Night of the living British people

While the title of the film immediately suggests a zombie spoof flick, "Shaun of the Dead" is more on par with a Mel Brooks movie than another installment of "Scary Movie." With the use of freaky zombie makeup, achingly-humorous episodes and even a few dramatic moments, this film is a surprisingly-original parody. \nShaun (Simon Pegg, who also co-wrote the script with director Edgar Wright) is a lazy 29-year-old who is stuck in a dead-end job, lives with his fat weed-dealer-who-never-has-weed bum of a flatmate and does not appreciate his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield). He spends most of his time playing video games and hanging out at his favorite pub, the Winchester, which his girlfriend hates. And so she eventually breaks up with him. All the while strange things are happening in Shaun's small British town. Blood-stained people are slowly limping through the streets, and Shaun ignores every possible sign of this. In fact, when he and his flatmate Ed (Nick Frost) see a zombie in their backyard, they just assume she is a wandering drunk and take funny pictures of her. \nThe two blunderheads soon catch on and figure out a way to stop the zombies: by throwing records at them. With this realization Shaun takes over. Using a cricket stick as a weapon, he gathers Ed, his mother, his girlfriend, her flatmate and her flatmate's nerdy boyfriend and takes them all to his favorite pub. At one point they all do their best zombie impressions and walk unnoticed through a huge crowd of undead, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it. This is one of many references to George Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead" and its successors.\nLike most zombie flicks, "Shaun of the Dead" has little in the way of a plot. Zombies are attacking, and Shaun must save the day while winning back his girlfriend and bringing flowers to his mother. Simple enough, but the characters and their humor make this film. The jokes and accents are somewhat reminiscent of Guy Ritchie's first two films. \nWhereas Romero's films center on the killing of the zombies and sacrifice character development, "Shaun of the Dead" goes beyond the horror and gives us a good sense of these characters. It puts an original, modern spin on a classic genre, and its humor makes it worthy of parodying the zombie genre.