Best film this year!

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2004)

First of all, the only reason I went to watch this film was because a couple of my friends recommended it heartily; that's a sign of a great film, advertisement via word of mouth. Suffice to say, it's one of the best zombie/horror films in recent memory.
Shaun (Simon Pegg of 'Spaced' fame in superb form) is a salesperson who lives with his two mates, one (Ed) a dole hungry/lazy slob, the other (Pete) an old student friend who has a steady job. Through the film Shaun has to come to terms with responsibility and maturity ranging from relationships with his girlfriend, accepting his stepfather as a parent and person and getting a hold of his non-existent social life; all he does is spend his entire time either with Ed in the Winchester (his local) or play PlayStation games, again with Ed. In fact his dead-end 9 to 5 job routine resembles one that of a zombie, we see when he wakes up, the camera pan up from his lumbering feet to his zombie-like yawning (or should that be groaning) that he has to do this every day. This can be seen in others throughout the film, everyone is in sync, doing more or less the same things at the same time, probably for as long as they can remember. They've programmed themselves to do the every day ritual of waking up and heading of to work to an extent that we can see the film's social commentary shining through, everyone more or less, in the real world is a zombie. That's the first half of the film; the second half is where we see the actual zombies, especially (and surprisingly for a 15 rated film) plenty of stomach churning gore; *spoiler (of sorts), especially when David is ripped to pieces*. I'll round things of by saying that this is a film which manages to add plenty of laughter, romance, social commentary, the issues of responsibility added with dealing with growing up, and by mixing it with the backdrop of a zombie film, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright have created a gem of a masterpiece! Highly recommended!