Non-stop hilarity, absolutely brilliant

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2009)

Meet Shaun. He's kind of stuck in a boring job, his best friend's a bit childish, his girlfriend is on the verge of leaving him, and he's not his father... sorry, *step* dad's biggest fan. Oh, also, the walking dead(we don't use the zed-word!) just attacked where he lives. In this pastiche of the horror genre, there are actually proper scares, terrifying sequences and well-established creepy atmosphere. The laughs are the main point, and this does garner a ton of them, with cleverness, black and/or British humor, *incredible* subtlety, silliness and satire. This moves a mile a minute, with excellent pacing, never overstimulating, and slowing down here and there, occasionally including some impeccably genuine, true and heartfelt drama and back-story. The characters are credible, well-written and fleshed(pun intended) out very nicely. This is dense with detail, and warrants re-watching. The actors have definite talent(nearly every performance is flawless), in addition to being *extremely* funny. Pegg, Ashfield, Frost, Nighy, etc., all of them, astounding in both respects. I'm rather impressed that the transition from television(I have not yet been able to catch any of Spaced, but I certainly am intending to) went so smoothly and perfectly. Almost everything here works out. The editing and cinematography are marvelous. This is so packed with references to, and spoofs of, stuff in the flicks that inspired it. I implore you, make sure to have seen the George A. Romero's trilogy concerning the subject, as well as the three Evil Dead movies before this. Reservoir Dogs, too. The dialog is magnificent, well-delivered and utterly quotable. This has a great plot that develops well throughout. The special effects are amazing, completely convincing. There is frequent strong language, some disturbing content and a lot of bloody violence and gore in this. The DVD holds a commentary track by Simon and Edgar(do note that they cuss, and are in general... outspoken, in it) which is absolutely worth the time, deleted scenes with the option of hearing the thoughts behind cutting them, featurettes(a couple of them have pages here on the site, and I will review them there), outtakes, make-up tests, a SFX comparison production, trailers for the film and photo galleries. They're all well-produced. I recommend this to any fan of romantic comedies with zombies. 8/10