SPEAKER_03 0:04

I did not realize that this movie was also an ISPY book. I apologize.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It's been a funny sort of day, hasn't it? If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Totally killer. Unintended.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Well, they were a bit bitey.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

The cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Alright, gay.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

We're buckling in for some laughs this week as we check out a zombie comedy that is much beloved by audiences and critics alike. Before we get down to business though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Okay, we're following up on Carrie this week. We watched the old one, 1976, and we watched the 2013 remake with Julianne Moore and Chloe Grace Moretz. Now, here's the thing. The votes are actually, let's say, interesting. We wanted to know which one you guys preferred. So 75% of our voters actually preferred the original, which isn't a huge surprise, but a solid 25 preferred the remake. Now, what's interesting about this is this sounds like we would have a small sample size because it's a clean one-fourth, but we had like the most votes in this poll of any of our polls ever. So I was really surprised the math worked out like this.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I'm just kidding, they're both good.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

I was gonna say most of our followers know what's up. 75% of them make good choices in life.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

The division is real. Carrie's so polarizing. Like both of them in both directions. They go both ways.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

I saw some very strongly worded uh responses though.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Yeah, let's listen to some of them. Let's go rapid fire through Instagram comments. Carnage Candy Films says, if I could jump the remake, I would. And then a cracks knuckle sound effects. Insert this here. Steve B. Chacha said, the remake is equivalent to sugar-free candy, aka it belongs in the trash. Dat Boy Manny said, a remake that failed to be as good as the classic was. MStorm73 said, nothing will beat the original. One of the few times a remake wasn't even close. Aaron Ball had this to say. I think the original is the undisputed winner. However, the 2013 remake is better than the made-for-tv one. I actually take umbrage with that, Aaron. Um, I'm gonna rewatch the TV made-for-tv remake, and I will get back to you on that.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

The one bit of kindness that has been shown.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Yeah. And Sheldon Laffey said, Sissy and De Palma bring the true meaning of suspense and horror surrounding prom. That's right. I'm not surprised by these comments, at least most of them. Now we do have another comment from one of our patrons, Darren, who said this. There's a lot to like about the 2013 version. The cast is pretty great, especially Julianne Moore. Although the film as a whole came across as unnecessary to me. It's a shame there was so much studio interference because I'm sure there was an original take on Stephen King's novel in there somewhere, but what we got felt like a retread of Brian DePalma's original to me.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

I'm telling you, that version had the most potential to go back to what the novel is truly about.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

And finally, we have another comment from Anthony who said, I love both. Both the 1976 and 2013 are slashes for me. Yet, as rare as it is for Chris and I to disagree, I prefer the original. Like Mac and Alexis, my favorite scene is when Sue is figuring out what is going on in her prom and Dejardine kicks her out. Like Paris, I love the detention montages. The music and cinematography just does it throughout this movie. The remake was really amazing. I really appreciated the lack of nudity during the high school locker room scene. I love women, I like boobs, but time and place. I loved the death scene of Chris and Pilly. What a well-filmed scene that slowed down most appropriately and most vengeancely, and seemed to make up for a sudden and lazy 76 take. I did miss the they're all gonna laugh at you lines, and where the hell was Norma? Why get rid of PJ Soul's character who was even essential in the novel? It's like when they got rid of Nancy Loomis's character in the god-awful remake of The Fog, but we'll get to that later, Winky Face. Both films are great, enjoyed my double feature slash.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

And I will say, first off, very terrific, thorough comment from Anthony. You love to see it. Hi folks, if you're not a patron, you're actually missing out on a lot of great dialogue. So we had a number of submissions specifically about Carrie, and there was just some great conversation that was happening there. I also want to point out that you know one of our other patrons, Britney, said, you know, in the end, I just feel sad from these movies. People are cruel, and this is the horror of real life, like you mentioned in the episode. Uh so thanks for for recognizing that, Brittany. But also, the twins that are in the remake are from her hometown, and she actually danced with them at the same studio and they competed against each other at different high school events.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Oh my god, I feel like Britney always has like these like deep intel secrets. Is that just me? I feel like she does.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

It's so good. It's so good.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Also, shout out to the word vengeance lee from Anthony. I appreciate what she did there.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I feel like there should be a new patron game called Six Degrees of Uh Separation for Hackerslash.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Yeah, how closely are you connected to the cast or crew of this film?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Or us.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Yeah. Ew, that's scary. Okay, that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Clearly, our episode on Carrie brought uh brought out the best of you folks, and y'all came on swinging with some heavy content and some hot takes, but this week we're gonna dial it back a bit and enjoy a different application of blood and hopefully get a few more laughs along the way. On October 8th, 1999, an episode of the British sitcom Spaced aired and showed Simon Pegg in the midst of a hallucination spawned from a mixture of drugs, sleep deprivation, and hours playing the iconic horror survival game Resident Evil 2. The hallucination featured Peg's character Tim thinking he was actually in Resident Evil, and later in the episode he even started seeing people as zombies. Now, that episode sparked a dream for Peg and director Edgar Wright to create their own zombie movie. Not as a complete parody, but rather a comedy with reverence to the genre and actually craft a love letter to zombies as a whole. Now the premise: what it would be like if the zombie apocalypse actually happened to them in suburban London. While Film 4 Productions initially showed interest, budget restrictions ultimately left this film without a production company to call home, and Edgar Wright suffered financial hardship as he continued to pursue a way to make this film. Now eventually the project was funded and made for a budget of about four million pounds and went on to gross more than thirty million pounds worldwide. This week we're talking about Shawn of the Dead. Now who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

I definitely have seen this one before. I think I owned it on DVD back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Are you sure it wasn't VHS?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

No, it was it was 2004. I had we had DVDs.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Proud of you.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Okay, boomer.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Well, obviously you guys know I haven't seen this movie. I'm very on brand today.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Hello, my name is Paris, and I also have not seen this movie. Um I did, however, think it was that one movie where the guy has a chainsaw for a hand, and it turns out it's not that movie.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Not Evil Dead, no.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Yeah, that.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Well, let me uh let me take you for a quick ride on my time machine because 2004, I feel was like a great year for movies. Not necessarily for movies of like my particular taste, but we had a lot that came out that year, right? So thinking about within the context of horror, we had Seed of Chucky came out, Secret Window with Johnny Depp, The Grudge came out, which I know a lot of people love. But then you also have the Dawn of the Dead remake, which I absolutely loved. And then this movie came out a few months later. So I saw this movie back in 2004 and I remember enjoying it thoroughly, specifically because I had also really enjoyed the original British version of The Office, and a couple of actors from that show actually appear in this film. And I I remember you know going into it, coming out of it, and not being crazy about Ed. So really this experience is going to be an opportunity for me to see how this movie was actually going to age, despite fond memories of it. But what were you folks expecting?

