I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with zombies. If you’ve read any of my earlier zombie movie reviews, you’ll know that I work for a large haunted attraction and primarily surround myself with fake corpses, giant spiders, skeletons, etc… Yet, I have a closet irrational fear of zombies. Irrational fears are the hardest ones to deal with because there is nothing to face, no way to get over the fear. With heights, you can go up on a tall building and attempt to kick your brain in gear. I’ll never meet a real flesh-eating zombie (or at least I’m relatively sure I won’t ever meet one), so the best I can do is deal with the fakes ones. I grew up watching horror films, and the ones about zombies were my favorites. Again I think I was attempting to face my irrational fear. But there may have been more to it. Perhaps subconsciously I was educating myself, planning for the day that I might find myself face to face with a real live (or undead as the case would be) corpse with the rather bothersome plan of eating my brain, and I would know exactly what to do.

I’d know the rules, as it were. I really don’t know why I’m telling you this other than it’s rather cathartic to share. (You can check out my review of the new “Dawn of the Dead” here, if you’d care for me to get a little more in-depth on this particular subject.)

When the word started spreading about a little British film called “Shaun of the Dead”, my first reaction was a mix of excitement and dread. I love British humor mind you, but I’ve seen too many attempts to mix horror and comedy, and rarely do the two work together effectively. When I heard that the film was becoming somewhat of a cult classic in the U.K., I became even more anxious to see it, and hoped against hope it would work its way to our shores. Of course, even if it did I wasn’t sure how well it would be received. After all, we were dealing with two genres (British Comedy and Horror) that only have a limited mainstream appeal over here.

As the weeks wore on, I became ever more determined to see it. Overseas trailers started popping up on the Internet, and from what few scenes I caught, I laughed hard enough to raise my hopes that the movie would live up to its growing hype. Then it was announced that “Shaun of the Dead” was being picked up by Universal for an American release. I couldn’t wait, but I still worried that I might be disappointed.

About two months before the film’s theatrical release, I was given the opportunity to catch a screening here in Dallas. As if that wasn’t good enough news, I found out that the film’s stars, Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Nick Frost (Ed), along with director Edgar Wright were slated to be there. It just doesn’t get any better than that. I gathered some of my horror movie loving friends and we headed out to the theatre. It was a full house, and the crowd was definitely getting into the spirit. I was incredibly excited to finally be seeing the movie, but I still had that little bit of apprehension that it wouldn’t be as good as I’d hoped.

A little over an hour and a half later, the lights came up and I found that my sides and face hurt from laughing so hard. And from what I could tell, everyone else in the theatre was suffering from the same problem. “Shaun of the Dead” was ‘laugh out loud’ funny from beginning to end, and I immediately labeled it the funniest movie I had seen in years. As a matter of fact, in seeing the film a couple of times after that, I concluded that it did not take a single misstep. It was a perfect comedy.

And that is why the film succeeded where other failed so miserably. “Shaun of the Dead” did not attempt to be a comedy about zombies, but instead was created as a straight out comedy that happened to have zombies in it. The original tag line, “A Romantic Comedy… With Zombies…” perfectly sums up the film. Even the humor itself, while very British in nature, branched out to make it more accessible to overseas audiences. The comedy was a bit broader in its delivery, and the main characters could have been your best friends. And actually, I recognized several of them AS my best friends.

You could have taken these characters and put them into any comic situation, and they would have worked perfectly. The way they first react to what’s going on around them, which is by not even noticing, is far funnier than any double take. After all, how often do people walk around with blinders on, oblivious to their surroundings or for that matter, watch the news? Then, when it ‘dawns’ on them what is actually happening, they react much in the way that we would, bringing the humor even closer to home.

