preguntas frecuentes for
Shaun of the Dead (2004)

No. Although both movies came out within weeks of each other in the UK (Shaun was actually forced to be held back to avoid confusion), there is no connection. Shaun of the Dead is named after the 1978 Dawn of the Dead and no reference is made to the remake, 2004's Dawn of the Dead. Both films were in production before the people involved knew about the others and so the similar times is a pure coincidence.

A possible reference to the Dawn of the Dead remake is made on the bonus materials of the Shaun of the Dead DVD: in the "Plot holes" section, Simon Pegg explains how his character managed to stay out of the hands of the undead, "because, contrary to modern theories, the undead are very slow" (the zombies in 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake can run like crazy).

No. This is a common mistake due to the film's name being a play on that of Dawn of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead, however, is a zombie movie in its own right, and a mild parody of the zombie movies of the seventies in general, and George A. Romero's Dead-trilogy in particular. Whilst it makes countless references to those films and others, they're all very subtle and never the focus of a scene in particular. Few references are made to Dawn of the Dead beyond the name. Due to the film being released very close to the Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004, people often presume it is a spoof of that film, however it was put into production well before that film and as a result has absolutely no connection with it at all.

Generally, a spoof makes fun out of iconic or genre-specific scenes in more serious films. While Shaun of the Dead does contain certain scenes that parallel many zombie movies, as well as numerous in-jokes and nods, it is a comedy film with a zombie theme in which all the zombie scenes are faithful to the 'rules' set by Romero in particular. It is a homage rather than a spoof.

The movie purposely never reveals the reason for this, just as the reason was never revealed in George Romero's "Dead" series.

Countless theories are dropped throughout the film, however:

1.A news report can be heard talking about radiation from a down satellite. This is a reference to Night of the Living Dead in which it is heavily implied that the dead have risen due to radiation from a satellite re-activating the brain.

2.A newspaper article seen briefly blames the problem on G.M. crops. This is a reference to The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue which uses the same reason.

3.A radio news reader says, "Claims that the virus was spread by rage infested monkeys has now been dismissed as bull. . . ." This is a reference to 28 Days Later... in which this happens. In addition, many newpaper articles and news reports suggest it's a virus.

It is most likely that whatever caused the dead to rise in the George Romero world is the reason in this film too, as the zombies follow George's rules. However, even George doesn't actually know why the dead have risen in his films, so it's safe to say the makers of Shaun of the Dead don't either.

The biggest relation is both were made by the same people (nearly). Both Shaun of the Dead and "Spaced" were directed by Edgar Wright. Both are written by Simon Pegg and star him in one of the main roles. In addition to this, almost every cast member from "Spaced" has a role in Shaun of the Dead. Simon Pegg as stated before played Tim in "Spaced" and plays Shaun in Shaun of the Dead. Nick Frost played Mike in "Spaced" and Ed in Shaun of the Dead. Jessica Hynes plated Daisy in "Spaced" as well as co-writing it and she plays Yvonne. Julia Deakin played Marsha in "Spaced" and makes a cameo as Yvonne's mother. Peter Serafinowicz was a regular guest in "Spaced" as Duane Benzy; he stars as Pete. Bill Bailey, another regular guest on "Spaced" as Bilbo, has a blink-and-miss-it cameo as a zombie. Michael Smiley appeared as Tyres in two episodes of the show and makes a cameo as a zombie also named Tyres in the film. Mark Gatiss, Edgar Wright, Robert Popper, Lucy Akhurst, David Walliams, Paul Kaye, and Paul Putner all made guest appearances on "Spaced," sometimes several, and have cameos in the film too. In addition to this, a scene was written to star Aida, who played Colin, the dog in "Spaced." The scene was to involve the dog eating a corpse lying in a garden but wasn't filmed due to bad weather. Some music from episodes of "Spaced" are used. An example would be "Fizzy Legs" by The Sons of Silence.

There are countless references to "Spaced" throughout the film:

1. A zombie of the character Tyres appears.

2. A shopping trolly is randomly abandoned in the street, a reference to the shopping trolly often seen in "Spaced."

3. Pete answers the phone with "Dom, hi." His character in "Spaced" did this repeatedly.

4. The "He's not my boyfriend... thanks babe" joke is recycled. Also, it was stated that the creators got the idea for the film when making the episode of "Spaced" entitled Art, which involves two hallucination sequences with zombies.

5, "What you doing?!" (with body expression) seen in spaced many a times and is featured in the scene with ed on the fruit machine

All of the original score for this film (as opposed to songs on radios, etc.) was produced specifically for the film by Daniel Mudford and Pete Woodhead; however, it is heavily inspired by the music in John Carpenter's films, most noticably The Thing.

For a list of other music please look in the soundtrack page.

The instrumental music over the Universal and Studio Canal logos is, however, a track called 'Figment' by S Park which was used in the original Dawn Of The Dead.

No. The zombie in the dressing gown and pajamas, looking virtually identical to Colin Mochrie (most famously seen on Whose Line Is It Anyway?) is comic actor Nick Ewans.