SPEAKER_02 7:57

I think my expectations for this movie are interesting because I've heard people talk about it for so long. So I knew it was like a comedic uh zombie movie, I guess. And that's what I went in expecting. And I don't know, how many ways can you do a funny zombie movie, right? It I expected like just goofiness, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Kind of the same. Once I realized it wasn't that movie with the chainsaw hand guy, I remembered like, oh, this is that other one that's like a comedy with the pasty British guy. Probably gonna be stupid. I probably won't like this. It is also a zombie movie, famously. I'm not a fan of those. But I was like, you know, I do love like British humor, so maybe that will be enough to save it from being a hack for me.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Well, I was expecting a good time because I've seen this movie plenty of times and previously owned it on DVD. I probably still have the DVD hidden in a bin somewhere wherever those DVDs escaped to. I don't know. I went into this viewing just expecting to have fun while watching it. As you mentioned, it is a comedy, and the comedy vibes with my sense of what's funny.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Did it turn out that way? Did you feel like you were having a good time?

SPEAKER_01 9:03

You know, it's it's different. Like when you watch it for the however millionth time, especially if you're watching it scheduled. You know, it's not just, oh, it's on TV, I'll watch it. That's fun. But if you're watching it on purpose, deliberately, I need to get this done, you may not have the same experience. That being said, it w it was still fun to watch. The jokes still landed for me, the the goofy little moments still landed for me, but it it's still a good time.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Mac, I can totally imagine what you're saying because there really is something different about like having to watch a movie versus choosing to watch a movie. And of course, you know, we do this lovely podcast here, so it's something that we have to do. But, you know, as I was watching this, I felt like, you know, maybe I'm not the uh not the audience they were going for. That was my like overwhelming feeling is like, hey, this is somebody else's movie, you know? Like that this is uh someone else should be on the podcast this week, you know? They could they could give a better answer about how they feel here.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

I can understand where you're coming from for sure. There was a large chunk of this movie where I felt virtually nothing at all. But then there were other parts where I was like, this reminds me of when I was a teenage boy, and my other like straight teenage boyfriends would be like, oh, we should watch like Dude, Where's My Car, or like, I don't know, like Jay and Silent Bob. It felt very that.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

I've been trying to like figure out the right comparison for the comedy in this movie, and like my first thoughts are like actually like all Napoleon Dynamite, Pineapple Express, but they're not really right. I can't actually pinpoint what to compare this humor to.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah, because Paris, your comparisons offended me deeply. The disrespect in this household.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

I'm sure mine would too if you knew what I meant by it.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Hey, I actually really enjoyed Pineapple Express.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

So again, not the right audience.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

You know, like you, Mac, I went into this, you know, expecting a a a good time, so to speak, but I found that the the joke still ended for me, which was very surprising because I ha it's not like I've seen this movie a million times by any means. I saw it when it came out, I saw it when it released for sale, and maybe like a couple more times after that, scattered over the years. But I was surprised how even though I remembered the plot points, I completely forgot how rich it is in its foreshadowing and all the little details that you can watch this movie 50 times and still not pick up on all of it, especially with reverential nods to other zombie properties and other and other horror films. Yeah, I had a good time while watching it, lots of pleasant surprises along the way, but man, I cannot get over how disappointed I was in Ed, even knowing that I wasn't crazy about him the first time around. He's not the kind of character that I vibe with in general. I do think it's written a specific way, it's performed a specific way, and it executes well what it's trying to do. But uh he there's some elements of him that are charming, and other elements that I'm just like, please disappear forever. I don't want anything to do with you.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

And I can't wait to break into characters later because I don't think that your perception of him is a weird one. I think that's probably one that many people share.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Yeah. So I actually watched this movie with my boyfriend who is a huge zombie movie fan, and he's like, Oh, I can't wait to watch that one with you because that's one of my faves, and he's seen it so many times. Um, and that surprised me because watching it again with him, he was like looking over at me, he's like, Oh, take notes, take notes on that. Are you taking notes on this? And I was like, No, there's like nothing notable to to write down. And truly, my notes are scarce this week. So I guess I'm also disappointed.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

I was really surprised by a change that happened with my feelings toward this movie at like a certain point or a general point, I guess, as I was watching. I just kind of I don't know, it it turned a corner for me. I would say like halfway through, and I wasn't prepared because I went in like, I don't want to watch this, and then it started, and I was like, I wish I wasn't watching this. And then there's a point where I was like, I'm watching this, I'm watching this. And I was very much expecting to be miserable from the very first second to the very last second.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

You know, I'm gonna go back to something Chris said. This is my first watch of the film in my 30s. All the previous watches I had were definitely in my early to mid-20s, probably on DVD, maybe on TV as well. And while watching this, what I realized, what surprised me the most is that there are, like you said, so many little Easter eggs that I never picked up on 10 to 15 years ago. And I don't understand why that is, because watching it now, they're just obvious. But it's also been how long of doing a horror movie podcast. So maybe now I'm looking for those things.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Yeah, I I wish I caught more of them. I feel like I just don't pick up on those things and relate them to other movies sometimes, but I got a few of them and was like, oh, this is this is cute.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, I can't wait to be able to spoil things.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

Yeah, I too am looking forward to hearing about this because I can't say that I picked up on a damn one.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Really? It's just not part of who you are as a person, Paris, and that's okay. As a person who also misses references, that's okay. I accept you.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

I'm excited then to get into the second half when we can, you know, discuss the very specific elements of this plot and even talk about the way it foreshadows and sets up the dominoes from the very, very beginning of the film and how it, you know, really sets the roadmap of exactly what's going to happen, but it doesn't in such a way that's unexpected and perhaps is not as apparent when you look at just the sequence of events at their face value. Now, obviously, zombie apocalypse, I don't know that there are many people who are very, very afraid of it, but was there anything in this movie that frightened you?

SPEAKER_01 14:44

I think it's a comedy through and through. I don't even think of it as being scary, but I'll say they nailed some jump scares, both with like visuals and sound. Like, I think better than some mainstream horror films.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah, I think the scariest thing about this movie is uh the reality of life rather than the zombies. Now we're all zombies inside. Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

I actually recently watched Train to Boussan um on my own accord, and I was like, oh, this is actually kind of a good scary zombie movie, which I completely forgot about until Chris just said that because she was like, not many people are scared of a zombie apocalypse. And I was like, oh, I think I might be scared of a train to Busan zombie apocalypse, but I don't think that's at all what this movie was going for, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah, okay. So here's the thing though. This movie goes for laughs through and through, but there is quite a bit that I find frightening, not within the context of the zombies, but human dynamics. And again, I've said this so many times the prospect of you know you're faced with a an apocalyptic situation, there are people that you love out there, and you may or may not have to confront their mortality, but you know, regardless of what the outcome is, you're contending with that in a very real way and wondering about the people that you love, and perhaps you're in a situation that where you're trying to uh to protect them. And I find that even when watching a comedic zombie movie, it's very hard to separate that. And there's definitely some moments in this movie where they don't want to just make you laugh, they go from some very emotional touching moments, and that completely resonated with me. And while that in itself is an element of other zombie properties, even though the comedy and and the slightly getting close to parody, but really just you know kind of poking fun at and celebrating this genre, while we've seen that happen in other films, the blend of those two things still feels so different to me because it's so rare that I think a comedy can pull all these elements together and you know be cohesive without feeling like it's trying too hard.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah, this film is like you have a really cool friend that knows everybody somehow, and they show up in a room and like everyone has to go say hello to them. Right? So they walk in and it's just head nod after head nod after head nod, handshaking, etc. Like there's so many references to other films that you could say, obviously, oh it's not that original, but the execution is so different from anything else. I think I mean think about it, 2004. If this came out today, I think it would still do well.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Yeah, uh very interesting comparison there. But I do think that you gotta give this points for originality.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Yeah, I can't say that I know of another zombie comedy that came before this. Um, maybe there's one, and maybe everyone listening is like, you dumb bitch, stop talking. So this to me seemed like it deserved some originality credit. I will say though, um, when it comes to the ending, I thought that was one of the more original elements. And overall, I think the last maybe quarter of this movie was actually the best for me. I think, like Ryan said earlier, like there was a point where I turned a corner and I was like, I'm not mad about this, and I started to have fun.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

