Shaun (Pegg) has the usual late-twenties problems. His job is crap. His girlfriend Liz (Ashfield) is perilously close to dumping him. His best friend, Ed (Frost) is a social liability. And, while he hasn't been paying attention, the recently deceased are coming back to life for a spot of blood-letting mayhem.

There's an odd tone to Shaun of the Dead which is very appealing - yes, it's a zombie movie, with all the splatter and elimination-ofcast- members that this implies, but, despite the in-jokes to the Raimi and Romero classics of the genre, it's not just a spoof. You genuinely care about all the characters - yes, Ed may be uncouth, impolite and odorous, but you very quickly understand why Shaun remains his best friend. Somehow this enhances the comedy in the film - you can be laughing at some grotesque splatter one minute, then laughing at the ridiculously true-to-life relationships between the characters the next minute. It's a difficult thing to maintain - take it too seriously, and the zombie threat would become ridiculously incongruous; not seriously enough and it'd become a cartoon - but somehow Shaun manages to pull it off wonderfully.