Story of movie Shaun Of The Dead :
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 horror comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. Pegg plays Shaun, a directionless Londoner who is caught in an apocalyptic zombie uprising. The film was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for a BAFTA. It 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.
| Shaun of the Dead | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Edgar Wright |
| Produced by | Nira Park |
| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by |
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| Cinematography | David M. Dunlap |
| Edited by | Chris Dickens |
Production company |
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Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.1 million |
| Box office | $30 million |
Screenplay
Shaun is a shop salesman with no direction in his life. His colleagues disrespect him, he does not get on with his stepfather Philip, and his girlfriend Liz breaks up with him, unhappy they spend every evening at his local pub, the Winchester. After the break-up, Shaun drowns his sorrows there with his housemate and best friend Ed. At home, their housemate Pete, complaining of a bite wound from a mugger, berates Shaun to get his life together.
By morning, a zombie apocalypse has overwhelmed London, but Shaun and Ed are slow to notice until they encounter two zombies in their garden and kill them with blows to the head. They form a plan to rescue Shaun's mother, Barbara, and Liz, then wait out the crisis in the Winchester. They escape in Pete's car, and pick up Barbara and Philip, who has been bitten, then Liz and her friends Dianne and David. Philip makes peace with Shaun before turning into a zombie.
The group abandons the vehicle and continues on foot, evading zombies. They seek refuge inside the Winchester, where Shaun discovers that the Winchester rifle above the bar is functional. Barbara reveals she has been bitten and turns undead after giving Liz and Shaun her blessing. Shaun, distraught, is forced to shoot Barbara.
Zombies break into the pub. David is disembowelled, and an enraged Dianne grabs David's leg and rushes into the horde. The zombified Pete bites Ed, after which Shaun shoots Pete and sets fire to the bar. The fire sets off the rifle ammunition while Shaun, Liz, and Ed flee into the cellar, where they contemplate suicide. Ed volunteers to stay behind with the rifle while Shaun and Liz escape through a hatch that opens to the street. The Army arrives and guns down the remaining zombies.
Six months after the outbreak, civilisation has returned to normal, and surviving zombies are used as cheap labour and entertainment. Liz has moved in with Shaun, while Shaun keeps the zombie Ed tethered in his shed, where they play video games together.
- 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 Philip
- 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
The film is notable for Wright's kinetic directing style, and its references to other movies, television series 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 Hynes) and directed by Wright, in which the character of Tim (Pegg), under the influence of amphetamine and the 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 of the Dead, 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 of the Dead as Ed. Peter Serafinowicz and Julia Deakin – who played Duane Benzie and Marsha in Spaced – appear in Shaun of the Dead as Pete and Yvonne's mum, and Pegg's Spaced co-star Jessica Hynes 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 of the Dead 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 two fictionalised episodes of her real-life talk show Trisha. Many other comics and comic actors appear in cameos as zombies, including Rob Brydon, Paul Putner, Russell Howard, 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 have cameo roles in the film.
The film was shot over nine weeks between May and July 2003.
Locations
The production was filmed 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, Highgate 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 shop 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-story Victorian pub. It was turned into flats in 2008.
Box office
In the United Kingdom, Shaun of the Dead 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 of the Dead earned US$3.3 million, taking seventh place at the box office despite a limited release to 607 theatres. The film has earned US$30,039,392 worldwide in box office receipts since its release.
Critical response
Shaun of the Dead received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 92%, based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Shaun of the Dead cleverly balances scares and witty satire, making for a bloody good zombie movie with loads of wit". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 76 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "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 nicely acted." The film was placed sixth in Empire's top one hundred British films list.
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 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. Pegg and Frost reprised their roles (animated style) in the Phineas and Ferb Halloween special "Night of the Living Pharmacists" in October 2014.
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.
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