Edgar Wright is now one of the most exciting filmmakers in Hollywood, creating some of the most entertaining films in recent memory. However, Wright’s talents were apparent to everyone who saw his amazing feature film debut, Shaun of the Dead.
The movie is a loving homage and hilarious parody of the zombie film genre. It stars Simon Pegg as a directionless man who, along with his best friend (Nick Frost), set out to save his girlfriend during a zombie outbreak. Like most of Wright’s later films, Shaun of the Dead is jam-packed with sight gags, references, and call-backs that make it a treat to revisit. Here are some hidden details you might have missed.
The Cornetto Trilogy
Shaun of the Dead is the first entry into Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy,” followed later by Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Wright views these films similarly to Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy,” in that they share similar styles and cast members without actually being connected.
The cornetto aspect of the title refers to the ice cream treat that is featured briefly in each film with the color of the wrapper relating to the plot. In Shaun of the Dead, the cornetto wrapper is red as a nod to the bloody horror aspect of the film.
The Place That Does All The Fish
Wright wrote the script with his leading man Simon Pegg, as they do with all the films in the Cornetto Trilogy. Not only are these brilliantly written genre films that offer excitement and thrills, but they are also packed with more jokes than you could possibly catch in one viewing.
Early on in the film, Shaun is having a conversation with his girlfriend about their relationship being in a rut. He promises they’ll change things around and makes plans to go out for a fancy dinner at “the place that does all the fish.” Later in the film, when looking in the phone book, there is a restaurant literally advertised as “The place does all the fish.”
Zombie Extras
Getting the zombies right in the film was obviously very important and Wright decided to go with the classic slow, simple ones rather than the hyper zombies that had become more popular in recent years.
In order to cast a wide array of extras for the zombie extras, Wright held a contest open to the fan club of his previous cult television series Spaced. Also, if you pay attention to the background actors early in the film, many of them appear later in the film as zombies.
Walk To Corner Store
Even with this being his first feature film, Wright came to the job with a lot of confidence to push himself as a filmmaker. He even pulls off two difficult long tracking shots that follow Shaun out of his apartment and down the street to the corner store.
One of these shots taking place the day before the zombie outbreak while the other takes place the day after. It’s a lot of fun comparing the two shots as, in the second trip to the corner store, Shaun is oblivious to the world around him and many of the same people he saw the day before are now zombies.
Ed’s Plans
Wright loves foreshadowing in his films and there are some great moments of this that you might only get on repeat viewings. One of the best examples of this is when Ed makes plans for Shaun the next day to help him get over his breakup with Liz.
Ed suggests, “Bloody Mary first thing, a bite at the King’s Head, a couple at the Little Princess, stagger back here and, bang, back at the bar for shots.” This foreshadows their entire day fending off zombies. The first girl zombie (named Mary), his stepfather getting bitten, saving Liz and her two friends, pretending to be zombies and then a gunfight at the bar.
Vinyl Throwing
One of the funniest moments in the film is Shaun and Ed coming into contact with zombies for the first time. They find two of them in their backyard and decide the most effective way of dealing with them is by throwing vinyl albums at them.
The scene gets funnier as Shaun and Ed go through the album collection to ensure they don’t throw anything good. Pegg has said that this scene is inspired by Pegg and Edgar Wright’s conversations about their own personal taste in music.
Fence Gag
After rescuing Liz and her friends and collecting his mother, Shaun takes on the hero role in his small group of survivors. The position of power seems to go to his head a little as he attempts to look cool by jumping a fence only to fall over and look like a total fool.
This is another gag that connects the “Cornetto Trilogy” as a similar fence gag appears in all three of the films. In Hot Fuzz, Pegg’s super-cop says the same line, “What’s the matter, never taken a shortcut before,” but then successfully jumps over several fences, unlike poor Shaun.
Don’t Stop Me Now
Another brilliantly entertaining sequence in the movie is the bar brawl set to the music of Queen. As the zombies surround the barricaded pub, Shaun and the others take on of the zombies with pool cues as “Don’t Stop Me Now” blasts on the jukebox.
The moment is outrageous and wonderfully choreographed. The fight sequence is done to the rhythm of the Queen song and the actors had earbuds in listening to the music so they could get the beats right. Edgar Wright would perfect this kind of choreographed action in his later film Baby Driver.
Dianne’s Survival Story
Though a comedy, the movie isn’t afraid to kill off most of its cast as the story goes on. The chaos really starts at the end of the film as the survivors begin to fall one by one. Shaun’s mother is bitten and dies, the annoying David is torn to pieces by zombies and his girlfriend Dianne loses her mind and runs out into the zombie horde to be with David.
As it turns out, Dianne miraculously survived the ordeal. Though it doesn’t appear in the film itself, there is a feature on the DVD explaining that she fought her way through the zombies using David’s severed leg, climbed a tree and hid up there for several days, surviving by eating David’s leg.
The Z Word
Wright and Pegg are obviously big fans of the zombie genre and that passion shines through even when they are poking fun at its tropes. A lot of the fun comes from the fact that Shaun and Ed have obviously watched a lot of these movies as well and feel that they have an understanding of zombies.
Ed is the first one to bring up the actual word ‘zombies’ which Shaun quickly shuts down, saying he shouldn’t call them that. This is a nod to the fact that zombies are rarely ever referred to as zombies in zombie movies.
