The first good parody movie in years

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2010)

Since Mel Brooks' days of satire, parody as a genre has been just about limited to the mass-produced "from the makers of Scary Movie" films - in which scenes from the films they parody are re-staged, but with groin kicks and fart jokes.
Shaun of the Dead, rather, brings parody back to life by playing around with the genre it parodies. In this treatment of the zombie movie, the main characters barely notice anything's changed - why would they, when there's issues with the landlord, the girlfriend, and the stepdad? It's only when someone's about to have a bite taken out of them that anyone reacts to the oncoming apocalypse.
The reason Shaun of the Dead works is that instead of just looking for holes in movies to make fun of, it presents itself as just another one of the movies that it parodies. And with the comedies Hot Fuzz and Spaced under their belts, I can say that Edgar Wright, his cast, and crew are the most competent satirists of the past decade.