Finally, a must-see zombie flick

The phrase “zombie movie” typically provokes two opposite responses – either “zombie movie, cool, I can’t wait to see it” or “zombie movie, ugh, you couldn’t pay me to see it.”

“Shaun of the Dead,” a British import, may be just the film to bridge those two poles because it isn’t just a great zombie movie, it’s a great movie that happens to have zombies in it.

One of the gags running through the first half of this very funny flick is that the title character – an adrift slacker named Shaun who’s on the threshold of 30 – is so fixated on fretting over the dissembling, disheveled state of his life that he walks right by the gathering horde of zombies without even noticing them. For that matter, you’re not sure at first if the lurching figures in the background are zombies or just people having a really bad day.

But eventually, it becomes clear to everyone that London is being overrun by zombies driven to feed on the flesh of the living – you know, zombie stuff. But by then, you’ve been completely drawn into the lives of Shaun (Simon Pegg, who also co-wrote the screenplay), his slovenly alter-ego Ed (Nick Frost), his long-suffering girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), his devoted mother and his detested stepdad (played by British theater veterans Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy).

You care about and understand Shaun. You see how torn he is between holding onto his childhood (as represented by his video game-playing buddy Ed) and embracing adulthood (as represented by his wants-a-decent-life girlfriend Liz). So the zombies, when they come, don’t take over the movie. They intensify it.

When the undead threaten the people he loves, Shaun abandons his angst and starts taking action. (You can imagine some parents wishing for a minor zombie invasion to jumpstart their kids after seeing this movie.) As a result, this silly spoof ends up being one of the smartest, most emotionally resonant movies of the year.

Just as an example: There is the scene between Shaun and his stepfather. Up to that point, all you’ve heard from Shaun is what an insufferable jerk this guy is. And then, in the midst of a zombie swarm, his stepdad breaks down and tells Shaun that he’s always tried to do the best he could for Shaun and that he loves him.

And just like that, boom. You see the shock and sadness sweep across Shaun’s face as he realizes that all this time he’s been wrong, that he’s never understood this man who’s the only father he’s ever known and that now that he does understand, it’s too late.

But if stuff like deep, true emotions aren’t your brand of entertainment, “Shaun of the Dead” is also knock-down, laugh-out-loud funny.

This is a movie made for the DVD generation; it is designed to reward repeated, scrutinized viewings. There are layers upon layers of jokes and references, many of which aren’t obvious until you watch the film again.

All sorts of people in the first half of the movie, for example, end up being zombies in the second half, which makes their first-half human appearances really funny once you know that they’re going to end up being zombies.

This movie is destined for cult greatness. See it now and you can say – honestly, for once - that you were there in the beginning.