Shaun Of The Dead Satire

Shaun of the Dead, a unique film among its horror siblings

Zombies, a genre that has taken the over the world, it’s difficult to turn around the corner and not hear someone or something reference it. While the vast amount of gore present may turn a lot of people off, there are alternatives available. Among them is the 2004 British romantic zombie comedy movie Shaun of the Dead, directed by Edgar Wright. It tells the story of Shaun, a man attempting to obtain a handle on his life, get back with the love of his life Liz, deal with his unemployed, incompetent friend Ed and his parents; all of this in the middle of a zombie uprising. The flick on itself makes for a good time for long-time zombie fans with its homages to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead while attracting newbies onto the genre with its comedic elements

At the opening sequence, we see various people working at jobs with minimal pay, perform the same, tiring, daily routine with very little thought. It gives off the impression that these people are already zombies themselves.Seemingly mindless beings, unaware and/or uninterested in what is around them. It isn’t much different from a great part of the global population, keeping their faces glued to the screen on their mobile devices as we are generally unattentive to important matters unfolding around us, only focusing on our electronic devices, unable/uncaring to fix the flawed system we are part of. Taking a look at what we might become (or already are) makes it frightening, a factor discussed in Amy Wilentz’s “A Zombie is a Slave Forever” article. “The zombie is scary...in a primordial way, too...The zombie is devoid of consciousness and therefore unable to critique the system that has entrapped him”