I totally agree. I feel exactly the same.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

When you get to the end of the movie, I feel like you would be in a in a good state of mind to put the kettle on. You're not gonna feel bad. You're gonna feel it's pretty good. This is just the start.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah, the the ending I wasn't actually mad at. I think I'm a little sad for one of the characters because I feel like sure, maybe everything that they had been asking for has come true, but I also I kind of feel like they're trapped in some ways. We'll get there, we'll unpack that when the time comes.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Oh, they are.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

I I find that oftentimes in life, people are unable to escape situations and dynamics with other people if they feel like they've been bonded by trauma or grief. And I feel like maybe that's a taste in my mouth that this movie leaves, and I'm not exactly thrilled about, but removing that perspective and just looking at like the events that transpire and looking at the way the movie wraps itself up. I think it's it's touching in some ways. I think it's funny in a lot of ways, and I'm not mad at it at all, but we'll see how things shake out here. Listeners, you can probably place your bets and and not be too far off on how this goes. But before we get into the ratings, how many people died in this film?

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Well, that depends on, I guess, on how you define people pre-or post-zombies. So if you're just worried about, you know, characters that you care about, we're looking at a solid five, but if you start to include all the potential on-screen deaths and otherwise deaths, it goes all the way up to around like eighty-five. Oh wow. So that's a pretty good number.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

But within that number, uh, how do the animals fare?

SPEAKER_02 19:22

We have a little bit of a gray area today. Like one of these, uh, you know, PETA wouldn't be happy, but I wouldn't say it's like too hard to watch. We have like one animal incident here.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yeah. An incident that I don't even know that we completely see the conclusion of. Yes. You know? But uh things do happen. Things do happen in the zombie apocalypse. But let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Sean and the Dead from 2004. Is it a hacker slash?

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Let's get the obvious one out of the way. This is a slash for me. Obviously, I own it, a physical copy of it. I think it's actually in the room next to us right now. Um, this is something I've watched since it came out, and I think it's an enjoyable watch to this day. I haven't watched it in a couple years because think of all the movies and TV shows that have come out in the last couple years. But I spent a good part of my 20s watching this probably once a year. And I still think that's worth the time that I spent on it because you've got some really great antics. They're just they're silly, but they're also fun. I'm gonna talk about it later, but the editing of this movie punches you in the face with how good it is. As a zombie movie, it's actually pretty darn good. I think it's actually got good zombie gore. Um, I think it's got a good story. The fact it's a little bit lighter on some of the fighting that you might get in other zombie films, but I think that's actually a plus because so many other zombie films are just action films masquerading as horror or as science fiction. This one is actually a zombie movie. It's about the people, of course, inside the film. I I could go on, but anyway, it's a slash.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I wish this podcast could be listed on FanDuel so that I could make bets and get arrested for probably insider trading. Because I would bet every dollar I have on that slash right there.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Insider trading. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Unfortunately, that isn't a reality. However, um, I'm just gonna go ahead and get my hack out of the way here because I don't want to get kicked out of Max house. And I asked his wife not to listen to me review this movie because they were both like, what's there to say about this movie? It's so great. And I was like, Yeah, sure. Like I said before, I just think that this movie is not meant for me, and that's okay. We're all different people. I'm not here to tell you that this is a bad movie, but I know about this movie from decades ago, and people have talked about it and talked about it, and there's a reason that I never watched it, and it's because the like kind of comedy thing that happens here is just isn't my shtick. However, I will say the foreshadowing and like that part of the comedic effort in this movie I found to be lovely. I do agree with Mac. It's a Really great zombie movie, honestly. And and as a person who has watched almost all 800 seasons of The Walking Dead, I'm not anti-zombie. I do like zombies. Like Carl means a lot to me. So I don't know. I'm I'm here to hack this movie and here to tell you that you should probably also watch it if it sounds like something you'll like, because it is good for someone else, like Mac.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Of all the horror comedies, you fall on the side of Tucker and Dale versus Evil, but this is uh not your flavor.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Easily.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Tucker and Dale versus Evil have some more likable characters to me and have a storyline that I don't have to care about very much. Whereas this movie has a little bit more storyline, which is completely useless to me. It means nothing. I don't care about your family. That's a fair assessment.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

So I thought my rating would be the most obvious, but I think we're all just really clearly taking sides tonight. Um I'm hacking this movie. I am anti-zombie. I almost never like a zombie movie. I think I would slash Train Debusan. I think that's the closest I've ever come. But like truly, this movie just did nothing for me. I literally wrote it down. It was 26 minutes in before I laughed at all, and it was like the smallest chuckle, and there were like maybe two or three that followed that for the rest of the movie. So it just wasn't funny to me. It feels very much like a guy movie, in that, like, I don't know, it's like the opposite kind of comedy of a chick flick. And I love a good like chick-flick comedy. That's my brand. Um, but this one just like wasn't that at all. And it also was a zombie movie. There was really I don't think this movie stood a chance, to be quite frank. And to compare it to Tucker and Dale vs. Evil doesn't feel appropriate because that movie was funny and this one was not. Also, like I don't think I I don't think I appreciated any of the things you guys are talking about. You're talking about foreshadowing, you're talking about references. It was all lost on me. So if you are a person that does not care for zombie movies and you also don't like guy comedies, skip this one. If it sounds like this movie's for you, then it probably is. But if you go into it and you're like, I probably won't like this movie, you probably won't. Like Ryan and I knew we weren't gonna like this. I think Chris and Mac both knew they would, and that's pretty clear if that's your vibe. It's a hack.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

You raised some interesting points, Paris, and uh I I I'm not a fan of chick flicks, but I am also not a fan of guy comedies. And there is a great deal, I think, you know, revisiting this as an adult, uh, revisiting this like Mac for the first time in my 30s. There is a lot of like dude humor that I'm just not a fan of. I can do without the fart jokes, I can do without the scratching of the balls and so on and so forth. A lot of this movie's just gross.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

