I remember standing in the driveway, waiting for my mother to come home. Clutched in my hand was my baggie of blood. And the razor blade I had swiped from the medicine cabinet and sandpapered dull. I was 12 and determined. Determined to see DAWN OF THE DEAD that hot summer day in ‘78.

The papers and late night TV ads stressed “No one under 18 will be admitted”. Well, mom didn’t have to know that. All she had to know was that if she didn’t take her son to the movies that night, he was gonna slit his wrist. Not for real, of course. But mom didn’t have to know that either…

As her Bonneville pulled up and she hopped out smiling, I made my way over. Her smile soon faded as I raised my left arm, put metal to flesh. “There’s this new horror movie, mom. The new Living Dead movie. You remember that one? That black and white zombie movie you didn’t like so much. They say this one is even gorier. We gotta go…”

The smile returned. A smile of relief. And I knew what she was thinking. That’s all this is. Just another monster movie the kid wants to see. Not a problem at school. Not a visitation with his father gone bad. Not drugs. Not alcohol. Just zombies. But she had to play along.

“What would Grandma say if she knew I took you to a movie like that?”

“Grandma won’t care. She took me to see THE OMEN and DAMIEN. Besides, if you don’t, I’ll kill myself.”

(Which was true, the Grandma part, that is. Grandma would take me to see anything ever since I went with her and Aunt Mary to see A STAR IS BORN- and pretended I liked it. Even learned the words to “Evergreen”, just for her.)

“I don’t know, Timmy. I’m kinda tired, and…”

That was it. I brought the blade across my wrist. Not close enough to really cut, like it warned in that Famous Monsters make-up manual, but close enough to look pretty damn rad when I squeezed the blood bag palmed in my hand, a sticky mixture of Mrs. Butterworth and red Tempura paint. That’ll work, I thought to myself, as I fell upon the gravel gurgling.

As always, it did, and Mom played her part perfectly. First shock, then anger, followed by laughter and applause. And a trip, of course, to DAWN OF THE DEAD.

That day was like many of my youth. But that night was not. It changed my life. Mom did, indeed, take me to see DAWN OF THE DEAD. The ticket taker merely smiled when we arrived, a mother and an obviously not 18-year-old son. She knew. He knew. He was kindred. He knew the solace to be found by a pre-teen boy in a darkened theater, absorbed by horrors I could fabricate and control- taking my mind off the ones I could not.

Yes, life and death were played out in films the likes of George Romero’s. But up till this moment they had mostly been shades of charcoal for me. That night, like Romero’s zombies themselves, my life went from black and white to color.

Yes, this one was gorier than the last. This was head blasting, neck biting, flesh ripping, gut eating, blood squibbing, wet bloody fun. This was the stuff that got a rise. The stuff that rebelled. The horror equivalent of rock and roll. The ultimate of the genre I loved. This is what I wanted to be and do. This was GOREGASM!

One month later I turned 13, but I became a teenager that night. Dad never was around to teach me about the meaning of life. But mom did the next best thing. She took me to see DAWN OF THE DEAD.

Metaphors and prose aside, DAWN OF THE DEAD is one of the main reasons why I do what I do. Making horror movies and writing about them. What better way to refuel that inspiration then with Anchor Bay’s unbelievably thorough and definitive four disc DVD box set of DAWN OF THE DEAD, recently released and featuring every cut imaginable of the film. It’s a labor of love from those guys at Anchor Bay, and I promise you- buy this box and you’ll never have to buy another edition of DOTD ever again! You will, however, most likely have to buy several editions over the next twenty years of a film which I know anybody reading this column has been waiting for with strong anticipation. You won’t be disappointed. That film is a little brother to DAWN, a valentine to its father, George, and a knowing wink to the many children, like you and I, that it has sired. I’m talking instant classic. I’m talking somewhere some kid is faking a slit wrist to get his mother to take him to see this. I’m talking true goregasm, folks. I’m talking SHAUN OF THE DEAD. And here, all the way from London to talk with me about DAWN and SHAUN, is its co-writer and director, a future Romero, Edgar Wright.

I don’t think anybody ever forgets their first time seeing DAWN OF THE DEAD. What was yours like?

Unbelievable. Even cut, it still that had impact on you.

Oh, totally. I think it’s because of the scope of it. It feels like an epic. It’s funny, I wanted to show it to my girlfriend, and it was a Sunday afternoon, and I said, “We should watch DAWN OF THE DEAD. It’s great. You’ll love it.” And she goes, “But it’s not really a Sunday film.” I said, “Well, you know, it kinda is like a great Sunday film, cuz it’s kinda like watching a great Western.” In terms of scope and how well drawn the characters are, DAWN OF THE DEAD is like a full meal! And for a horror film with a lot of carnage in it, you don’t want to see any of those four main characters die. Even Roger, who’s such an idiot, when he’s getting cocky with the zombies, you’re like, “Roger, man, watch out!” And I don’t think you can say the same of DAY, even though the effects are superior… I mean, the zombie carnage in the climax of DAY OF THE DEAD is unparalleled still… but in DAWN you really, really sympathize with the characters.

