Shaun of the Dead

CHARLIE BROWN

1. Describe the general plot of the film—a breakdown of what happens in Act One, Two, Three. Don’t forget to include the title and director!!

In the film “Shaun of the Dead” (Directed by Edgar Wright), a British man working a mediocre job is forced to save his loved ones during a zombie crisis. It’s a parody on all zombie films preceding it, namely “Dawn of the Dead”.

In act one, we meet Shaun and his two roommates. His best friend is a slacker who can’t pick up after himself and their other roommate wants to evict him. At the end of a day, it is revealed that the stern roommate (Pete) has been bitten by a mugger.

Act two begins the next day when Shaun and his best friend (Ed) are confronted by zombies, including Pete. They decide to go to the local bar, but must first pick up Shaun’s mother and girlfriend. The rest of the act details the group trying to survive. The climax occurs when Shaun and his girlfriend are just about to escape the scene for good, but must leave Ed behind, who has been bitten.

In the final act, Shaun and his girlfriend stay together, and the outbreak becomes successfully contained. Ed, who is a zombie, lives in Shaun’s shed secretly and they play video games together daily.

2. Describe the main characters.

Shaun is a lazy, but nice, middle class Englishman working a lousy job and not really enjoying life.

Ed is a slacker/marijuana dealer for a living who plays video games all day and contributes little to no money monthly for the rent.

Liz (Shaun’s girlfriend) is also relatively poor and is growing tired of Shaun’s lazy antics.

2. Describe how the director evokes horror-visually (camera moves/angles, lighting, etc) Give a specific example from the film.

More thought was put into the comedy aspect of this film rather than horror, but the director used some classic horror techniques to sharpen the horror edge of the film. Like in the scene where we find out Pete is a zombie. Shaun is going through the medicine cabinet, and when he closes it, we can see zombified Pete in the mirror. Classic.

3. Describe how the director evokes horror-conceptually (storyline, characters, conflict, etc) Give a specific example from the film.

Conceptually, the film is as expected. A zombie movie. Nothing really stood out in the story of the film that relates to horror. Zombies are taking over suburban England. That’s the extent of the conceptual horror aspect.

5. If you were directing this movie, what would you have done differently? Why?

The only thing that irked me was the direction given to Simon Pegg (Shaun) in the scene where his mother is turning into a zombie. It’s too long and dramatic for a comedy, and I could only think “Get on with it” while it was happening.