Shaun of the Dead

Combining horror and romantic-comedy conventions, director Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg craft what they've dubbed a "rom-zom-com," a blisteringly satirical and giddily irreverent variation on the zombie apocalypse narrative. The British film focuses on Shaun (Pegg), a loveable loser torn between his loyalty to his pot-dealing roommate, Ed (Nick Frost), and his love for his exasperated girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), who desperately wants him to mature. But Shaun's man-child issues take a backseat when the world is turned upside down by a sweeping epidemic that transforms the common denizens of his town into shuffling cannibals. Taking the opportunity to prove to his worth, Shaun, accompanied by Ed, braves the zombie-strewn streets to get the girl and save the day the best way he knows how—by holing up in his favorite pub. Wright and Pegg wring comedy out of chaos as their unlikely heroes battle the undead with anything handy, from cricket bats to umbrellas to not-so-treasured LPs. Full of pop-culture references, including nods to cult-adored zombie flicks and Wright and Pegg's TV series Spaced, Shaun balances death and gore with biting humor to a create an inventive and thoroughly entertaining film that is sidesplitting, terror-inducing, and heartbreaking in turn.