Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead, on the surface, is a satire on the classic zombie movie. The violence and gore is set against a wacky comedic background, turning this into a very dark comedy. Even though it’s a completely different setting, it sometimes feels like some scenes in Dawn of the Dead. As we look into the movie a little bit, we can see that it has a lot of subjects and themes that many other non-comedic zombie movies have. The main character, Shaun, has a completely uninteresting life. He needs something to change very badly, and a zombie outbreak is just right.

Throughout the movie, Shaun is presented with situations that forward his character development. Like many zombie movies, the focus is on the characters, and the zombies and fighting is just a tool to move the story along, and keep us entertained between dialogues. The film has a very interesting style, with many jump cuts and repetition of scenes or themes. Lots of foreshadowing is used, and many karmic lessons are taught to the characters through this. One unique thing about this movie, that we don’t see in a lot of others, is the characters actually referring to the zombies as zombies. I believe this is partially because it has a modern setting where the characters have most likely seen zombie movies. In the end of the movie, we see that the outbreak is a good thing, and basically resets Shaun’s life. In the end, the zombies are able to be trained for manual labor, entertainment, and the service industry. Ed is still Shaun’s friend, but everything is sorted out. It’s interesting to think about the possibility of zombies being able to be trained, and seems to make them almost animal-like.