Shed of the Dead (2019)

Director: Drew Cullingham

Writer: Drew Cullingham (Screenplay)

Starring: Spencer Brown, Lauren Socha, Ewen MacIntosh, Emily Booth, Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, Michael Berryman, Brian Blessed

Plot: Trevor is ‘between jobs’. He spends his days avoiding his overbearing wife by hiding out in his allotment shed and painting figurines for his wargames with his agoraphobic friend, Graham, and dreaming of his heroic alter-ego, the battle mage Casimir the Destroyer. When Mr Parsons, one of the other allotment tenants, petitions to have Trevor removed from his disgrace of a plot (he’s not there to grow stuff!) an argument ensues that leaves Trevor with a corpse to hide. Unfortunately, this untimely accident coincides with the zombie apocalypse and Mr Parsons’ return is just the beginnings of Trevor’s problems. More pressing is whether or not he should try and save his wife and her beautiful best friend, who both he and Graham have a thing for.

Tagline – An unlikely hero’s tale of blood, sweat, and shears !

Runtime: 1 Hour 25 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Fun Zombie Horror

Story: Shed of the Dead starts as we meet Trevor (Brown) a professional slacker, who spends his days between jobs in his allotment shed in a fantasy world, he doesn’t take care of his allotment though which has seen the other resident led by Mr Parsons (Hodder) want him out.

Trevor lives his with wife Bobbi (Socha) who works at the local hair dressers with Harriet (Booth) and he hides out with his best friend Graham (MacIntosh). When a zombie apocalypse happens Trevor must team with Graham to save the women in their lives.

Thoughts on Shed of the Dead

Characters – Trevor is the slacker, he is stuck in a fantasy world in his allotment where he puts off life responsibilities, so much so that h doesn’t realize the zombie apocalypse has started. Once he learns about it, he must live out his fantasy by trying to figure out how to save his wife. The zombie apocalypse brings out a new side to Trevor, a braver version of the cowardly one in life. Bobbi is Trevor’s wife that works at the hairdressers, she is constantly shouting at him forcing him into hiding. Graham is the best friend that tends not to leave the house, he is into the wargames too and has a massive crush on Harriet as part of their fantasy world. Harriet the best friend of Bobbi, she is the one the guys both fancy and she knows how to look after her clients. Mr Parsons is the man that wants Trevor out of the allotment because he never looks after his plot like the rest of the residents. Doc is one of the residents that does seem to be ready for the end of the world, as he is found cutting them down through the film.

Performances – Spencer Brown is our main star which he does make the most of showing the evolution of his character. Lauren Socha, Ewen MacIntosh and Emily Booth bring the grounded characters to life, while the horror icons, Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley and Michael Berryman get the horror moments in the film.

Story – The story here follows a slacker that must take responsibility once a zombie apocalypse starts outside his allotment shed. This story does continue to build on the ever-increasing amount of films that use (Location) of the Dead to bring to life a new idea for a horror comedy story. this does work because it pushes our character into needing to focus on taking life more serious even if it means the end of the world will make it happen. When it comes to how the story unfolds, it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, we can almost use the checklist of how everything unfolds too. The weakness in the story turns to sex-based jokes or references or dreams which just gets turned to when the story feels like it has run out of ideas.

Comedy/Horror – The comedy in the film does work in places, only a lot comedy ends up turning to sexual fantasy instead of focusing on the story unfolding, while the horror elements of the film target the idea of a zombie outbreak with different creation of zombies.

Settings – The film uses the allotment shed as one of the main locations, only we don’t stay head long enough to get the most out of the idea in the title.

Special Effects – The effects in the film are strong, be it the make up for the zombies or the created fantasy world the characters sometimes turn to.