Which is very true of SHAUN as well. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe in midst of this crazy film called SHAUN OF THE DEAD, you’re actually wringing tears from my eyes. I was like, “Damn you, Edgar! Why did you have to take us there in the middle of this fun ride?” But I’m glad you did. That’s what makes it work.

Thanks, man. That’s really cool. You know, I’m a big fan of EVIL DEAD 2, a big fan of BRAIN DEAD, but the sense of humor in SHAUN is slightly different, and deliberately so, because we thought, you can’t top DEAD ALIVE. It’s impossible. That truly is the last word on splatsick. So we thought, let’s do something slightly different, more naturalistic, that takes place in a slightly more real world. I think if we hadn’t done that, then the whole thing would have been quite ephemeral and weightless. It would have been just a caper and that’s it. Because even though it’s a comedy, it’s still got elements of truth to it.

The kind of truth that leads to a film’s longevity, such as the case with DAWN.

Exactly. I don’t about in the US, but certainly in the UK, DOTD is completely underrated as a satire, you know, as a sociological film. It’s kinda like a black comedy about the end of the world, which is essentially the idea for SHAUN. And it’s just little things, great little touches like when they’ve finally got Utopia to themselves, and how quickly that falls apart. And that montage of Fran getting made up, Ken on the rooftop playing tennis, Roger getting delirious playing racing games. That whole scene at the bank with them walking down the divider rather than going straight to the teller. It’s truths like that, the fact that it finds time for so many great little moments, that makes it a proper American classic.

One of those proper American classics loaded with blood and guts!

Absolutely! (laughs)

SHAUN certainly has its fair share of Romero inspired gore. In keeping with the spirit of DAWN, did you solely use practical effects, or did you mix it up with CGI?

I was always very anti-digital, especially digital blood, until I saw BATTLE ROYALE, and then I thought, “Um… Okay”. So the idea of augmenting existing squibs, where there is already something shot practically on the set, and then making it bigger, you know, having sparks fly out of necks when people get shot, that appealed to me. After awhile, I would find myself in the editing room going, “That was really good, but the timing was a bit off. Can we take that squib and put it on that head?” There were also digital moments that as a technophobe, I wouldn’t have thought of, say, something like the LP scene, were Shaun’s throwing records at the zombies, that’s part physical effects and part digital. And that really came out of being on the set and thinking, “Fuck, this is gonna take 30 takes. We haven’t got the time, so let’s just go digital.” Being able to do that now is really great, and the guys at Double Negative, who did the digital stuff on SHAUN, did a fantastic job, and they were so cool with us because they realized what we were doing was a labor of love. They were doing big films at the time, RIDDICK and HARRY POTTER, and ours was something that the operators there really liked, almost like a little side project. So in between flying broomsticks and Vin Diesel, they’d explode some heads (laughs). They kicked ass, too. I defy people to spot which bits are digital and which bits aren’t.

Have any of the original DAWN OF THE DEAD actors seen SHAUN?

Ken Foree has seen it twice. Simon Pegg and I saw him at the San Diego Comic Con this past August. We didn’t know it, but Ken had been in London when it was released. And he was completely weirded out, because the posters for SHAUN OF THE DEAD were absolutely everywhere. And Ken, who had just been in the DAWN remake, was, “What the fuck is that?” And then he went to a convention in Birmingham, and three kids came dressed as Shaun, with the name tag, Foree Electric, on. And Ken’s sitting there going “Why have you got my name on your badge?” So at Comic Con, we saw Ken Foree, and he was signing autographs, and me and Simon were like, “Oh, my God. It’s Ken Foree. “ And I was too chicken to go over to him, so Simon eventually went up and said, “Hey, Ken. Have you heard of SHAUN OF THE DEAD?” And he said, “Yeah! That thing with the badge? Foree Electric?” And Simon goes, “Oh. I play Shaun. I co-wrote it.” And so Ken gave us a big bear hug. And we asked if he wanted to come to the screening, and he was like, “Do I? Put me down for me, plus eight.” So we had a screening at Comic Con and there was Ken, and I was like, “Gee, I hope you like it.” It would have been really embarrassing if he didn’t, but he fucking loved it.

What about George Romero?

As soon as we finished the film, we got Universal to send George a print. Not a tape, we sent the whole thing, and I think he was really flattered we bothered, cuz I don’t think the same thing happened with the DAWN remake. (laughs) I don’t really think anyone invited him to a screening or anything, or that he was particularly in any rush to see it…. But anyway, he watched it with a Universal security guard there, which I thought was surreal, as if George Romero would be responsible for the bootlegging. (laughs) Wouldn’t that be amazing? Like, hey, he never really made any money off his own film, so he figured he’d pirate ours. Anyway, George watched it on his own at ten in the morning, and he rang that night, left his number. So both me and Simon separately rang him, and it was unbelievable. I remember being in my apartment, my girlfriend was there and I’ve got him on the phone and it’s like, “It’s fucking George Romero!!!!” I got really choked up, and he was really, really flattered. He didn’t know what to expect at all. He hadn’t seen anything else that we’d done. And I think, cuz of the title, you know, as far as he’s concerned it’s like, “What is this? Is this going to be like NIGHT OF THE LIVING BREAD?” And he told us, “When the Universal logo showed up, I thought, all right. And then Bill Nighy turns up, I thought, oh, okay. It’s got real actors in it.” So he loved it, and that was really important to us, cuz I had read so many things on the Internet saying, “Shaun of the Dead”? What a fucking lame title that is. I bet that film’s really lame.” And so getting the big thumbs up from George Romero was so important to us. Both me and Simon said, “I don’t give a shit how well it does. George liked it!” (laughs) I still haven’t met George face to face, but Simon and I are gonna do cameos in LAND OF THE DEAD, and that will probably be the first time I’ll actually meet him.

