Shaun of the Dead – Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright’s beloved “rom-zom-com” – has left a permanent red stain on the white shirt of pop culture.
Twenty years after its release, it’s hard to remember that this low-budget love letter to the horror movies of old wasn’t supposed to take over the world.
Still, like a zombie plague, the sheer brilliance of this sharply written and wonderfully performed comedy horror allowed it to spread across the globe, turning it into a bona-fide cult hit before it eventually mutated, like a ghoul in a bad B-movie, into a genre classic.
Yet while Shaun’s well remembered for its quotable one-liners (“You’ve got red on you” remains a perennial favorite while I’ve always been partial to “he’s got an arm off.”), knowing horror references (“We’re coming to get you, Barbara!”), and lovable characters (we’d die for Ed even if he’s a bit of a d*ck), it’s easy to forget there’s something quite dark under its fried gold exterior.
To the window!
That may sound silly – Shaun of the Dead is a film about cannibalistic corpses (no, not the band) coming back from wherever we go when we die to prey on the living – yet when I speak to people about Pegg, Frost, and Wright’s first feature, the conversations almost always revolves around how funny it is.
And yes, it is very funny, but it’s also darker than a drunk’s blackout and as terrifying as anything genre granddaddy George Romero ever put to celluloid. This is perhaps best demonstrated during the film’s grisliest scene when Shaun’s love rival, David (Dylan Moran), is dragged through a broken window and torn apart by a ravenous shambling crowd.
Now, I don’t need to tell you why a scene of someone being turned into sausage meat is a terrifying thing to watch but I’m going to anyway (because that’s the social contract we entered when you clicked this link). Wright’s a big fan of using practical effects, and he puts them to scarily effective use during David’s death. There’s a visceral chewiness (it’s the best word I have for what happens), and it’s easy to forget that all you’re really seeing is a bunch of extras rip offal out of a rubber bag.
But it’s not the ultraviolence of David’s ultimate fate that makes this scene so terrifying. It’s what happens in the build-up. Allow me to jog your memory in case you’ve somehow forgotten how David was turned into gory confetti.
To the bawl (cos you’ll be crying)
Following Shaun’s brilliant idea to barricade him and his fellow survivors – Liz, Dianne, Ed, David, and Barbara – in The Winchester, everything’s gone a bit Pete Tong (Editor’s note: “Wrong” for those across the pond). Barbara’s been bitten and rises as a zombie, forcing Shaun to shoot his beloved mum.
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Unfortunately, David continues (perhaps unintentionally) to push a now distraught Shaun’s buttons by telling him he “did the right thing,” killing Barbara, and a fight breaks out. In the fracas, David tries to shoot Shaun (we hear an audible click as he points the gun), after which he freaks out and tries to leave the pub.
Realizing no one’s going with him, David realizes the mistake he’s made and goes to apologize to Shaun. Sadly, in the chaos, David got a bit close to the window, and well… you know the rest.
Till the blood drips down my…
What makes this scene so scary isn’t the undead out the window; it’s that David, a lecturer and intellectual, has been reduced to violence so quickly. It seems to remind us that’s why we’re all so scared of zombies; after all, the ghouls themselves might be gross, but they’re not much of a physical threat to a man with a cricket bat (or a vinyl copy of The Batman soundtrack).
No, what makes zombies so scary is what they represent: the collapse of civil society. Their emergence wipes the slate and reminds us that under the suits, titles, and modern convenience, we’re basically cave people waiting to bash each other’s heads in with rocks.
It’s a cynical way of looking at humanity, I know, and one that Shaun of the Dead ultimately subverts (Humanity manages to domesticate the undead and go back to relative normality), but it’s definitely a theme Pegg, Frost, and Wright were consciously playing with.
Finally, perhaps what makes this scene so harrowing is that David realizes he’s in the wrong and tries to make it right, but that chance was taken out of his hands while his guts were taken out of his torso. It’s a powerful reminder in a ridiculous film that… and I can’t think of a better way to put this; life is short. Don’t be a dick.
Right, that’s enough of that. I’m off to Winchester for a nice cold pint while I wait for this all to blow over.
While I enjoy my crisp cold larger why not check out our guides about upcoming horror movies like Smile 2, 28 Years Later, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. That’s not all though, we’ve also got a list of the best action movies and best sci-fi movies for you to enjoy.
