Just saw Shaun of the Dead.

Yes, it came out in 2004 - I realize that.

But the simple fact is, I haven’t been watching a lot of movies lately, besides the G-rated fare mentioned in a previous entry. Lately, however (and well into the wee hours of the night, mind you), I’ve been on a bit of a slasher movie bender. Slasher movies and zombie movies that is… Actually, zombie movies and British comedies.

So the time was more than ripe, over-ripe, gone soft like the caved-in head of the walking dead, to finally experience the brilliant Shaun of the Dead. Fresh meat from writer/director Edgar Wright, and writer/star Simon Pegg, the team behind the cult series “Spaced” (which I watched all 14 episodes of, in the 2 nights leading up to my home video premiere of SotD), it was more than I’d hoped.

I’d just been telling my wife, as well as another equally disinterested party, that the reason George Romero’s movies work so well is that they’re not “about” zombies. They’re about people, and how they behave or misbehave when faced with an extreme, end-of-the-world-style crisis. I’d been musing about this for some time, but I was inspired to share it after seeing the very satisfying Land of the Dead, Romero’s latest installment of a series that began with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead.

On that count, Shaun of the Dead amply delivers. It is, like the best, a story not about zombies, but about people. However, in this case, the people are losers. Although Great Britain can lay no exclusive claim to this particular brand of dead-end loser, its “pub culture” is a perfect petri dish. Like a Montana meth den, only slower.

Losers though they may be, they are charming and (mostly) likable characters, and very true-to-life, right down to Shaun’s mum - who’s one of the disturbingly realistic elements that keeps the humor from becoming too absurd and the knife’s edge on the zombie mayhem. This is the only zombie movie I’ve ever seen that I will likely (and with futile insistence) recommend to my wife.

PS: yes I am aware of the typo in the title… of course it should read Teh. Best. Zombie. Movie. Evar.

PPS: and yes, I’m looking forward to Hot Fuzz, but I’d feel unpatriotic to see it before I get around to seeing Reno 911: Miami. Who’s up for a double feature? (you drive).