Simon Pegg, a comic cult figure in England, co-wrote and stars as Shaun, a pleasant, unambitious assistant manager at an appliance store in working-class North London. When not shackled to his job, he and his slovenly roommate Ed (Nick Frost) spend all their spare time drinking at their local pub, the Winchester. As the story opens, Shaun's exasperated girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), breaks off their relationship because Shaun can't rise above his alcoholic lethargy to take her out to dinner for their third anniversary as a couple.

While this is unfolding, we see that the background figures and passers-by on the street have overnight become classic Romero-style zombies, but Shaun and Ed are so engrossed in their trivial, beer-sodden lives that they have yet to notice.

There's snazzy camera work from the Guy Ritchie school of cinematography, a torrent of snappy dialogue (most of it shrieked at terror volume), and bang-on supporting performances from the likes of Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy, who play Shaun's dim-bulb mother and hostile step-father. The script's broadest target is modern pop culture - the 500-channel universe, video games, hit-parade music, junk food, among other totems - and the jokes fly fast. Throughout there's one great tune after another, although the movie also manages to take the mickey out of twee music buffs like Nick Hornby.