Shaun of the Dead review- By Molly Jennings

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here bringing you another great review from the awesome young lady that is Molly Jennings, Daughter of the legendary Big Man Gav it seems that she is writing more for this blog these days than we are so we really do need to get our fingers out!(Are you reading Gav, ha!) I personally love reading her thoughts on such films as it's great to see a young persons view and thoughts and by the looks of things she is really getting into good horror!So without further ado i shall let Molly proceed, Thank you  for taking the time to read and a ton of thanks go to Molly, keep them coming young lady!

Jonny T



Shaun of the Dead review

By Molly Jennings

Hello again its Molly, I am going to be writing my thoughts on ‘Shaun of the Dead’. I thought the film was brilliant though some of the scenes were a little scary.

The story starts with Shaun, a man whose life is going to the Winchester pub with his best friend Ed. His girlfriend Liz is quite miffed (but you can understand why!) as she thinks their relationship is going no where.

In the opening credits there is a theme of zombie behaviour. In shot one a man is pushing a trolley, he is acting tired and is in a trance like state. This has relevance to the end of the film when all the zombies are put to work in shops and put on game shows etc. The credits continue to roll through to shot 2 where a cashier called Mary is scanning some shopping through a till. She is later the first zombie Shaun and Ed encounter. On the DVD there is a short story on how Mary became a Zombie which was printed in prog 1384 of classic British sci-fi comic 2000AD. The issue went on sale on 7 April 2004 it was called There’s something about Mary.

On scene 3 there are 6 people at the bus stop, there is a man at the front of the queue. He bites one of the important characters later on in the film. As the credits carry on there is a gang of ‘chavs’ nodding in sync and quoting Dianne from later on ‘Look at the face its vacant with a hint of sadness like a drunk whose lost a bet’. As the film officially starts Shaun and Ed continue their lives oblivious to the upcoming zombie apocalypse. At one point Shaun goes to the shop and there are bloody hand prints on the drinks cabinet window plus there is a zombified shop owner stumbling around in the back of shot.

They only realise when Ed see’s Mary in the garden. After attempting to kill Mary with funny results they immediately make a plan to go to Barbara’s pick her up, kill Phillip (Shaun’s step dad) get Liz and wait for it all to blow over. After many try’s to rethink a plan they decide to go to the Winchester. The plan goes terribly wrong when Barbara insists Phillip go with them. He had already been bitten but as soon as they get outside he is bitten again! By none other than one of the ‘Chavs’ at the start of the film.

Phillip turns into a zombie and the group must go on foot. While walking they bump into Shaun’s friend Yvonne and group a parallel to Shaun’s band of survivors. When they leave Shaun starts to fence hop you can clearly see Liz giggling, which I think might have been a mistake during filming. They realise there are quite a few zombies surrounding the pub so with the acting counselling of Diane the group ‘act’ their way through the hordes of Zombies to have their cover blown by Ed. I thought this bit was amusing as Ed answers the phone loudly then has a go at Shaun because he threw his phone on the floor. They are unaware that all the zombies are watching and know the group aren’t dead. Shaun leads the zombies away and the group goes inside the pub through a window David broke.



A little while later Shaun returns not realising he has drawn the horde back. Ed moronically turns on a games machine attracting lots of Zombies! The zombie pub owner appears and the jukebox turns on playing Queens ‘Don’t stop me now’. David attempts to turn it off but ends up making the outside lights flicker attracting even more zombies. The pub owner gets killed and the group use a Winchester rifle to stop zombies trying to get in but Barbara begins to change but Shaun shoots her before she can actually hurt anyone.

He punches David in the face he soon has enough and decides to un-baracade the window. He stands near it and apologises he’s about to move when he’s pulled through the window and rather graphically eaten alive. Next a very distraught Dianne uses one of David’s severed legs to get through the zombies. It explains what happens to her on the DVD features. She manages to scale the tree outside and passes out because she was so upset. A couple of days later she wakes up and finds out that the area has been quarantined and most of the zombies are gone. She eats David’s leg to keep her alive which I thought would have turned her into a zombie! It also explains what happened to Shaun when he tried to distract the Zombies and How Ed turned into a Zombie.

After most of the characters were eaten, killed or in Dianne’s case ran off Shaun, Liz and an infected Ed are left in the basement. They find an escape hatch. Shaun and Liz go but Ed stays behind with the rifle. On the street the army is clearing the streets and Yvonne returns, presumably the only survivor of her group. They are all rescued. It cuts to 6 months later in Shaun’s apartment. There are loads of TV reports about Z-day. Shaun goes in the garden to the shed to play on the PlayStation with a zombie Ed. Even though he is dead he and Shaun have a similar friendship! Apparently Shaun was able to coax Ed out of the pub to live in the shed using him self as live bait, this is also explained on the extra features…

My favourite characters in the film are Diane, David and Shaun. I think it is funny how David doesn’t care about anything and thinks he is trying to be clever when he is not. His impression of a zombie is awful. I like Diane because she has some good lines and she can be quite funny, especially when she is doing the acting class and she asks them each to do an impression of a zombie. I like Shaun because he is really funny. He says some very funny jokes and he is quite stupid. Who would actually take refuge in a pub during a zombie apocalypse? – Most would find the nearest Shopping Mall (dad’s edit).

He has some very funny lines like when Ed’s on about Phillip’s jag and Shaun says “Yeah, well, it's Philip's, okay? He won't let anybody near it. Honestly, I put half a Mars bar in the glove box once and he chased me around the garden with a bit of wood” I thought It was extremely funny!

My favourite parts of the film are when Diane is doing the acting class and the group act as Zombies to get to the Pub. I thought it was really cool because Liz, Barbara and Shaun are really good but David and Ed are awful. I like how when they are walking they are clumped together and they’re rubbish at acting. I don’t know how they got through without being eaten!? I also love the bit in the Winchester when Liz, Shaun and Ed are beating the pub owner in time to ‘Don’t stop me now’. It’s clever how Diane and Barbara move in time to the music as well.



My least favourite bit was when David got eaten. I didn’t like it because it was too graphic and nasty in contrast to the rest of the film’s fun nature. It was gross and to be honest unnecessary! It was a bit sickening to see someone get their guts eaten and their head and legs get ripped off. My dad says he is only eaten so graphically to please zombie fans and maybe it’s a nod to the Captain’s death in George A. Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’. Initially I think he didn’t want me to watch that bit because it was over gory for a 12 year old but it was on telly so I couldn’t fast forward it. Oh well.

All in all I thought the film was great. It’s the first zombie film I have ever seen and it is now one of my absolute favourite films.