But this movie goes so far beyond the gross, and it's more about human dynamics, and it's more about being a love letter to so many other zombie movies, and I absolutely love that. Where this movie has so many flaws in terms of some of its characters, it makes up for it because you can see that this is clearly a labor of love, and it's so it's like a technical marvel in how thoroughly each element of it is considered. There's only one bit in this movie, I believe, that's even ad-libbed, and that's amazing considering how many like professional comedians star in this film. Looking at the layers that are are baked into this film in terms of not only being, you know, references to other zombie properties, not only references to other films at large, but really it's a story about you know, these people who are actually friends in real life and looking at the personal connections that they have. And while a lot of the humor doesn't vibe with me in some ways, much of it does. And I can absolutely respect a bunch of friends getting together, making a dream come to life, and having enough of that like dry British humor and and some off-beat comedy in some moments that had me dying inside uh when I was younger for sure, and had me you know get a little hearty chuckle uh as I've been like more seasoned by life in my 30s. So this movie, flaws in all, is undoubtedly a slash. I know you don't feel like Tucker and Dale versus Evil is an apt comparison, but I absolutely feel like it is. It's two different styles of approaches to horror comedy, and in a genre that's so often bogged down by uh self-referential nods or or people trying to like infuse comedy in all the wrong ways. These are two movies that succeed in very different styles, and I'm absolutely here for it. Now, with that, Shawn of the Dead from 2004 is split down the middle for us on Hackerslash. Two of us hacked it, two of us slashed it, but that just means we absolutely need to hear your take on this. Do you love it? Do you side with Mac and I and think that it's a quality film, or are you more team Paris and Ryan? Or perhaps it's just not for you, or perhaps you do think it's absolutely uh straight dude comedy that you're just not a fan of. You can find this movie available for rent or purchase online, so check it out. Join us in the second half so we can unpack the layers to this film and hear what that turning point was for Ryan and Paris. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

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SPEAKER_00 28:15

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for Shawn of the Dead from 2004, which is split down the middle at two hacks and two slashes. We have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, Mac, would you do us the honor of uh blessing us with a gore score?

SPEAKER_01 28:31

The gore score on this one is gonna be some medium salsa. So we have some good gore, appropriate for a zombie flick. It's not too extreme. We do have a decapitation, we have someone being pulled completely apart, openly in the middle of the frame. We have plenty of biting, um, maybe a couple gunshots to zombies, a couple stabbings, a pull through a zombie. So it's it's kind of middle of the road. Not too high, but it's not low. It doesn't feel PG or anything, it doesn't feel made for TV. It feels really appropriate to a zombie film. It's completely separated from the fact that it's also funny.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Not to mention the fart jokes.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Really, honestly, some of the body hair we see is more gory than uh some of the kills we get.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

And I didn't want to put this in fact or fiction, but I did read that piece of trivia where Nick Frost may or may not have shaved his uh nether region to make himself legitimately itchy so that he had to scratch, and that to me is the goriest thing I've ever heard. Well, let's continue on the path to gore, and I want to talk about my favorite kill first, which is going to be David. And that might be your favorite kill, obviously, but it's also the goreist of the kills, I think, because we see it right on screen being ripped apart, and that's just it's a beautiful thing. I mean, head comes off, arms come off, legs come off in the hands of our protagonists, and before we even get to that point, the zombies are ripping out the guts, and I don't know, I love that. But his death was was accomplished using a fake body made with fiberglass. And they had, of course, you know, fake guts, they didn't use real human guts in there. Unfortunately, those are kind of hard to source. And you want to get it right because this is going to be an extreme shot. You don't want to mess this up. So they didn't just have you know the extras that they're paying a pound a day go up there and rip the body parts off. They used their own crew because they wanted to make sure that this shot was done perfectly. And that to me is is pretty interesting. But of course, it also is the coolest looking death. So that's what makes it my favorite. What about you guys?

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Well, obviously, that was what any normal person would choose. And is there a second? Really, there isn't. I think, you know, watching zombies eat spaghetti out of a chest, basically. It was just like the best part of the movie. What I mean, I don't have anything else for deaths. That is the epitome of what I was here for.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Zombies. It's like spaghettios, but you know, human organs.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

I had a second favorite, so I think there's other deaths that you can go for.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

I think anybody in their right mind would choose the David kill. Um, but being a good little podcaster, I came up with a second, because I knew this would happen. It's gonna be the tetherball kill. Um, I thought that was funny the way he kind of just tried to swing it as a weapon at first. Uh it was one of the few times I did laugh. Uh, and then the girls were like, no, just like stab it. And then he does, and then I thought that was fun. So there's my favorite kill. That isn't the David kill. Because it's the David kill, that's the best one.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

I think my favorite death aside from David, because man, he had it coming, couldn't stand that guy. My favorite death aside from that is going to be the gentleman from the pub with the red cowboy boots who's surrounded by women uh in life, and then is surrounded by women in death as he's being ripped apart and eaten. And we don't see him dying, we just see him being feasted upon, and you know, it was a beautiful moment.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

So I'm gonna since everyone says, you know, David's obviously the best, I want to throw out my second because I feel like it was a good little moment, and that was when they're leaving the pub and they're super drunk and they see the couple making out, or at least that's what they think, and they realize or we realize watching that the female zombie bites the dude's head off and it like flops behind him.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Oh, I actually didn't realize. I thought, oh look, they're not zombies yet.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

So that's one of those things you didn't catch.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

One of many, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

See, little moments like that, like there are so many kills and deaths that are happening in the background that are just slightly blurred, uh, really, really buried in the depths of field. That if you're paying attention and and you're looking across the frame and not just at the two central characters who are exchanging dialogue in that moment, there's so much more to pick up on. So I love that you mentioned that, Mac.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

I did not realize that this movie was also an I spy book. I apologize.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Oh no, it is. Seriously, you can go through all the small details. You can even go through the script. There's like things that people say that mirror earlier uh parts of the film. So we just need someone to make us like a list of every little every little thing that that happens in this film because there's so many. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

A completionist guide to Shauna the Dead.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Yes, please. Help us complete. We want to reach completion. So the garden scenes that we that we get in the film are kind of a shortened version of what might have happened originally, you know, how plans change and and and shift over time. Uh, but there was gonna be a hanged zombie man, so that's not a good look. Good thing that they removed that. And a woman being eaten by her own dog. That's funny. And I'm glad they removed that.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

How's that for the animal report?

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Yeah, that's like a reverse animal report. Like, not I don't know. Do you want to see Fido chowing down?

SPEAKER_00 33:35

I kind of do. I could go for that, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yeah, I like that idea.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Wasn't I feel like that was recently in a in another Zelda movie that we've seen.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Are you thinking Catwoman? It was probably in that movie that has that super generic name. I never remember that's like dead guys or like bad dead.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Dead alive. Dead alive. It was dead alive.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

Dead alive, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

That's exactly what it was. The German shepherd that eats and then gets eaten.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Yes. And in Alexis' place, I'll throw in one more piece of information about the gore that you know or maybe you didn't know, and that has to do with Diane. So Diane leaves the Winchester, but do we see her die?

