Shaun of the Dead
"You've got red on you"
It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that Shaun of the Dead is my top film for 2004. I've mentioned my love for it many times in this space. Hell, Google should be giving me kickbacks for all the times I've embedded the trailer. This is the film that introduced me to the greatness that is Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, a love that has never waned.
I'll never forget my excitement at hearing about Shaun of the Dead and seeing the trailer. I was in the early stages of my horror fandom. I only started watching them actively my junior year of high school and I was in the process of filling in all the classics I'd missed out on. In fact, I'd only just seen the original Dawn of the Dead a few months before Shaun came out. All summer long, while I was back home from college I watched the trailer online, frequently dragging family members to the basement to watch with me. Two jokes that stood out to me at the time were the throwing of records in effort to try to fend of attacking zombies (er... zed-words) and when they accidentally hit the man with the car and return to see if he's OK. Yeah... this was my kind of movie.
I saw it three times in the theater with different people (one of whom was my dad who also went to see Saw with me, which did not live up to expectation), much like I would later do with Hot Fuzz. Shaun is the perfect parody where the film stands alone even if you don't get the references, but the references are there if you love zombie movies ("We're coming to get you, Barbara" is the most obvious example of this). Shaun doesn't skimp on the gore, but keeps the funny coming and all of the characters are immensely likable. In fact, the characters are incredibly well drawn, which is rare for both horror movies and comedies. Perhaps in further support that this film is for everyone, it was billed as a rom-com-zom, or a romantic comedy with zombies.
The film also introduced me to Peter Serafinowicz (who follows me on Twitter even though I don't post much anymore) and Kate Ashfield. The former is notable now because he's in Running Wilde, but he is one of the funniest individuals in the world and is an amazing mimic:
As for Kate Ashfield, I've never seen her in anything else that I know of, but every time I watch Shaun of the Dead, I fall a little bit in love with her, especially the way she ends her phone message with a "Bye bye bye" (in order for it to not seem like an N*Sync song, you'll just have to watch the scene).
And just so you know what Shaun of the Dead beat out: The Incredibles, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and A Tale of Two Sisters. A pretty amazing list of films (a slight dip in quality follows the fifth spot).
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