THREE FLAVOURS CORNETTO: Shaun of the Dead (2004), the first of three...

Arbitrary personal deadlines aside, over the next three days, an "extravaganza" of posts celebrating Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy will arise from my own vocabulary utilising the English language...

SHAUN OF THE DEAD prides itself on being a mix of romantic comedy and the more visceral staple of horror: zombies, and so it should.

The film that launched the trio of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost into the movie-making spotlight, it's sharp wit and wonderful homages to both genres on offer here is what keeps it relevant today, over a decade since it's release.

Pegg and Frost work and bounce dialogue off of each of so effortlessly with an endless stream of quirky jabs at each other and their surrounding environments that you could be forgiven for these characters being their actual respective persona. They serve as good company throughout the film's runtime, always welcoming what they have to say to the point where you'll be grinning hopelessly at the screen at everything, chuckling at the aforementioned punchy dialogue.

Leading onto the writing team of Wright and Pegg, the unconventional blending of comedy and horror not often seen up until that point in time is beyond refreshing. The often strict and fast pace that Shaun of the Dead handles creates this slap-happy and relentless combo that never lets up, with the surviving cast members holed up at the Winchester as quick as the outbreak starts. By no means bad, with the pace only reinforced by Wright's directorial trademarks lending to cinematography, several pans, snap zooms and dolly cams are peppered across this self-titled "rom-zom" film. 

As any self-respecting visceral zombie film, there is blood, and no shortage of it. The use of practical effects lends to the film's instinctive tone, but then with this, a man whom is attempting to gather focus in his life and revive his failing relationship. Liz first, zombies later, which comes as no surprise after learning that this film's inception came about due to Wright and Pegg, both finding that they had a mutual respect for zombies after an episode of Spaced handled a similar subject matter.

There is no words for how influential Shaun of the Dead was with it's release in the early 2000s, with the main proprietor of the zombie sub-genre George A. Romero asking Pegg and Frost to be apart of his then next film Land of the Dead... which ironically pales in comparison to this one. Whoops.