Before we even knew there was such a thing as the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’, there was just…Shaun of the Dead, a remarkably fresh, funny and surprisingly sweet take on the zombie genre unlike any we had seen before. Along with Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later – yeah, we know, not a real zombie movie – it helped reignite interest in the brainless ghouls known as zombies, and the undead are still rockin’ and rollin’ to this day.
Coming from the British trio of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Shaun was a continuation of sorts of the splendid U.K. comedy series Spaced, which was pretty much an unknown commodity at that point for most of us. Shaun was a genre fan’s dream, and it seemed like a very tough movie to top, so the pressure was on Edgar Wright and friends to follow it up with a sequel that showed the same love and affection for another genre entirely – buddy cop action!
Subsequently, Wright thankfully did not suffer a feature film sophomore jinx, instead picking up right where he and his friends left off. Released a few years later, the action-comedy Hot Fuzz proved that lightning could strike twice. Using many of the same faces, the same techniques, even some of the same jokes, Hot Fuzz was a truly unique follow-up; almost a sequel, stylistically, yet entirely its own movie with several new tricks up its sleeve. Now, a favorite past-time for some movie geeks is trying to decide which is the superior film from the first two movies at least, as while At World’s End has its fans it can’t even try to compete with the Shaun or Hot Fuzz. While there is no definitive answer, we’re going to give it a go, so grab a pint, a Cornetto and settle in as we attempt to pit two near perfect movies against each other, Shaun of the Dead vs Hot Fuzz, in this edition of FACE-OFF!
This episode was written by Eric Walkuski, narrated by Shawn Knippelberg, edited by Ric Solomon and produced by both Adam Walton and Chris Bumbray, while Berge Garabedian is executive producer.