Zombie movies came back in fashion last year, and it’s about time they go away again … at least for a little while. After all, there’s only so much you can do with the curiously limiting conventions of the genre. That said, I can’t think of a better way to rebury the dead than by taking the piss out of them like they do in the rom-zom-com (romantic-zombie-comedy) “Shaun of the Dead,” starring Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the script, and a hilarious Nick Frost as two North London idlers forced to take up arms, er, cricket bats and shovels, against an army of flesh-eating, animated corpses. In paying tribute to George Romero and the campy gore-fests he popularized in such classics as “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead,” Pegg and director/co-writer Edgar Wright also give a nod to the warm and fuzzy British comedies of Richard Curtis (“Notting Hill,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral”). The incongruous clash of styles works surprisingly well. That being said, “Shaun of the Dead” fares better in the beginning when Pegg and Frost are simply zombie-bashing, than it does at the end, when Shaun (Pegg) gets a bit too sappy while patching things up with his girlfriend (Kate Ashfield) and stepfather (Bill Nighy).
The cast is spot-on, and the film boasts several riotously funny set pieces, most notably one in which Shaun and his crew pretend to be zombies in attempts to fool their would-be consumers. It’s a wonder none of Romero’s heroes ever thought of that. (Rated R for zombie violence/gore and language. Running time: 99 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 24, 2004. Read the original PDF.