Mild-mannered Londoner Shaun (Simon Pegg) works in a high street store and likes to have a pint with his slobbish pal, Nick Frost
Mild-mannered Londoner Shaun (Simon Pegg) works in a high street store and likes to have a pint with his slobbish pal, Nick Frost. Then, when dead people start turning up as zombies, he thinks they're just binge drinkers suffering from a heavy night out!
This plays like a combination of The Office and Night of the Living Dead, with a strong slice of Assault on Precinct 13 thrown in for good measure. It may well be a one-joke movie, but it manages to make that joke stretch a very long way and helped make stars of both Pegg and Frost whose hilarious bromance is at the heart of the action.
Attempting to blend horror with comedy is no simple task, but director Edgar Wright keeps both the gore and the laughs flowing freely. If the film revels in its sheer goofiness - such as the moment the two protagonists attempt to stop a shambling zombie by throwing vinyl LPs at it - it also has moments that verge on the sublime, such as one character's description of the living dead as ‘Vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet’.
