British Zombie Drama at its politetest. And rather bloody hells-eist, with a spot of humor to boot. Starting out as a rather droll drama that is fortunately severely improved by a breakout of zombies and the gory tragedy that it inevitably provides. It’s rather sad when it’s hard to tell between normal life and zombie life.
Shaun is just living life, going through the motions with his flatmates and growingly unhappy girlfriend. Things go from bad to worse when She finally tells him to bugger off. And then, what appears to be a zombie apocalypse outbreak. Bad timing. Or is it? The Winchester Tavern is both the cause of and solution to all problems! But mostly the cause, it as a solution is actually quite shite. With Queen, zombies and drama all thrown into the mix, not necessarily in that order.
This is a nice amalgamation of relationship drama and zombie chompings rolled into one amusing British breakfast burrito, which for them is basically just, like, runny eggs on some toast. Friends and girlfriends and family are all represented, mostly in rather sad ways but told through a darkly humorous lens. Adding zombies to it is like bacon-bits, because everyone knows bacon makes things better. Definitely a side of ham, too. But in a good way. Great mix of drama, horror and comedy here, carrying on what some of the main stars and director started with the British television series “Spaced.” Simon Pegg does excellent as the main slacker protagonist needing some extra motivation to take the next step in life, and Nick Frost as his buddy kinda but yeah holding him back. Can’t say it’s the most realistic resolution to the story, but good enough. Nice modern addition to the zombie lore before a huge wave deluged it to overload territory in the coming years (I’m lookin at you, Walking Dead, or “How to Make Zombies Boringer than Biscuits”). This is the first film in Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy” followed by the very entertaining Hot Fuzz and finished with the not-quite-entertaining The World’s End. See the DMR reviews on those for a further dissection of each.
