14 October 2004

Review: Shaun of the Dead (5/5)

Shaun of the Dead

The reviews should have prepared me. The commercials should have prepared me. The long line of geeks dressed up as zombies and swinging rubber cricket bats during a special preview at Landmark Cinema should have prepared me. Well, geeks line up for a lot of stupid shit, so that could've gone either way.

Shaun of the Dead was one of the best horror movies I've seen in a while, and it's not that horror-filled. Although considerably less grim that these, it's at times similar to Dawn of the Dead [IMDB] and 28 Days Later [IMDB]--both also zombie movies so, yes, there appears to be a full-fledged zombie revival. Shaun was also one of the best comedies I've seen in a while. The fact that it worked so well in both styles makes it better than if it were only one or the other. Scream [IMDB] had horror and humor, but its humor was what you would typically see in a genre movie and functioned more as decoration around the main style. Shaun was well balanced in both styles.

We walked out of Shaun ready to see it a second time--both to try to hear the sometimes heavily accented dialog we missed the first time and just to enjoy a great movie again.

[ posted by sstrader on 14 October 2004 at 6:40:26 PM in Cinema ]