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“Shaun of the Dead” delivers plenty of gore, giggles

Legend has it that “Shaun of the Dead,” the brilliant feature-film debut of director Edgar Wright, was the first “rom zom com.”

That is, a romantic zombie comedy. The holy triumvirate of heartfelt personal growth, buddy-movie style laughs, and hordes of undead corpses hungry for human flesh.

Simon Pegg plays Shaun, an affable young man going through life in a deadened daze. He schleps household appliances at his dead-end job, plays video games with his best mate Ed and ends every evening at The Winchester pub, pounding pints as Ed (Nick Frost) does his best “Every Which Way But Loose” impression.

Shaun sees nothing wrong with this routine lifestyle, but his long-time girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), does. She dumps him.

After another long, drunken night at the Winchester, Shaun realizes she’s right.

Unfortunately our hero comes to this realization at the very moment that armies of the undead are swarming England. As he struggles to win back his woman and reconcile his relationship with his remarried mom, he and Ed are forced to battle a zombie outbreak armed only with a shovel, a cricket bat and their own ingenuity.

“Shaun of the Dead” mixes genres with a cheerful abandon, blending the best of tongue-in-cheek British comedy and American horror classics like George Romero’s immortal “Dead” trilogy. It’s daringly funny, with all the gleeful gore of a “Dead Alive” or an “Evil Dead.”

At the same time, “Shaun” seems to improve on Judd Apatow’s patented formula of tempering sass with sweetness. These characters — played by a uniformly excellent cast — actually grow and change. Self-realization? In a zombie movie? Who’da thunk it?!?

See “Shaun of the Dead” tonight at The Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo. Showtimes are 7 and 9:15 p.m.

Tickets are $7.50.

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Photo courtesy of MovieWeb.com.