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Number.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

That's the real question. And so we all assume she's dead. Um, but according to some DVD animated special feature plot hole stuff, I don't know, I love extra information. I've read some Marvel Wookies like for way too long when I'm laying in bed. She makes it through, gets through the crowd of zombies, climbs a tree, goes to sleep, you know, wakes up and uh sits on the tree for a while, eating David's severed leg to survive.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Ooh, we love that for Diane.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

I think it also specifies that she's in Christmas card contact with Sean and Liz. So you go through this and bomb through this traumatic experience, and then you know, you just keep in touch via Christmas cards every year.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yeah. Can you imagine like what do you write in the first one? Like, hey, remember that time?

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Shout out to Zombie.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Anyway, I can't wait for Lexus to take back over the gore you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

So I think the gore and you know, a lot a lot of the scenes that we've even discussed provide ample opportunity for us to discuss some of the the best parts of how this movie looks and the best parts of how this movie was executed. And I just gotta say right off the bat, one of my favorite parts of this movie is not just the things that are hidden in the background or the things that are just, you know, subtly happening as we focus on the main characters, but it's really just Edgar Wright's style. But the way that he approaches telling his story, he doesn't just rely on the the traditional cuts. Uh he doesn't pull out any Georgia Lucas fades or wipes or anything like that, but he uses in-camera transitions and uses movement to move to the next shot. And that's something that's really picked up in recent years when you think about you know amateur videographers or you know, freelancers or production professionals who are now trying to do this whole epic B-roll thing where you know your move your camera is moving along with the subject. You're playing with speed ramping to kind of either move faster or slower through the shot and really just draw emphasis on that. Where this movie gives us those quick cuts and just really passes along the narrative in a way that's so compelling, still shows you what's going on, but makes things a little bit more exciting. Absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Okay, so I'm gonna join in with you on this one, Chris, because my favorite visual element, it's honestly, I can think about it in two scenes and thinking about the editing here. Um, so the first one's gonna be the news segments where they're flipping through the channels and it's they're like going through this one statement, but it's different, like news stations completing the sentence. And that one to me was like just so smart and and even funnier because we get it as viewers, but the characters aren't piecing it together. And the second one is basically the plan when they're coming up with what are we gonna do and eventually leading to the Winchester. That whole segment right there is so beautiful to watch. And I don't know, it just makes it seem kind of like a heist movie, but at the same time, it's so funny because the plans are ridiculous. But that editing is just it's like laser tight.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

You know, Mac. You really picked up on something that I I loved in this, and that is that scene with the TV, the one at the beginning specifically, going through that segment. It's just so interesting. I was a little bummed that it didn't happen again at the end. Now they gave us something a little different. They gave us like these little interesting snippets of what I think life would be like after an apocalypse in 2021, because it's like, yeah, yeah, we probably would get stuff like put back together, and then there there would be uh, you know, aid funds and all kinds of chaos on TV talking about it and dramatic newscasters and stuff. Um, that was lovely. For me, one of my favorite visual elements, which is honestly kind of because I loved and hated it, was the ending, the way the scene with all the people showing up and saving the day, basically, and they're all shooting lots of zombies. That scene is shot like us it reminded me of Small Soldiers, that movie from like my childhood.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

I love that movie.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Yeah, and it was like dramatic intentionally, and in a few moments in this movie, the dramatics were enjoyable, and I quite liked them. That was one that the way they shot it was just full of chaos and like lots of movement and absolutely over-the-top like guns with explosions on the front of them, as if that's what it looks like when a gun is shot. So that was one that I enjoyed.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

What a very specific but also incredibly accurate comparison.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Small Soldiers takes up a significant amount of my brain space, and I can't get it back, so I have to use it anytime I can.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Ryan, we really are kindred.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

That was like one of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

Same. Anytime I see Barbies, I always think it's a baton death march. Okay, favorite visuals. I've got one. I came up with it. The scene where they are going through like the backyards or wherever they are, and they like come across the other group of survivors that all look exactly like them. Um, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a sucker for like a doppelganger gag. And just like seeing these people as being like interchangeable as far as like their look and their outfit and like the purpose they serve within the friend group. I really enjoyed seeing them. And then the way they all like walked by each other and said hi, I was like, this is great. This is comedy.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Oh no, that is great. And a lot of comedic British comedic geniuses are in that scene.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Yes, just randomly.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

So Yvonne, who's like the Sean of the other group. So she was actually um the co-writer and co-star with Simon Pegg in that sitcom that I mentioned up in the movie introduction. So she was like the main character within that, so they've been comedic partners forever. The second person in that line played Tim, who was the British version of Jim from The Office, and Diane was the Pam, who's named Dawn. So that was like a little bit of a reunion for them as well.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

I love that. I recognize the second guy from all the things he's done lately. Like Sherlock? No. And the The Hobbit? The Hobbit. I think it's the Hobbit, actually. The Avengers, I think it's the Hobbit. Because that's the only one of those I've seen.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Well, that's really good. I think actually one of my favorite scenes comes just slightly before that, uh, slightly before they're navigating things and they're still within the car. And as much as I don't like Philip, there's that moment where he's about to die and he's having that like one last heart-to-heart, or really probably the first heart to heart they've ever had. And he acknowledges, I have always loved you. I always wanted to be the person that you know uh that you looked up to, and I want you know, I wanted you to have motivation to aspire to better things. And you see how flawed he was, and then the realization that he is realizing his own mortality, and then looking at the way Simon Pegg plays that moment as Sean with tears in his eyes, it's the first oh shit moment where you feel like this is so much more than just a comedy. It's actually packing some punches, and even though I wasn't particularly connected to Philip by any means, that shift in the tone is what made this movie a definitive slash for me, even before uh we get some of the even better parts later on.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

See, for me, I kind of don't care for like a tone shift in a movie like this. That's just me. I'll say one of my favorite scenes is the complete opposite of a tone shift, and it's where he decks his stepdad because when your mom's not around to care anymore, why wouldn't you if you don't get along with him? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Also, that stepdad wasn't Harry Potter and he played an evil dick. So watching him get decked was satisfying.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

I think for my favorite scene, I'm going to pick the one with queen in it because the choreography, the music, everything about it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Were there not several queen moments in this movie?

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Yeah, but beating an old man to Don't Stop Me Now is just iconic.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Okay, it was that one. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Very true. That was really, really rich.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

To me, that's the Queen scene. I know it's it's subjective, but it's it's fun because they're like all doing their thing and it's all like really well timed. Um, and you know, sometimes in movies like you'll get those moments where they have a really good, you know, soundtrack going on and there's some action going on. But this one they really play with both the music and like the actions, and it lines up nicely. And to me, that enhances both of them the music and the action.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

That was a very dynamic and cinematic scene for sure. But I think the most dynamic scene for me was when we're getting the zombie acting classes in that backyard, and she's like trying, she's like, I'm an actress, and by that she means like she's a failed actress, and she's like trying to teach them how to be zombies, and really nobody's selling it, but it was probably the funniest moment of the movie for me, and I was like, This energy I could use more of in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

I would also like to note that I'm currently in a part of The Walking Dead where this is a very real tactic, okay, to walk amongst the walkers.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

That's ballsy. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

So I'm down for it. It works well. It feels validated even though all of it's fiction.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

