Low budget Brit horror-satire which works better than you might expect.

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2005)

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a slacker manager of a small London electrical store whose domestic life of old sofas, drink and video games leads him to lose his blonde girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield). Can an unexplained plague of zombies be the catalyst for winning her back?
A rare British comedy that was a hit both sides of the Atlantic - although it is one of those movies that you feel like you have watched after the 3 min trailer!
There are some movies that have the word "cult" written all over them from the opening scenes - this is one such case. Indeed this is a wonderful example of what you can do with a low budget and some good comedy performances, movie references and a couple of sets.
The concept is simple: Slackers have the chance to redeem themselves through outrageous circumstances and people that we/they don't like get the rough end of poetic justice. Hardly original, but very much tried and tested.
Strangely for a comedy this doesn't have a ton of laughs in it (more guffaws really) and often relies on uses of bizarre devices to get out of difficult situations: Cricket bat, shot gun, Prince records, etc.
Like many comedies you actually like, there isn't a lot to it. Set up, problem, problem solved (or not solved). Take the zombie element out and you could run this as a rom-com about relationships. This is no surprise as the writers have been brought up on it.
The in-jokes fly and while most are featured in the trivia column there are one or two that I spotted that are not present: The monkey impression gag comes from Pegg's sketch show past (We Know Where You live) where if silence reigned he would get up on the table and impersonate a monkey!
(You had to see it to understand.)
The greatest victory for Shaun of the Dead is that it injects some pace and drive in to the thing.They have learnt from Guy Richie about doing flash-pans,fantasy (that you think is real), double/treble takes (plan one, plan two, reality).
The best thing about it is that it knows how long it can stay on the screen and how long you can string it out. Let us cheer a movie that has plenty of black comedy moments and knows when to sit down and let the credits play.