieved "maturity" in the modern day. David outwardly seems to have his life together and tries to show himself as a more mature alternative to Shaun at Liz. But, he's really a coward and lacking in actual empathy. Meanwhile, Ed is an immature gamer who never grew up and has no responsibilities, but at the very least he's able to live freely and honestly. Though the film is way more sympathetic to Ed's character than David's (rightfully so David is a prick), they both die partially due to their own shortcomings. Shaun survives by finding the middle ground between the responsibility of David's "maturity" and freedom of Ed's "immaturity." Based on the ending where he finds time for both his girlfriend and playing video games with Zombie Ed, the film shows us that a balance is possible to maintain.

I think a lot of the film can be viewed through the lens of growing up, most obviously shown in the scene where Ed has to put down his own mom. I do wish there was more to say about Liz, she was honestly a bit bland which is funny since the male characters are so in love with her. I honestly found Dianne's (Lucy Davis) character more interesting and tragic. I don't mind too much though since pretty much all the characters serve the purpose of furthering Shaun's development. All in all, this zombie movie is a great coming-of-age story.

miscellaneous points

final recommendation

WILL GET RED ON YOU/10