Shaun of the dead

“ Shaun of The Dead” “ Shaun of The Dead” is a zom-rom-com film directed by Edgar Wright and is set in a city in London. “ Shaun of The Dead” is a ‘ spoof’ of “ Dawn of The Dead”. Wright uses lots of different techniques to make it humorous, such as stereotypical gags, classic British satires, subtle humour and many more. Edgar Wright conveys a sense of humour through the characters. The main character, Shaun, is not the typical character you would expect to try and save the world. Shaun is a complete anti-hero from the beginning because of what happened in the pub and how he interacts with others. Shaun is first introduced looking clueless to everything around him, shaun appears to be old due to the point that he has various wrinkles on his face and also has receding ginger hair. This tells us he is probably in his mid 30s. Liz, another of the main characters, is Shaun’s lover and is a nagging lady. At the start, she comes out to be a lot more polite and posh. Liz is very sensible. This is shown when in the very first scene, she is wearing very nice clothes and she is quite a bit more clean compared to Shaun. We are left to think, ‘ Why is she with Shaun?’ Ed is the most stupid of all of the anti-heroes. When at the start ed is being very immature by swearing, gambling, smoking and drinking. Ed, in the record scene, was confused on how to kill the zombies and decides to try and throw one of Shaun’s records. The record then smashes of the zombie and looks like it did damage. Ed and Shaun are then arguing over which records to keep and which to throw as the zombies get closer. It is funny because of the pop music and the fact we don’t see too much done. The record scene explains how stupid and immature Ed and Shaun are. Shaun and Ed are shown outside with two zombies in front of them, the camera then does a quick movement to a record lying on the ground, Ed then picks up the record and throws it at the zombies. Ed and Shaun then look at each other. The camera fast forwards then pans with a spin to a close up on a box of records outside with Shaun and Ed hunched over them choosing what tracks are worth throwing, when this is happening a comical song comes on to build fun tension in the watchers mind. The camera switches between a close up on the records being chosen, a long shot on the slowly forthcoming zombies, a mid shot of Shaun and Ed throwing a record, then a close up on the impact on the zombies, lastly a close up on Shaun and Ed’s reaction to it. It repeats again and again to show how they are not doing anything to damage the zombies. The scene is made hilarious by Shaun and Ed arguing over what music is good and whether or not the record should be thrown at the zombies or not. David is the one we think is really stupid. We all think that David is a wimp. When he threatens to kill Shaun’s mum, we feel a little bit of hate towards him. David is in love with Liz and has been using Diane one of Liz’s best friends to get closer to Liz. We hate him because of his lack of sensitivity and so it’s funny when he gets his guts ripped out by zombies. Diane is a stereotypical blonde. Dianne is a very chilled-out, hippy person who decides to go along with anything that she is asked or told to do. Near the end she declares that she knew that the whole time she and David were going out, David was playing her to get closer to Liz. Humour also comes from Shaun’s ignorance of the world around him. When Shaun does his daily routine and goes to the shops, lots of things happen, a little boy plays football outside Shaun’s apartment. A homeless man walking a dog asks for spare change. Shaun almost gets hit by a car. A man is washing his car, a man jogs past him on his way to the shops. Another man holding a bin cart looks at him strangely. When he is in the shops he walks to the fridge and picks out a can of coke. He asks the man in charge of the place for some “ papers”. While he is doing this you can see on the table there are newspapers saying ‘ CM Crops Blamed’ and a horror sort soundtrack appears to build tension, then the man. Nelson smacks his hand on the table giving you a fright. In the background you can hear the radio speaking about some kind of threat coming from the crops. The next time Shaun goes to the shops it is completely oblivious that everything was changed. The little boy is not there, the homeless man turns out to be a zombie and has a lead for his dog yet no dog, we assume he ate his dog, no cars are going along the road, the man washing his car is not there instead there is a hole through the window of his car, the man who was jogging is now running at full speed, leaving us thinking that he was being chased by zombies and the man holding the bin cart is not there anymore either. When Shaun goes to get a can of coke this time he does not notice the handprints of blood on the fridge door, he then slips on what we think was blood. We hear a static noise in the background to enhance the point of isolation. This is funny because Shaun does not even notice that the radio is not normal or the handprints on the fridge door. This shows that Shaun is so used to his morning routine that he does not even notice these abnormal things, we find this amusing. Edgar Wright uses the characters such as Shaun, to convey the themes of Good vs. Evil. This is the battle between humans and zombies. Shaun is made to take leadership against the zombies and try and protect the group. He comes up with a plan to try and get to the Winchester. When the group make it there they expect Shaun to know what to do. Shaun has no idea what to do. When Ed gets bit he tells Shaun and Liz to get out and be safe. Shaun and Liz escape but just to find that the real hero: Shaun’s friend Evon, who found the army managed to save her group, without a worry, also managed to save Shaun and Liz. Evon decides not to hurt Shaun’s feelings and accepts how he didn’t save everyone in his group. This movie is a successful zom-rom-com because of its very comical moments with Shaun and Ed, in the record scene, its sweet moments with Shaun and Liz, and its zombie cliché moments during the film.