Well, I can certainly see why he dug it. SHAUN feels like a Romero film.

One of the reasons it has that title, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, is because we thought, in a sense, it could work as a companion film to DAWN. It takes place in the same universe. The logic of the zombies is exactly the same. We even used the same explanation… Well, actually, what we tried to do with the McGuffin of where did the zombies come from, how did it start, is to just throw out loads of red herrings and use all of the explanations that have ever been in zombie movies. Gas, GM crops, a downed satellite, some kind of super flu… And then, of course, we had to joke about 28 DAYS LATER right at the end as well. Alex Garland, the writer of 28 DAYS, actually sent me an email the other day to say how much he enjoyed SHAUN, and I felt slightly guilty taking a jab at his film. He said, “I assume the jab at 28 DAYS LATER was good natured. If not, I’m very embarrassed. Bye.” (laughs) It was, Alex. It was!

Speaking of 28 DAYS LATER, take that film along with yours and add DOG SOLDIERS to the mix… There’s certainly been a British Horror Invasion lately. Pretty ironic to be importing some of ‘nastiest’ films considering you guys once had that whole video nasty ban!

Yeah, and I’ve read reports in some high brow British magazines of this “great British horror renaissance”, but the truth of the matter is, I just think it’s a bit of a fluke, three films of a bloody nature coming along at the same time like that. And it’s about time we got some good British horror films, because to be quite honest, there aren’t many British films that really inspired SHAUN. I mean, of course there are some curveball classics like THE WICKER MAN, which is just the fucking best, and things like THEATER OF BLOOD and RAW MEAT. And the Hammer films, it’s not that I don’t like them, they’re good fun, but it’s like, the Hammer films were killed off when HALLOWEEN came out. THE EXORCIST had already caused serious damage to Hammer, and then when HALLOWEEN came out, it was like, Nope. That’s it. You can’t do period Gothic stuff anymore. Game over. So when I was in college and EVIL DEAD comes out, or HOWLING, it’s like, “Why isn’t anybody making these films in the UK?” So that was my inspiration. The video nasties and the guys who made them… George Romero. John Carpenter. Sam Raimi. Joe Dante. John Landis. John Landis, yeah. I mean, quite honestly, aside from DAWN OF THE DEAD, AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is the film that just continues to blow me away every time I watch it. It’s right up there in my top five favorite films of all time. The sense of humor in that film, the way it mixes sympathy with the characters and real shocks and great make-up. That is THE film. The one film where you thought, “That’s a great mix.” Because you really give a shit about David Naughton and Griffin Dunne. And it’s scary. And it’s laugh out loud funny. I know you’re friends with John Landis, Tim, so next time you see him, tell him it’s one of my absolute faves.

I already told him about the character in SHAUN with the “Landis” name tag. He was very flattered. I know he’s looking forward to seeing it. Just a couple of more days now till it opens over here. You ready?

In some respects, I feel strangely calm about the fact that it’s coming out on the 24 th, because I’m not going to be here. It’s almost like it’s not happening. When it came out in the UK, because it was finished so close to the release date, I didn’t really have the experience like a lot of other people, you know, like Eli Roth had with CABIN FEVER, or you with 2001 MANIACS, where you make the film and then it’s a year of doing the Festival circuit and taking it around to distributors and that kind of thing. We never had that. The film was finished five weeks before it came out. No time to pace around going, “Oh, man. How’s it gonna do?”

However it does, Edgar, you’ve made a classic that exceeds expectations. Truly. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

You know, I met Don Coscarelli this morning, and he said, “Don’t do a horror film next. Do something different, then come back to horror later.” And I was thinking exactly the same thing. So the idea is to do another comedy but in a different genre, perhaps my other passion, which will be a John Woo bullet-thon! (laughs) It’s funny, when I got back to London after our recent press tour, there was this package in the corner of the room. This big poster. And so I opened up half of it, and it was an EVIL DEAD poster. And I thought, “Oh, that’s cool. A framed EVIL DEAD poster.” And it wasn’t till later that Simon opened it up properly, and Simon said, “Oh, look. It’s been written on.” And Sam Raimi had signed it. And he wrote, “Shaun of the Dead Rules. I bow down to the new master of horror comedy. Best wishes, Sam Raimi.” And Simon and I were just sitting there looking at it. And my immediate thought was, “You know what? That’s it. No more horror comedy.” It’s like, after SHAUN, there’s nowhere else to go! Just nowhere else to go…