I don't know if I could.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

I think one of the other really good scenes that the acting like a zombie reminds me of is just the entire beginning, right? We see what Sean looks like in his natural habitat, see how he's already kind of dead inside as he's moving through the world. And then it goes from that and and it goes to the parallels of what does a trip to the store look like pre-zombie apocalypse, and what does it look like post-zombie apocalypse? And looking at the parallel and looking at the way that shot was filmed, one continuous shot, that was how Edgar Wright decided to start the production. Those are the first two scenes he filmed because he knew they would be the most difficult, and he's kind of proving himself to his casting crew like, all right, we're gonna get business done here. And I absolutely love that. Love a good cinematic parallel.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

That alignment of like regular life with what we know will eventually become a zombie apocalypse is so enjoyable in this movie. I loved it. And it also comes back when the apocalypse is theoretically over.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

Honestly, I was. Thinking about that and uh, you know, obviously the time of year that we're in, we're a little bit past where things were this time, you know, in 2020 when we're watching the news, we hear what's going on in the world, but things still are normal here, and maybe we don't always pay the most attention to things. And I was thinking about the fact that I, you know, the day that businesses largely started to close in the United States, I had just been on the beach the day before with my girlfriend who was visiting from out of town, and people were still very much doing spring break. And I think about how wild it is to obviously not to the extent of a zombie apocalypse, but to be totally unaware that your life is about to change. And that was an aspect of this movie that I can absolutely relate to.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

Chris, I think you're very right about how this movie can have some alignments, again, with what we are feeling in life, both now and before. And those are the parts of the movie that I enjoyed, but these characters meant nothing to me. They were like somewhat funny in some ways, but I I didn't feel a connection to any of them, and I mostly felt sorry for several of them. I don't know. The characters, I think, is the thing that keeps me from loving this movie or even getting wrapped up or in in a state of enjoyment when I'm watching this or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

I feel you, Ryan. Um, I feel like we were supposed to root for Sean in some way, and the whole time I was just like, oh, poor Liz. Sean sucks, but I wish I cared. Poor Liz, yes. Yeah, and even in the end, I was just like, Sean didn't really come around for me. He's like not as sucky as he was, but he's still kind of blah.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

I think they just live together now. I think that's the only change.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

Well, like when you look at the logistics of what he went through, he ended up addressing every major complaint that she had, except at the end of the day, they're still together. They're gonna go to the Phoenix pub, which is the Winchester rebuilt from the ashes, and they're still gonna come home and chill, and they're not traveling, right? So maybe she wants to do less traveling because she's like, Ah, I've had my big adventure and I'm done. But I feel like Liz is still losing in this situation.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

I think she went through something traumatic, lost a friend. Her other friend is in Christmas card contact at this point, but who knows what happened to her at this point in the runtime. I think she lost so many people, and she saw Sean suffer so much loss that he lost literally everybody close to him. I think the end felt more like she feels guilty and doesn't want to leave him alone, which I don't know that is it's fair to her.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Or anyone. Yes, and this ending is truly a reminder that people do change, and at the exact same time, people never change. It is 100% true both ways.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

I get what you mean about not feeling 100% invested in the characters though, because there are a lot of things in this movie that I really don't care about. I I I hurt for Sean in some ways, and I realize, you know, how he feels like he's a passenger in his own life, and I think the journey that he goes on is really good. He's clearly like the clearly defined hero of the story. It's the others that I don't necessarily feel great about. Uh David, I absolutely hated, Diane was fun, enjoyed her, Liz I was kind of lukewarm about. But what I did love uh when it comes down to the characters is showing the list the little bits of of sentience that are still remaining with the zombies. So looking at that moment, I described my favorite scene earlier with Philip in the car, where Sean and Barbara are having this conversation, and she's worried about Philip, and he says, There's nothing left of him in there. There's absolutely nothing. And then zombie Philip turns off the music that's too loud. And it's like, ah, there is just a little bit of something. The comedic timing on that was just pure gold. But seeing that and that being like the foreshadowing of there's still something there. Uh, and then you know, seeing at the end how a lot of these uh zombies are then being used as labor or entertainment, etc., to see Ed playing with a controller, trying to figure things out again, just to be buds with his with his with Sean. Uh, I really appreciate it. I appreciate some sentient zombies. Oh see, I don't like that at all.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

I want to be like, I need my zombies to be super dead and unhuman because they freak me out. And I want to feel bad, you know?

SPEAKER_01 48:21

George Romero would disagree with you, Ryan, because in several films to get sentience in a couple entertaining ways, too.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Yeah. There's one film in particular where the humans have resorted to using fireworks as a distraction, and then you start seeing how one zombie just like figures it out, and then they start, you know, migrating towards like this uh safe hold that the humans have built, and just seeing the zombies start to figure it out and gain sentience and gain intelligence, it's so good. It's also way fucking scarier.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Um I think the characters are pretty great. I mean, they're not they're not amazing characters, you don't fall in love with all of them, obviously, but I think all of them have some redeeming qualities. Ed's a little tricky, you know, because Ed's kind of Ed's a douche. But I mean, if you look at Sean's like progress throughout the whole film in terms of relationships with other characters, I mean, obviously most of them are dead at at the end of the film, and that's kind of sad. But Sean like learns to admit that he loves his stepfather, and his stepfather like expresses to him that I'm I don't hate you, and I'm and I'm not angry with you, but like I'm disappointed in myself because I wanted to be this model for you, and I don't think it was effective. And he's he like he doesn't hate him for it, he just feels like he didn't do a good enough job. And when he has that conversation, it's amazing. But the fact that like Sean realizes it and then realizes what his behavior has caused is is amazing. So I don't know, and then you know, his mother doesn't show it, but there's this feeling that maybe she doesn't feel appreciated and doesn't feel loved, and his tears definitely show otherwise, I think, when he it's uncontrollable for him.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

That's a scene I can't even speak of.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

It's it's rough. And Liz, his relationship with Liz is definitely broken. Like this is one where they should have learned to move on. This is one where it's like I've changed, and because of that, now both of us will be better in the future, but that doesn't mean we have to be together. And that that was one thing that like disappointed me was you know, it's this whole thing of like I'm gonna earn her back. But in the end, did you did you really earn her back?

SPEAKER_02 50:31

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Right. I mean it's it's great that they they patch things up though, but he I think Sean shows some major growth. I don't think Ed really shows major growth, unfortunately. I mean, he turned into a zombie and he kind of were already was a zombie, but he's he's more like a social glue for Sean.

SPEAKER_03 50:48

I think the listener should know that as all of that was being explained, Ryan and I were just rolling our eyes back and forth at each other because when you don't care about these characters, none of this means anything.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

Look, if you can watch a movie where a mother is bitten and is inevitably gonna die, and a son is having to realize that he hasn't treated her as well as he wanted to, that he loves her so much and it's uncontrollable, and then to know that yeah, this is an inevitable situation and having to grasp with the idea of people pressuring you to kind of essentially put her down as if she were a hurt animal, that's fucking hard. And and if you if you think that that's something that's very easy to not care about, then I mean that I don't know, I don't know what to say, man. That was a rough moment. That was a rough moment.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

Yeah, when you put it that way.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

That's not necessarily what I'm saying. I'm just saying it's just I don't want to feel things in this context, and therefore I won't, instead of acknowledging that it is tough, okay?

