Abbott & Costello meet Romero & Jackson  Cult Classic in the making.

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2004)

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) ***1/2
Horror and comedy have been going hand-in-hand ever since Abbott & Costello met Frankenstein over 50 years ago and this latest installment of the you've-got-your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter genre splicing from the Brits is a laugh riot shockfest the likes not seen since George A.Romero's 'Living Dead' films and the early splatter fests of Peter Jackson.
Set in a rural London burg of overcast skies and proletariat listlessness the film begins with our unlikely hero and slayer of zombies in the pasty skinned form of Shaun (Pegg who resembles Mike White, Jack Black's roomie in 'School of Rock'), an electronics store clerk who seems stunted at the age of 29 going on 13, or so his out-of-his-league pretty girlfriend Liz (the fetching Ashfield) feels as she confronts him one night in his fave pub hangout The Winchester. Liz's long-suffering has come to a head and more-or-less expects some drastic changes if Shaun is to be part of her life, namely his pot-smoking lifelong chum and flatmate Ed (Frost who resembles fellow countryman Mark Addy of 'The Full Monty') whose only talent seems to be video games and taking up space. On hand for this revelation is Liz's pals Dianne and David (Davis and Moran, respectively her girlfriend and her unbeknownst would-be lover), a couple of acquaintance, who provide some moral support for the put-upon Liz.
Cut to Shaun's next morning ritual of sleep-walking thru his daily trek to his dead-end job making his rounds to the local bodega and taking in the equally dank and depressive working-class enclave. Unknowingly in the background are some tell-tale signs that something is amiss in the form of an unsettling plague suddenly overtaking the country with out-of-focus TVs in the background showing scattershot footage ofwell you know
Shaun forgets to make dinner reservations for Liz and himself and winds up on the skids with his lady love. Depressed he and Ed go to their watering hole for some soul searching and youth rekindling as they get pissed and rap to 'Whitelines' (in one of several truly funny sequences) as they head home.
The next morning Shaun goes thru his gimlet-eyed routine but there is definitely something wrong and what's so dead-on (puns more to come!) is director Wright (who makes a fine big-screen debut from a career in BBC TV programmes and co-wrote the scabrous ingenious screenplay with Pegg) accurately showing just how brain-dead life can be in the numbing daily constitutionals we take for granted replacing the monotony with monstrosity as a horde of zombies from some unknown viral infection spreads quickly as Shaun and his friends soon realize it's the end of the world as they know it!
Sprinkled with liberal amounts of humor  both scatological and witty in-the-know as well as slapstick  with horror (good amount of biting and one  of many  homage scenes to Romero involving a truly nasty buh-bye a la 'Dawn of the Dead') but not exactly wall-to-wall viscera (although the blood is by the buckets) but shares in spirit more closer to Jackson's 'DeadAlive' with its gonzo-style mix of murder and mayhem and a few echoes of Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead' Ash character and even Mike Leigh's too-true working stiffs of his oeuvre and Richard Curtis' smart veddy proper British romantic comedies a la 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.
Simon and Frost make a fine comic duo of not-so-dumb and dumber in their bonking on the beans of the undead as well as fine able ensemble including the pretty Ashfield as the slightly-believable gal pal (come on Shaun you're one lucky slag!) and Nighy , late of 'Love Actually', as his stepfather who endures some painful confessions.
The collaborators all have had some significant success across the pond and clearly have the chops in this valentine to the previously mentioned genres (Shaun's blithering mum is named Barbara a nod to Romero's heroine in 'Night of the Living Dead').
The film is riotously funny with sharp editing (lots of montages of items being quick-pan slapped about purpose) and a few startles prior to the onslaught that totally sets the mood of this cheeky and scary horror comedy with a surprisingly sweet chewy center. A cult classic in the making.