The British horror comedy Shaun of the Dead bills itself as a romantic comedy with zombies.
It's an ideal description because the flick succeeds in being as much homage to British romantic comedies like Love Actually as it is to zombie classics like Night of the Living Dead.
Before the dead begin walking, Shaun plays out like an episode of the British TV series Couples or one of the bittersweet entanglements in Love Actually.
Shaun (Simon Pegg) is an electronics store clerk who is as bored with his social life as he is with his dead-end job.
His idea of a night out is downing pints of beer at the local pub with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), and her best friends, Diane (Lucy Davis) and David (Dylan Moran).
Shaun is so clueless he can't see that Diane has a crush on him and that David is madly in love with Liz.
Everyone except Shaun is fed up with the boorish antics of the group's fifth wheel, Shaun's obnoxious roommate Ed (Nick Frost).
In fact, when we follow Shaun through a day in his life, we see that he, his neighbours and co-workers function like zombies.
They shuffle aimlessly through life, so it's no wonder Shaun doesn't realize London has been stricken with a plague that really does turn people into walking corpses.
The genius of Shaun of the Dead is that it makes the transition from comedy to parody to gross-out horror so seamlessly.
The actual switch involves a couple who are necking outside Shaun's favourite pub when he enters, but devouring one another as he exits.
It's a moment that triggers a barrage of great laughs and some thrills before it dawns on Shaun and Ed that they've woken up in a nightmare inspired by George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.
At this point, the movie begins functioning like a serious zombie flick.
Shaun and Ed have to become heroes for the first time in their lives, rescuing Liz, David and Diane, as well as Shaun's mom and stepfather, who may or may not already be infected.
Like the legion of zombie hunters before them, Shaun and Ed discover they have to bash out the brains of their foes or sever the creatures' heads.
In true British spirit, Shaun uses a cricket bat.
In American zombie flicks, the heroes head for shopping malls or churches as a refuge.
Not these intrepid Brits.
They go to the pub like they always have, where they know there will be beer and snacks.
The final third of Shaun gets pretty gory, then attempts to redeem itself with an epilogue that returns it to the film's original spirit.
Shaun of the Dead has earned lavish praise from such people as Peter Jackson, Stephen King, Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro and even Romero himself.
It's not nearly as flawless, clever and scary as they'd have us believe, but it is most certainly a diverting little horror romp worth catching.
It definitely puts its creators, Pegg and Edgar Wright, on the radar as filmmakers to watch.
(This film is rated 18-A)
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