SPEAKER_03 51:47

And for me, I did not feel that emotional reaction that I think was intended by the moment. And therefore I was like, okay, your mom's gonna die. Obviously, she's a zombie, get with the get with the program out.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

You've made it how many seasons into The Walking Dead, and you didn't have any emotional attachment to any of those characters just because they're in a zombie world?

SPEAKER_02 52:06

The Walking Dead is not a comedy.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Well, that depends on how you look at it.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

I'm just saying the tone set through most of this movie means I don't want to feel anything. So when you're trying to make me feel something, it just doesn't work for me. I like I said, I'm it's just not my mood again.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

No, two sides of the same coin here for Ryan and Paris. Ryan consciously opts out of feeling things, whereas Paris is just unmoved and unbothered by it.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Yep. So I would look at it a different way. Think about the film and the characters in the story and the relationships and all that stuff as if it weren't a zombie film, right? You have a main character who is down on their luck, who is unmotivated, who wants more in life, but is depressed and stuck in the mud and can't like get more out of life. They are relying on their emotional crutch being their best friend and just staying where they are, status quo. They have a broken relationship with their significant other. They have a broken relationship with their parents. And throughout this film, they've like learned things about themselves. They've learned to express their love, they've learned that they love, and the other characters around them see this growth. And you're telling me that's not compelling enough for you to feel anything for them?

SPEAKER_02 53:16

This does not sound like a movie I have any interest in watching, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

It's also doesn't sound like a movie I did watch.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

I could not be more uninterested.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

And that's what I think makes this movie so good to me, is that it's a drama set in a zombie apocalypse, masterfully done using comedy.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

I like all the other things except the drama. It's just not my it's not my cup of tea, man. It's the kettle, somebody forgot to put the kettle on for me. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

For me, the the framing of the comedy makes me much less attuned to those more deep emotional beats, and therefore I glaze over them and continue waiting for the next gag.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

It's a character flaw.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

Yeah. If you remove the zombie horror comedy element of it, I can see there is a a gut-wrenching drama unfolding.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

Well, for as rich as a lot of these characters are, earlier you mentioned that uh Ed doesn't change, he's already a zombie. He is certainly the worst part of this movie for me. Even though he is the catalyst of some of the best parts of it. Some of the things that he says and the way that he continues to show up for Sean, you can tell that in a world where he doesn't care about really much of anything, he does care about Sean. He is supportive in his own really weird, oddly specific way. And he's a loyal friend, which, you know, I I think we all aspire to have friends who are as loyal as that. But for me, just like the dialogue that he has, the endless fart jokes, it's Paris, as you were saying earlier, it's very much dude humor that I just don't vibe with.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Yeah, you're definitely not wrong, Chris. And of course, because I have hacked this movie, I have to give you a best part. And for me, the best part comes right after the emotional moment that we were talking about before, or several of them. That whole section, so after the death of the mother, and then all the way up until the very end where they kind of get rescued. For me, like them trying to get out of the Winchester is my favorite part of the movie as a whole. And um, there's you know, several different things. It's it's just a series of events where I actually was like, okay, cool, like I'm in, I'm in for this, and some little funny things happen, and of course, we get uh an insane David kill around that time, too. So for me, that chunk of this movie is the best part overall.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

Yeah, I've really got a reach here. Um looking through my notes, I have really nothing to work with. So I'm gonna say the the time that I truly lit up was during David's kill. That was by far the peak of the movie for me. That was such a really well-done scene. It was really delightful. Um, and I think it was the best part of the whole movie.

SPEAKER_02 55:59

Using David's limbs as weapons, obviously genius. Okay. They're very dense.

SPEAKER_01 56:07

I cannot even think of a worse part of the film. So I'm gonna say the worst part for me of watching this film was that it was only available as a rental or a purchase, and that it wasn't streaming anywhere. I'm not mad at it. I own a copy of it. I just don't have a DVD player to play that copy, and that's probably the worst part, is that I already own it, but I couldn't use the copy that I own.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

I actually was mad about renting it.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

But this is a movie, there's so many classics that are out available for streaming, right? I'm not saying this is up there with Princess Bride. Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, and this is a great movie, but I think it's good enough to be available on some streaming service somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

I thought it was on HBO. Some website led me to believe that it would be, but it was not.

SPEAKER_00 56:49

Well, in spite of its lack of availability on streaming platforms, I still feel like this has a tremendous amount of rewatch value, specifically because of what we were talking about earlier with the bits of foreshadowing. The fact that, you know, Ed's proposal to Sean in the beginning in the Winchester of how they're gonna have a great day and like how they're gonna hit all these bars is actually the roadmap of what they're what their fate was going to be during the zombie apocalypse. Those bits of foreshadowing, all the layers that are baked into this, it gives you something new to discover each and every time. So while I'm good on the desire to watch this uh in the near future, I know that when I w when I eventually do, it's there's gonna be a lot to find.

SPEAKER_02 57:35

I actually would not mind re-watching this, maybe with people in the right setting, drinking, not caring much, but maybe with somebody who's really into this movie, maybe I'd care more. Maybe somebody to like point out all the little Easter eggs, you know?

SPEAKER_03 57:51

Yeah, I was drunk and with my boyfriend who is my best friend, and it still didn't do anything for me. So I just don't see it for me with this one. Um I do agree that if you are into this, it's probably worth re-watching because there's probably things that you missed and would be excited to see and discover. Um, but couldn't be me, so I will not be re-watching this.

SPEAKER_01 58:10

Not only have I rewatched this many times, but I would recommend re-watching this many times. So if this is your first watch, there's more that you're gonna get out of it, I think, on a second and a third watch. Obviously, you don't have to do it like tomorrow or anything, but do it again and look for the Easter eggs. Do it again and look for the serious emotional and relationship stuff that we joked about earlier. I think it's honestly worth owning the entire Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy, just brilliantly done movies by uh Edgar Wright. Um if you've seen Hot Fuzz, that's that's part two basically of the trilogy. They're not you know story-wise related, but they're they're part of uh you know three flavors uh of film and brilliant movies. Love them. I would say get the bundle if you can, if you can't. If you just want to purchase or rent one movie, it's it's worth it. So yeah, I mean, I'm probably gonna rewatch this again in a couple years.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Well, clearly there's a lot to pick up on uh on further rewatches of this movie. I don't know, I've never seen Hot Fuzz. I remember hearing about it thinking, oh yeah, it's next in the trilogy, and then when as soon as I found out it wasn't a horror movie, I was like, uh nope, often out of that. But that being said, I'm sure there's there's much more to learn about this film before you ever have to get to a rewatch. So, Mac, what do you have for our fact or fiction?

SPEAKER_01 59:28

Number one. Sean's mom calls him pickle in the film. And this is inspired by an onset joke, because Simon Pegg spit up a bit of pickle when he burst out laughing at a joke during lunch and couldn't live it down during filming.

