SHED OF THE DEAD ***** UK 2019 Dir: Drew Cullingham 82 mins
15 years after Shaun Of The Dead we see British zombie comedy back with a vengeance as something very close to matching Shauns brilliance has finally arrived! Trevor (Spencer Brown) is currently between jobs and to avoid his disastrous existence and his over bearing wife, Bobbi (Lauren Socha) he spends as much time as possible taking refuge in his shed on his allotment. Being a huge nerd he mostly paints figurines for the fantasy war games he plays with his best mate, Graham (Ewen MacIntosh) and has no interest in gardening. Bothered by his nosey allotment neighbours who are threatening to have him evicted and fuming after a huge argument with Bobbi he heads back to the allotment to contest his eviction resulting in an unfortunate accident. After consulting with Graham he finally grows some balls and heads back to “clean up” the situation. Unbeknownst to him a zombie apocalypse has broken out and all who he is supposed to hold near and dear are under threat. Will Trevor and Graham be able to channel their inner heroes and save the day or will they spectacularly balls up and doom everyone?!! There is very little not to love about this. Comparisons to Shaun can and will be made with this and ok there are a few small similarities or tributes but none the less Shed puts its own stamp on the genre. It has large dollops of juvenile behaviour, embarrassingly dysfunctional relationships, buckets of gore and a large array of gut munching awesome zombies! The dialogue is quintessentially English offset by a very childish sense of humour and the acting is fantastic from all involved. The main characters are all completely messed up in their own little ways but actually seem somehow relatable. It also has a very noteworthy role for Emily Booth, you get to see Michael Berryman in full S&M horse attire, Kane Hodder as a nosey neighbour and Bill Moseley as a sadistic serial killer ( “Ain’t no ice cream in your fucking future”). If that wasn’t enough for you how about narration courtesy of Brian Blessed and some truly awesome graphic novel artistry in the title and end credits. Be sure to watch the title sequence closely and see how many greats from the zombie genre you can spot. The FX are bloody, gooey and so much fun. I love pretty much any zombie movie yet I try to remain impartial, look at all aspects and score accordingly but honestly everything is right about this and in my opinion the story, characters, soundtrack and cinematography are all spot on with this one.
Review by Sarah Budd