Shaun of the Dead

MPAA Rating: R

Entertainment: +1/2

Content: -3

Shaun of the Dead is a horror comedy with zombies a strange blend of gore and humor. In London, 29-year-old Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his best friend, drug-dealing Ed (Nick Frost), are flat mates with little ambition. But they both agree that the local pub, The Winchester, is the greatest place on earth. On a seemingly normal day, things in their part of London begin to change. Shaun is oblivious to the mayhem that begins as dead bodies rise from their graves and walk the streets. The walking dead attack the towns citizens, creating quite a frenzy. Shaun and Ed seem to come alive themselves and take heroic measures to save Shauns girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), their friends, and Shauns mother and stepfather. They determine that the best place to hide from this zombie invasion is The Winchester. Getting there, however, is a morbidly comedic adventure.

No reason is given in Shaun of the Dead for the zombie invasion. A news reporter tells the citizens that the only way to kill zombies is to remove their heads or destroy their brains. In this extremely bloody and gratuitously violent flick, heads are bashed until they fall off, bodies are impaled with whatever metal object is available, and zombies dismember and hungrily eat human flesh. Its grizzly. Seeing people fatally wounded and then becoming zombies is disturbing. Shaun and Eds preoccupation with alcohol and living life with no purpose makes them poor role models for young people. Any attempts at comedy are juvenile at best and twistedly grotesque at worst. If the producers of Shaun of the Dead removed all of the filthy language, blood and gore, all that would be left is Shaun and Ed sitting on the couch like zombies playing video games.

Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: Rogue Pictures

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Several (5) times mild (hell 5)

Obscene Language: Many (50) times mild (pissed off 1); strong (f-word 37, mf-word 1, s-word 1, c-ck 1, pr-ck 3, c-nt 1, tw-t 4, other 1)

Profanity: Several (8) times moderate (OMG 2, G 1, G-sake 1); strong (J 1, C 1, C-sake 2)

Violence: Many times mild (pushing, grabbing, hitting, running); moderate (hand-to-hand fighting with zombies, throwing rocks at zombies, biting by zombies, stabbing and shooting of zombies, bloody hand marks on window glass, zombies with bloody mouths); strong (zombies bite and rip off humans flesh; zombies eat the guts of a dead person; zombies attack a man, rip open his belly and eat his intestines; zombies have their eyes gouged, heads bashed in, heads decapitated and limbs severed; gaping holes in zombie bodies; impaling of bodies; hitting zombies with shovels in the head until they no longer move; gratuitous blood and gruesome injuries shown; people torn apart)

Sex: Several times mild (man and woman grope and kiss outside of a pub)

Nudity: Few times mild (naked zombie in the shower with minimal skin shown)

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times mild (woman that a man does not like is described as a retired porn star); strong (in a daydream, a man tells his mother that his stepfather inappropriately touched him to insight her to kill her husband)

Drugs: Several times mild (smoking cigarettes, drinking beer); moderate (man sells marijuana)

Other: Someone says wassup n-gger, flatulence is used as a joke by one man toward another man, man puts a series of sticky notes on another mans back that say Im a pr-ck, the transition from a live person becoming a zombie and realizing that these dead bodies walking about are not the people that they once were is emotionally disturbing to the characters in the film as well as the audience

Running Time: 99 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults

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