I was really looking forward to enjoying a quirky, English comedy but from start to finish I just could not get into Shaun of the Dead.
It should be noted that I'm generally not a fan of zombie movies. The genre has always seemed to focus on gore, effects, and thrills over plot and innovation. But I didn't think this would be an issue since Shaun is a spoof.
But it's not a spoof. Or at least not entirely a spoof. Shaun is a conglomeration of spoof, satire, horror, thriller, fantasy, romance, and of course comedy. Very rarely do I enjoy movies that attempt to bridge more than three genres simultaneously. The only similar movie I can recall for comparison is Mars Attacks! (1996).
I had some laughs, but overall I could not slip into the proper mindset to enjoy this film even though I desperately wanted to. At times it was clever and creative by placing average Joes in bizarre zombie situations. But at the same time it suffers from all those traits that infuriate and annoy me in horror and thriller movies.
In short the primary problem was an inability to empathize with the characters. One reason I don't care for horror movies is because the main characters are generally morons. Shaun himself was no exception; he repeatedly makes poor choices and either under or over reacts to all sorts of situations. His mother is a cross between senile and dim-witted. Ed is borderline retarded.
Truthfully, in real life, I can't stand people like Shaun. They are so absorbed in their own problems that they are completely oblivious to their surroundings and events around them. They have no one to blame but themselves for their predicaments. The characters just don't seem to behave realistically, which would be fine if the movie was an outright satire sketch like Monty Python, but it's not.
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