Starring: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Jessica Stevenson, Peter Serafinowicz, Rafe Spall
Review: Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a 30-something loser with a dull, easy existence. When he's not working at the electronics store, he lives with his slovenly best friend, Ed (Nick Frost), in a small flat on the outskirts of London. The only unpredictable element in his life is his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), who wishes desperately for Shaun to grow up and be a man. When the town is inexplicably overrun with zombies, Shaun must rise to the occasion and protect both Liz and his mother (Penelope Wilton).
Shaun of the Dead is a film that perfectly fuses the horror genre and the comedy genre, and the result is a hilarious, silly, yet suspenseful film. This film is a spoof on the sometimes formulaic zombie film, where in this case, our two goofy protagonists are taken aback when their London neighborhood is overrun by blood-thirsty zombies that they originally mistake for drunk people. Before Shaun and Ed go into survival mode, there's a hilarious period of time where signs of the zombie invasion are all around them, but they are either too drunk or too stupid to notice. This initial silliness makes these characters relatable, as I don't think any of us average joes are ever truly prepared for the possibility of a zombie apocalypse actually coming to fruition. Shaun and Ed use everything under the sun to fight their way through the zombie mayhem from throwing records like sharp frisbees, poorly shooting antique shotguns, and beating them to death with cricket bats. There's a love story at play as well as Shaun aims to prove to Liz once and for all that he can be a man and step up to the plate in a time of need. Shaun of the Dead is an incredibly fun horror film with a bromance, a romance, and several intense moments where all of the characters fighting to survive are at risk of succumbing to the mass of undead Londoners. If you're ever caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, watch this movie as sort of a guide on what not to do in this type of situation. And even if you never find yourself in a zombie apocalypse, you should still watch this witty horror-comedy to experience one hour and 40 minutes of non-stop laughter!
Fun Fact: George A. Romero, creator of the films to which this movie pays homage and lampoons, was so impressed with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's work that he asked them to cameo in Land of the Dead (2005) as zombies.