Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead is a cute, successful zombie spoof built on a central joke: if the undead actually came to London, supposedly turned-on town of nattering youth, no one would really notice.

It may only be April, but what we have here is pretty likely to be the British comedy of the year, its knockout final punchline planting a silly grin on your face that takes some while to fade.

Despite the emphasis on humour, Shaun shows its zombie movie credentials with some impressively gory special effects makeup and a willingness to despatch cast members in an exceptionally gruesome fashion.

Some scenes are too talky, too much like a sitcom, but whenever that threatens to sink the film, the zombies appear and save the day (if you see what I mean).

Mixing horror and humor is no mean feat, but Shaun Of The Dead tightens throats in fear without making the laughs stick there in the process.

The pasty, scruffy Pegg shows a surprising amount of range for the unlikely hero of a zombie flick.

Co-written by Pegg and Wright (Baby Driver), Shaun of the Dead is a cult classic hailed as one of the best movies of the decade and top horror films ever.

It’s very rare that I can call satirical comedies as effective as the films they’re parodying, but Shaun of the Dead is one of the exceptions.

The fact that Shaun of the Dead is first and foremost a zombie film allows it to endure as one of the more memorable entries in a horror subgenre it could’ve simply parodied...but it also fully embodies all three elements of its “zom-rom-com” designation.

Twenty years after its release, Shaun of the Dead remains a joyfully silly showcase for director Edgar Wright’s hyperkinetic visual style. It’s also unsettlingly prescient.