Analysis of Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright) is a more of a spoof of Dawn of the Dead, tinted with humor, with zombies eating people and a small group trying to survive while being picked of by the zombies one by one. The film centers on the main character Shaun (Simon Pegg) who lived a rather monotonous zombie like existence where everything was basically the same thing, day in and day out and has to make decisions that would never cross his mind to make. It tries to bring in elements of stereotypical characters that people may find among their own friends such as; the regular guy, the hardworking overbearing friend and the friend that does nothing but has a good time who you still keep around. There is play on the issue of ethnicity in the use of stereotypes which shows itself when Shaun meets the storeowner who happens to be Indian. This draws on the belief that Indians are either storeowners or doctors as typically depicted in film.

Shaun's character is your every day guy. He works in a local electrical store and lodges with his friends; Pete and Ed, in a messy little house. Ed is a completely lazy and whose idea of a hard days work is having a bath and going to the toilet, all in the same day. Shaun and Ed spend most of their evenings down the Wichester public house and, although Shaun feels deep down that this is a waste of his life, he just enjoys his pointless routine too much to change. Even his girlfriend Liz has had enough of his bleak and pointless existence and throws down the gauntlet in an effort to bring Shaun too his senses. Unfortunately, just as Shaun and Liz's relationship breaks down, London is grasped by a rather inconvenient outbreak of the dead rising from their resting places and eating other people.