Melissammoore’s Weblog

Taking in one more of many viewings of Shaun of the Dead, I saw it in a different light. I had never before really seen this as much more than a hysterical film until i looked at it with a postmodern lense. In the film, Shaun is stuck in a mundane routine of a stagnant position at his job, going out to his favorite pub with an unmotivated friend, and dating an unsatisfied girlfriend. As Liz can no longer take Shaun’s slacking, she dumps him which offers the catalyst for Shaun’s changing his life. Shaun reaches this epiphany simultaneously with a zombie plague in which they are attacking everyone living. The film spoofs the typical zombie movie cliches as well as addressing cliches of contemporary society, such as the male ‘adult child’ who is uanble to progress in life due to the inability to relinquish the past. Shaun is doing a job with no potential progression, has an inability to commit to his girlfriend and can not give up his sidekick buddy or favorite pub and records. Shaun has this Peter Pan syndrome, and it’s not until the zombies threaten to take everything from him that he takes charge of his life. In the end, Shaun and his girlfriend are saved and Ed has been bitten but is still alive. Six months after the attack, the zombies have been simualted into society, Ed is living in Shaun’s shed where they continue to play video games, and Liz is dating Shaun again but has taken on less of a typical girlfriend role and more of a friend role. Shaun has everything he could want but not much has changed. Just like the zombies, Shaun has assimilated into the consumerist society and is content at living this mundane, consumeristic life.