Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 horror comedy about a young man and his best friend who suddenly find themselve smack in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Here’s the Scene: Shaun (Simon Pegg), a low level electronics salesman with pretty much no direction in life, desperate to win back his frustrated girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), deal with his slacker best friend Ed (Nick Frost), and patching things up with his mum (Penelope Wilton), has a problem. He’s led these people and a few other friends into the Winchester Pub – having been thrust into a leadership role he’s not quite sure how to handle – to escape a growing throng of brain eating zombies who have assembled in droves right outside the door. It’s not been a good day.
Exhausted and frantic, though thinking they are safe for now, out of nowhere enters the pub’s owner John (Steve Emerson), a rather large sulking fellow who until recently was a gentle soul, though as luck would have it, is now a ravenous walking dead. While a riot of undead are clawing at the windows in the background, Shaun and his mates now must contend with one inside, and with little time to react, Shaun, Ed, and Liz grab pool cues from the wall and take to beating down their old pal John … all to the synchronized beats of Queen‘s classic ode to power Don’t Stop Me Now.
Filmmaker Edgar Wright obviously practices the dark arts. That’s a given. How else to explain the man’s incredible collection of uniquely imaginative and just darned super-entertaining films, one after the other? One thing he’s always done well is layer his narratives with music, and not just with an appropriate score, but very carefully selected bits of pop music that strike more than tonal balance, they speak directly to the action and sort of infuse themselves into the story. This is arguably done to its zenith with Wright’s 2017 crime caper Baby Driver, where the main character (Ansel Elgort) spends nearly the entirety of the story with earbuds jammed in his ears listening to a host of relevant tunes we the audience are privy to.
The thing that Wright does with his music that’s different from most filmmakers who employ pop hits to their movies is integrate them like lacework into the action. Now yes, many films have used songs to set a mood or even a time and location. Robert Zemeckis‘ 1994 historical romp Forrest Gump set a new bar for using chartbusters to carry Gump through the years, the soundtrack like an anthology of American history, and Mike Nichols‘ perennial The Graduate just about invented the whole idea of it. However, Wright spins magic with his choices and to date, easily the best and most satisfying is this pub moment in Shaun of the Dead.
What’s already been established at the Winchester at the start of the film is that the jukebox just sort of comes on, set to ‘random’ as Ed explains. While it’s a throwaway bit then, now, as the action heats up, it’s put into play, literally. This scene is near the film’s climax, where it all comes to a head, the characters now in a real fight for life and Wright has shifted the mainly dark comedic and satirical overtones of the story into sheer terror and hugely personal drama. All the humor of Shaun’s relationships are evolving into more consequential reality here, beyond the need to fight off zombies. Shaun has changed quite a bit through this ordeal, and as his own frustrations mount and the pressures of those around him who look to him for leadership, he takes necessary action as John lumbers toward him and his mates.
And just as this seems to ramp up the drama, the jukebox kicks on and we hear Freddie Mercury chime in with the opening lyrics: “Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time.” And this ignites a crescendo as the song builds to its first thumping backbeat, timed perfectly to Shaun, Liz, and Ed’s pumped up, pool cue-wielding, jump into the fray, their strikes upon John in perfect harmony with each beat of the song, each whack upon John in concert with the drumbeat, Wright’s camera spinning around the action in frenzy. It’s a mesmerizing and wildly satisfying moment of cathartic madness. It’s pure cinema wonder. And it just gets better from there.