Shaun Of The Dead Analysis

Shaun of the Dead
Kelsie Saddler
Wesleyan College

Rotting corpses, blood and guts are all unpleasant yet these elements are essential to any great horror film. Spoofing of horror films became popular in the year 2000 with films like Scary Movie that added ironic comedy and exaggerated plots to the gory slayings of serial killers and psychopaths. Most recently, zombies are all the rage. Zombies have hit the media full force with films and shows such as Zombie Land, 28 Days Later, I am legend, The Walking Dead, and World War Z. Shaun of the Dead is a British horror movie spoof about a unambitious 29 year old man, Shaun, who is trying to turn his life around and save the love of his life and his mum from a zombie apocalypse.
The producers of Shaun of the Dead incorporate horror, comedy, and romance genres for an unforgettable and relatable plot. In this paper, I will discuss the neurological characteristics of the movie’s main characters, diagnose the zombies, and high light the inaccuracies of the film.
In the opening scene of Shaun of the Dead, Shaun is dazing in and out of consciousness, not paying attention to the imperative conversation happening in front of him. Liz, Shaun’s girlfriend, gives him an ultimatum of getting serious about their relationship after three years or ending it. Liz complains that she wants more adventure, commitment, and for Shaun to stop wasting his life away with his equally unambitious friend, Ed. Liz is tired of being dragged to the local pub, Winchesters, where Shaun took her for their anniversary (and where their conversation took place). Shaun, still spacing in and out, doesn’t take the situation serious and barely pays attention to what Liz is trying to convey to him. Shaun blatantly insults Liz’s roommates not taking notice that they are sitting across from him. Shaun eventually focuses his attention and promises his girlfriend that he will make dinner reservations at a nice restaurant for the following evening. Elated, Liz agrees and the scene ends.
The next day, Shaun wakes up in his small apartment he shares with his roommate.
His roommate gives Shaun a lecture, similar to his talk with Liz, complaining that Shaun is being held back by Ed who refuses to leave, pay rent, or close the front door. Shaun’s roommate mentions that everyone at his office is out sick and that some crack-heads bit his hand on is way home the previous night. Shaun heads to his menial job where none of the other employees, who are mostly much younger high school kids, take him seriously. Shaun is left in charge due to the fact that everyone else mysteriously called in sick. His step father shows up at Shaun’s work to remind him about their dinner with his mum and suggests Shaun brings flowers to compensate for forgetting last time. This shows that Shaun is unreliable and irresponsible, even to his family. Shaun goes out to buy his mum flowers the day before their dinner, obviously not thinking. To no one’s surprise, Shaun doesn’t remember to make the reservation for his date with Liz so she dumps
him. Shaun and Ed walk to Winchesters to drown their sorrows for the rest of the night. At this point in the movie, zombie like people start to appear on the streets near Shaun’s apartment but he and Ed are oblivious. The following morning, Shaun walks past a girl eating a man’s neck and a bloody glass door at the local gas station. When he returns home Ed points out that there is a girl wandering in their garden. They perceive her as drunk, not associating her with the odd events of the previous day. Shaun attempts to confront the girl but she over powers him. Shaun notices the girls white, glazed eyes and insists that Ed gets her off of him. Ed propels the girl in the air onto a pole. To Shaun and Ed’s astonishment the girl gets up and continues to attack them. They attempt to hit the girl with random objects, never trying to get a useful weapon. Finally Shaun and Ed kill her after a blow to the head before three more zombies arrive. Shaun realizes that Ed has left the door open, as usual, and starts to realize that what everyone keeps saying about Ed is true. Shaun and Ed show complete inappropriate sympathetic nervous system response by sitting and having tea after the zombie attack. Afterwards Shaun finally puts together the fact that his roommate is becoming a zombie they realize that they aren’t safe. Shaun comes up with a plan to rescue Liz and his mum and wait out the zombie apocalypse some where they are familiar with and feel safe, Winchesters.
Shaun and Ed make it to Shaun’s mum where she is oblivious to the seriousness of the zombie events.
She nonchalantly mentions that the people outside her house were “bitey” and that her husband has been bit. Shaun allows his stepfather to escape with them knowing that he will soon turn into a zombie. They pick up Liz and her roommates who were not particularly happy about Shaun’s plan. While on their way to Winchesters, Shaun and his father have a heart to heart just before he dies. Once Shaun notices his step father’s cloudy eyes, he makes everyone get out of the car and leave on foot. Once they reach the pub, they realize it is surrounded so they decide to act like zombies to get through the crown unnoticed. Their plan would have been successful if Ed would not have answered his cell phone. This infuriates Shaun, who finally snaps on Ed, drawing more attention to them by the surrounding man eating zombies. This is a pivotal moment in the movie for Shaun in whom he realizes that Ed is holding him back and decides to become the hero. Shaun begins to jump up and down while screaming to get the zombie’s attention. Shaun acts as a distraction and leads the mob of zombies away so his friends and family can survive. Once inside, Shaun’s mum confesses to Liz that she has been infected. Shaun returns and they convince him that he has to kill her before she kills them. At this moment, they start to see silhouettes of zombies outside where they had returned. Typical Ed, not
thinking, plugs up the juke box to play music. This attracts the zombies so they begin to break through the windows. Liz’s roommates were ripped apart and ate by the zombies and Ed was bit in the arm. Shaun, Liz, and Ed escape to the basement where they contemplate suicide. Shaun and Ed apologize to each other for their fight and Ed warns them to run before he becomes infected. Shaun and Liz head out into the streets with blunt objects, ready to fight or die. They are blinded by bright lights and helicopters. The swat teams and the CDC were killing the zombies with machine guns, and they were safe.
The media named the event Z-Day. The government allowed some of the zombies to work returning carts at grocery stores and restaurant bus boys. Some citizens were even given permission to keep their loved ones who were infected on chains. The cause of the epidemic was unknown but they hinted at the fact that it was either drug related or a virus. The zombies showed characteristics such as slow motor movements, slurred speech, motion blindness, lack of reflexes, poor attention, and weakened joints. The zombies had no recollection of their identities or the Declarative memories, indicating damage to their medial temporal lobes. Their cerebellum may have been impaired but could not have been damaged completely due to the fact that the zombie’s still had their implicit memories as well as the ability to stand up. Most of the zombie’s symptoms could have been associated with the fact that their hindbrain and forebrain were, for the most part, destroyed. The fact that the zombies had no problem seeing or hearing indicated that their midbrain is still intact. Other brain areas infected, such as the left hemisphere and frontal lobes, would explain their language impairments. In order to still be able to make slurring sounds would mean that the right hemisphere of their brains is still intact as well. The zombie’s that were allowed to continue to work performed instructional learning, proving that they are able to learn new tasks using working memory. Their appearance was not as exaggerated as some zombie films in that the only difference in the infected and uninfected was the eyes. The zombies have white, cloudy, glazed over eyes along with dark circles underneath.

References
Pegg, S., Ashfield, K., Davis, L., Frost, N., Moran, D., Nighy, B., Wilton, P. (2004). Shaun of the dead. Universal City, CA: Universal.
Kalat, J.W. (2013). Biological Psychology (11th Edition). Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.