Blu-ray of the Day: Wolfman Week – Shaun of the Dead

Cast: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Martin Freeman, Matt Lucas, Dylan Moran.
Director: Edgar Wright.
Screenplay: Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright.
Score: Daniel Mudford, Pete Woodhead.
Cinematography: David M Dunlap.

To mark the release of The Wolfman on Blu-ray, this week ScreenScribe.tv will each day review a different horror movie in HD, starting with the zombie howler that breathed new life into the done-to-death genre. Not since Bad Taste has a film’s defenders of the flesh been so down-to-earth ordinary, awful and funny – in this case, two aimless flatmates who, armed with a cricket bat and a spade, try to save loved ones and their local from a zombie plague. The humour is laddish but never oafish, the special effects suitably grisly, and the tone irreverent without being campy or smart-alec (think a living dead-pan satire-cum-homage). A similar tone prevails with the imaginatively packaged extras (which are all SD — the only HD exclusive is a U-Control trivia track). Director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) and star Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the screenplay, provide an entertaining, anecdotal commentary as well as an unusual “flip chart” take on storyboarding. Other highlights include outtakes, “Delete-O-Vision”, the novel use of storyboards to explain what happened to characters off-screen (how did Shaun elude those zombies he lured from the Winchester?), a comic-strip prequel and a “contracturally required” broadcast TV version of a particularly profane scene that, like the rest of the film, is “funking” funny.

Movie: 😀 😀 😀 😀 😐
Image: 😀 😀 😀 😀
Extras: 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