Seth Lamey
The jump from TV to film is not always an easy transition, but a writer/director of Edgar Wright’s talents was destined to make his impact on cinema. He carried over his love and knowledge of cinematic language, telling gripping and funny stories with style and flare. Wright’s love and admiration for the George A. Romero zombie films would be made known in numerous reference beyond a play on the title of his 1978 film Dawn of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead establishes a kinetic energy from the first scene. Wright uses dolly zooms, steadicam tracking shots, whip pans, and wipes to engage the viewers into his hyper-stylized world. Sharply written dialogue carries characters through the scenes while his mise-en-scene world builds and makes the characters feel three-dimensional and realistic among absurdity. His opening title sequence highlights the humor of everyday human activities mirroring the drone of zombie physicality, calling back to it once again in the films climax showing zombies being ideal for slavish, monotonal service work. His collaboration with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost began on TV sitcom Spaced and was just getting things started for the trio on the big screen.
His preparation and anticipation as a film maker works best when all of these elements work together in comedic absurdity. The camera follows Shaun through his Crouch End neighborhood of London as he follows his daily routine of walking to the shop for a coke or Cornetto ice cream threat (more on that later). His head bobs and looks down as he barely notices his surroundings, as Wright shows glimpses of well-being people also living out their zombie-esque routines and some are changing into zombies. This uncut tracking shot lasts a couple minutes until he returns home, and comedically is repeated just a few scenes later while Shaun does not notice the zombie apocalypse has broken out. While Romero used his zombies to terrorize audiences, Wright captures some of that but instead also sprinkles of dash of absurd comedy throughout.
His best decision as an auteur might be his collaboration with his star actors Simon Pegg and Nick Wright. The trio would go on to create the “Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy” a satire/comedy series of film that would be followed up by 2007s buddy cop comedy Hot Fuzz and 2013s sci-fi/dystopian comedy The World’s End. “Cornetto” for the ice cream threats that randomly show up in each film. Pegg and Frost would bring their great chemistry together to all three pictures, with precise comedic timing and appropriate dramatic heft when needed. In Shaun, Pegg stars as Shaun and plays the character as the straight man. Frost plays Ed, his more aloof slacker best friend who cracks jokes early and often as the goofball. Fuzz would continue this formula with Pegg playing hard cop Nicholas Angel and Frost as comic-relief sidekick Danny. World’s End would invert the two, with Pegg starring as loose cannon and un-responsible Gary King, and Frost would play matured and recently sober Andy.
Shaun of the Dead clocks in at a crisp 100 minutes. The story structure plays out like this: Shaun is broken up with by his girl Liz, and he becomes determined to win her back. Problem is, the zombie apocalypse breaks out in London. After some humorous entanglements with zombies at his place, he and Ed plan (in glorious montage) to go and makeup with Liz, rescue his mother (and kill his now zombie stepfather), and stop at his favorite pub the Winchester until it all blows over. Wright sprinkles in absurd humor in the form of throwing LP records at zombies, Shaun and his crew meeting an old friend of his who happens to have dopplegangers to his own group, a funny sequencing of “pretending” to be zombies to enter the Winchester, and the beating with pool sticks of a zombie to the jukebox tunes of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Wright and his cast do pocket the jokes at times for moments of effective drama and at times, body horror. Shauns final moments with his stepfather Phil and his Mom are genuine and sweet, highlighted by Peggs acting chops. When Shaun’s friend David is ripped apart by flesh eating zombies outside the Winchesters laughs are coupled with a sense of real horror. Wright understands that laughter and horror are closely connected in his dual threat genre film.
As far as first films go, Wright has to be commended for accomplishing everything he wanted to do his first time with a studio release film. His style is evident, and he would repeat and evolve it slightly with his five films to follow. While other highly stylized directors have came onto the scene (Guy Ritchie, Matthew Vaughn, Zack Snyder) Edgar Wright films feel all their own and recognizable within British film canon. This short but sweet film tells a story in the Romero vein but with comedic twist and admiration for those films that proceeded it. Its success would lead to Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Wright would also adapt popular comic Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and release original films Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho.Â
Wright’s use of modern British satire and humor would have carry over in the United States as well. The success of Shaun would lead to other zombie apocalypse like 2009s Zombieland which was a success in itself and garnered a sequel a decade later. Zombie’s would have a big showing in the hit AMC TV show The Walking Dead. Pegg and Frost have each gone on to make some successful films without Wright (Pegg mostly in the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises) but with twenty years of reflection, their best work has been with Wright and vice-versa. Edgar Wright should continue to be one of the most respected stylized writer directors in contemporary cinema and his love for cinema history/curation/film making makes him a vital figure in the community.
