Rarely have I been so excited to see a film, then so disappointed to hear the reviews of it (both professional and anecdotal), then so delighted with the film itself. This is exactly the progression I experienced with Shaun of the Dead, and I have to say I'm baffled that people don't like this film. Sure, it's darker than I expected, but it's phenomenally funny, original, and just messed up enough to haunt you a bit—in a good way—mostly. Directed by Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead seems to be just as much about everyday trials and minutiae as it is about an epidemic of dead people who eat the living. It's like Monty Python combined with George Romero combined with The Office. (Incidentally, the film also features Lucy Davis, known to fans of The Office as receptionist Dawn Tinsley.)

The film opens with a montage of mundane city scenes, showing people standing in line, riding on the bus, and generally looking like zombies already. This sets the stage for our introduction to 29-year-old Shaun, who works as an assistant manager in an electronics store and is mercilessly ridiculed by his teenaged coworkers. He means well but just can't get his life together. He keeps forgetting to visit his mother, and his girlfriend Liz breaks up with him because he takes her to the same pub every night, even on their 3-year anniversary. Shaun needs something to jolt him out of his rut. And when you think about it, what better motivator could there be than a worldwide zombie apocalypse?

For a long time, Shaun's bumbling obliviousness prevents him from seeing what's going on around him. He passes familiar faces in the street but doesn't notice that they're zombies. He goes into the corner store for his morning beverage and doesn't notice the huge bloody handprint on the freezer case glass. It's 40 minutes into the film before Shaun and his slacker friend Ed finally realize that something has gone "a bit pearshaped" with the world. This doesn't occur until they see a zombie girl in their yard, and even then, they think she's just drunk. It's when she improbably survives being impaled on a drain spout that they get spooked, and by then there's a second zombie in the yard. So with a kind of confused resourcefulness that they display throughout the film, the two young men drag out a box of records and begin pelting the zombies with them, all the while having a hilarious discussion about which ones should be saved (hint: Dire Straits, Purple Rain, and Sade do not make the cut). Once they have dispatched the zombies, Shaun formulates a plan to rescue his mother and ex-girlfriend from their respective homes and take them back to his favorite pub. Their only conscious rationale for choosing the pub as a refuge is that it's familiar, it has heavy bolt doors, and Ed can smoke there. They have not thought it out any further, a problem that becomes immediately apparent once the group is assembled in the pub, eating peanuts in the dark. This is where things get weird. This is where we see a bizarre, choreographed fight scene (to the cheerful strains of Queen, no less) spliced with moments of intense pathos. This is where we hear a lot of impeccably articulated profanity. And this is where we get some lethal doses of classic British humor, humor that is so arid it makes the Sahara look like an ideal setting for hydroponics research.

One caveat: When the annoying, supercilious guy is dragged out into the street by a coterie of zombie raiders, you should probably close your eyes. Trust me on this: just keep 'em closed until the dude stops screaming. You'll sleep better at night.

Nick Frost as Shaun's friend Ed is hilarious. He's a beer-bonging, Playstation-doting, ambitionless sloth for whom properly timed bodily emanations are the ultimate art form. He's a buffoon, but he's ultra-likable. One of my favorite moments (and one that I think is representative of the film as a whole) occurs when the zombies are actively trying to break into the pub. Ed notices that their peevish flatmate Pete is among the ranks of the undead attackers, and he's so delighted that he can't help dragging Pete inside to show his best friend. "Hey Shaun!" he says with a laugh, his arm draped around the zombie's shoulders. "Look who it is!"

How can you not love a guy like this? How can you not love a movie like this?