SPEAKER_02 59:41

Fact.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

Yeah, that sounds like something this crew would do. Except it's fiction. This actually came from Edgar Wright's mother. So she called him pickle during childhood, which is all the worse since she taught some of his classes. Ooh. So not only does your mother call you pickle, but she does it in front of your classmates. Well, that's just not appropriate, Mom. Number two. George A. Romero was so impressed by their work on this film he asked Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg to cameo in Land of the Dead.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:08

Fiction, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

Yeah, there's really no way we could clock you on that, so I'm gonna say fact. This one is a fact. Romero even wore a Shauna the Dead pin on his shirt while filming Land of the Dead. They cameo as zombies chained up in a zombie photo booth. And that's something I would like to get a photo taken in, just saying, You can go to Halloween Horror Nights and probably do that. That's very true. Except I probably won't go. Because we all know how I feel about those types of events. I'm just I'm good. There's just too many people. Number three, while Sean and Ed fended off zombies in their backyard with Sean's vinyl, the original script called for Sean to beat them down with Ed's PlayStation.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:46

That sounds too random. I think the vinyl was an intentional thing because there were a lot of gags written around that.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

I'm gonna agree and say fiction, and I'd like to note, I'm very sad I forgot to mention that scene in this whole entire podcast. That one was riddled with comedy. Okay, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

It was truly funny. Um, but the statement I said beforehand was truly fiction. It did call for him, however, to use a girl's bicycle. And I'm glad they went with vinyl.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Vinyl was way the Batman soundtrack getting thrown.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

That's a good soundtrack. Dwight and I thought about that for a minute.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:20

Also, vinyl records being tossed like that, not a bad way to kill. And I would have to discern which ones to throw. There are a few.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Mm-hmm. And number four, Simon Pegg reacted to Barbara's death as if she was his own mother. And when they cut, he and Nick Frost actually cried real tears. I'm gonna say fiction because why not?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:40

I'm gonna say fact because I'm okay with only having one thing right tonight.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

This one's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

Oh, that's too.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:47

So I know we've wrapped up fact or fiction, but Chris, are there any of those small details, those little Easter eggs that you would like to point out? Because there's so many in the film.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:54

Yeah, for sure, Mac. There's a ton packed in here. So we'll start with some like low-hanging fruits, some really easy things just to get your minds going if you are preparing yourself for a rewatch. And that's something that we mentioned earlier. There's a point where, you know, Ed chimes in on the phone, we're coming to get you, Barbara, and that's lifted as a referential nod to, of course, Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead. But it doesn't stop there because the rifle at the Winchester is the same type of rifle that's used in Knight of the Living Dead.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:24

Obviously.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:25

Yeah, I definitely missed that part. Then also let's look at David's death, where he's pulled out of the window just like Barbara was in Night of the Living Dead. Yes, I did get that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:36

I mean, is that a reference or is that just a thing that happens in every zombie movie? Somebody gets yanked through a window.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:41

It's like how every dunk is a nod to Michael Jordan, you know? Don't you know Paris?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:46

Of course. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

A couple more here. So Sean's job is Four Electric, and that's actually the surname of Ken Forey, who had a cameo in Dawn of the Dead. And he was actually in the original Dawn of the Dead. I'm gonna call a stretch on that one. I mean, it's an iconic he plays an iconic character in the original Dawn of the Dead. I feel like it's uh if you're a lover of war movies, if you're a lover of zombie movies and classic Romero, that's there for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

I just heard like a long string of life to get to that connection, like a mother-in-law of a brother's surname.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:23

These are deeply buried. You gotta have seen like ten other things.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

I am joking, but I'm proud there are people in the world who appreciate these things.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:32

Yeah, you know what? I love that this is there for them. There are things that you don't need to like be a lover of zombie movies to get, though. So, well, maybe. You maybe have had to see one or two. Like there's a reference in one of the I don't know if it's a TV thing or radio thing where they're mentioning a satellite coming back and like crashing to Earth, and that's a direct like reference to Knight of the Living Dead.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

Right, the explanation situation that they went for. I promise if you listen to our Knight of the Living Dead episode, you will uh that was discussed, and then Mac pointed out.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

Yes, I remember that part. And in the end, they're watching TV and they mention the fact that there was a claim that it was all due to rage-infected monkeys, and then that that claim was dismissed, and that's a reference to 28 days later. Oh, I thought you were gonna say Evil Dead. No, but there's an there's a reference to Evil Dead as well. The guy with the chainsaw arm, as you you mentioned earlier, is actually called Ash, and there's a reference to a coworker calling out at um Simon Pegg's workplace, um, whose name is Ash.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:35

I'm sorry, I said the wrong movie name again. What's the one with the everything's over the top?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

Dead Alive.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:40

Dead Alive. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:41

Don't worry. There's a reference to Dead Alive as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

There probably is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

As we mentioned in the Dead Alive episode, a lot of that humor inspired the humor that's in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:52

You know what? I think we can say Dead Alive is better than this, at least for me. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:59

You got you got the squeaky Ryan skepticism.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:02

Okay. I just got canceled. And now I don't even have Ryan with me anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:07

Yeah. And here's the thing, right? If even if you're not a fan of zombie movies, period, but you do like Resident Evil, the bit where they flick the lighter and discover the buttons for the keg lift is actually a reference to Resident Evil where you have to light a lighter to see certain objectives in the game.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

Yep. Or the game that they're playing on PlayStation in the beginning is called Time Splitters 2. And the Time Splitters are what is that, dimension hopping zombies. Just saying it's it's packed full of references. So this is why it's worth a rewatch, is because you can like go through each little line and each little detail, and you'll see all sorts of stuff that points to other things, whether it's inside the film, like the whole jukebox sequence of telling them to turn it off or who put this on, and hey, it's on random. Like that happens twice. Everything's mirrored, which is utterly hilarious to me. I don't know why it like adds to it, but it's great. But you get those kind of things and you get the things that reference other movies. And hopefully if you re-watch this again, I know you probably won't, but if you do, you'll pick up on all th those tiny little details.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:06

I'm sure I won't for a long time, but I am excited to hear what our listeners have to share. Maybe like their favorite little nuggets that we didn't mention.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:14

Oh yeah, there are certainly plenty of them. When we release the lineup for this month, so many people are excited for Shawn of the Dead. And I'm sure they're gonna have lots to chime in on on stuff that Mac and I uh weren't able to get to within the confines of this episode, or they're gonna try to petition hard to to sway Paris and Ryan over into slash territory. Not that they'll be successful, uh, but I'm sure they'll try.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:37

They know us better than that.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

But just as Ryan said, we do want to know what you think. For now, Shauna the Dead from 2004 has earned two slashes and two hacks, but the conversation doesn't end here clearly. There's so much packed into this movie that we haven't really even scratched the surface of. So keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.com, or on our social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:01

And if you really miss Alexis, you can reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline. You can leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128, or visit hackerslash.com slash contact to send us an audio message.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:12

Or if you can tell us whether or not dogs can actually look up, you can send us an email to feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:19

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SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, there is no I in in team, but there is an I in pie, and there's an I in meat pie. And a gram of meat is team I don't know. Bye.