As for the horror side of the film, the filmmakers spared no expense to make the movie look great. The zombie effects are stellar, and while the gore is kept to a relative minimum, what is shown is quite cringe-inducing. These guys are horror fans themselves, director Wright himself stating at the screening that George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” was the greatest movie ever, and they made the film for themselves as much as they made it for their audience. Knowing what they themselves wanted to see, they went all out to deliver it. And if you are an avid fan of horror films yourself, you’ll catch a ton of ‘in-jokes’ that others might miss. (“Ash called in sick and won’t be in today…” and ‘Foree Electronics’, and the use of Sam Raimi-like camera zooms are just a few that come to mind.)

Surprisingly, there was another side of the movie that I didn’t expect, which took on a bit of a serious tone. One of my friends found it a bit disconcerting since she expected an all-out comedy. However, the fact that it was present made it a much more well-rounded film. After all it was zombie movie, and in zombie movies… people die. In the midst of all the comedy, there were some extremely poignant moments.

On a quick side note, since I mentioned that Pegg and Frost were going to be at that first screening, I thought I should let you know that they are every bit as funny in person as they were in the film. The jokes came fast and furious as they answered questions from the audience. Even Wright kept right up with them, throwing one-liners around at light speed. They stuck around and signed autographs for everyone, and offered their receptive audience a great time.

As soon as I walked out of the theatre, I knew I had to have the DVD. I crossed my fingers that it would get a fairly quick release, and the week of Christmas ended up being the perfect time. Universal’s DVD release, like the movie itself, was everything I hoped it would be. Besides offering up a terrific transfer of the film, there are a multitude of extra features.

Initially you have a choice of two commentaries. The first is by Pegg and Wright (who also wrote the screenplay) and the second by the cast (Pegg, Frost, Dylan Moran, Kate Ashfield, and Lucy Davis). Both are hysterically funny, and I highly recommend listening to them both. You can also turn on a ‘Zomb-O-Meter’ that delivers ‘pop-up video style’ trivia about the film, including explanations for some of the in-jokes. Along with this, you can also choose a Storyboard Comparison feature that allows you to click on some ‘spooky’ eyes during some of the scenes to cut to the storyboard of that scene.

Usually I’m not a big fan of deleted scenes, but I welcomed the ones that were included on this disc. There are 15 in all, and they offer up optional commentary. And as if the movie wasn’t funny enough, there are some outtakes that are downright hilarious. One in particular is so good they gave it its own heading under the ‘Missing Bits’ heading. It shows Pegg and Frost running one of the scenes while imitating Michael Caine and Sean Connery. Pegg’s Caine is dead on (so to speak), while Frost’s Connery is a bit lacking, but it is a hysterical scene. You’ll also find an example of how the filmmakers attempted to ‘clean up’ some of the language in order to show the movie on airplanes in “Funky Pete” (you’ll get it when you see it…)

But the fun doesn’t stop there, oh no. There’s a whole section called ‘Raw Meat”, where you’ll find a video diary by Pegg, some of the casting tapes, an extremely funny flip chart featurette where Pegg and Wright explain the movie, and several makeup tests and special effects comparisons. These, along with a short featurette on the movie, make this a great section.

The “Zombie Gallery” has a ton of photos, posters and an ad strip that was designed for the film. “TV Bits” was another great section as it offered up full scenes for some of the shows that you catch on TV in the movie. I’d tell you more about these here, but I don’t want to ruin it for you. I should mention that the DVD included the U.S. theatrical trailer, for good measure.

Again I say “Shaun of the Dead” is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in years, so much so that I recommended it to friends that don’t like horror films at all and most of them loved it. Thankfully, the DVD is no less disappointing.

If you’d like a quick lesson in ‘Making up a Zombie’, courtesy of Universal Pictures and "Shaun of the Dead", click here.

Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton
Extras: Commentary by the Cast, Crew and Zombies, Zombie Photo Gallery, Zomb-O-Meter (Zombie Trivia), Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Casting Tapes, Simon Pegg’s Video Diary, Special Effects Comparisons, Interview with Coldplay
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Universal
Release Date: 12/21/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R (Zombie Violence / Gore and Some Language)
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We'll give Shaun of the Dead an A+.