I started watching Shaun of the Dead this past weekend and got about one hour in before I had to turn it off and go somewhere. I just finished it tonight. I’m not much of a horror fan, and I really haven’t seen any zombie flicks either. But this particular movie had a kind of buzz about it and everyone who had seen it recommended it to me.

Oh, and there was someone at CONvergence in a Shaun costume, cricket bat and all. So that’s gotta be a good sign, right?

I popped it in with really no expectations at all. Within a few seconds I realized that it had been made in the UK. That was a good sign. I’m a big fan of British humor, and what American doesn’t like British accents?

Even though I haven’t seen a lot of the classic zombie movies, like Dawn of the Dead, Army of Darkness (Hail to the king, baby.), or even Dawn of the Dead.

(Actually, I did start watching Army of Darkness once. It was with a girlfriend in high school. But the tape we had rented was bad and we were only able to watch the first little bit. This is the same girlfriend that I started to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas with but never finished because she was in so much discomfort from getting her wisdom teeth out. I still haven’t seen that movie either.)

Anyway, I hadn’t seen any of the classics, but I had read enough to know some of the cliches and such. There were many tributes to the classics in Shaun of the Dead. And I liked all of the characters, even the annoying ones. Shaun was excellent and pretty cool. All of the main characters worked well together, they all seemed to have good chemistry. Even the “bad” relationships were good, they seemed to be genuinely bad instead of just forced acting. (see Star Wars Episodes II and III love interest sub-plot)

So there was a nice, light, British humor through the whole film. Enough tension so that you didn’t know who was going to make it. A disbowlment. And plenty of lumbering zombies lusting for brains. All in all an entertaining movie.