Florence Pugh’s favourite British horror movie: “I shouldn’t have watched it that young”
There are some cult classic movies that feel like we were born having seen, with quotes and references ingrained in our minds from a young age, with a reverence for specific projects being passed down from generation to generation. It could be Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Jaws or The Shining, but there are many films we grew up watching, even if we aren’t quite ready to understand them yet, but the story is simply too urgent and iconic to miss out on for even a second.
While this can traumatise some children, watching horror films or gritty dramas that go beyond our years and challenge us in ways we hadn’t thought possible, for many, it is a formative experience that becomes a core part of our childhood, with Florence Pugh describing one favourite horror film that she watched far too early.
Edgar Wright is one of the most beloved British directors of all time, with a colourful and frenetic style that has led to the most perfect cinematic duets between sound and vision. From the synchronised soundtrack in Baby Driver to the fast-paced editing style of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, the director has created cult classics that are both highly suspenseful, sometimes terrifying and always hilarious.
But while his style has evolved in recent years, particularly after the announcement of The Running Man, he first rose to prominence through the ‘Cornetto trilogy’, something that began with his titular film, Shaun of the Dead.
Shaun of the Dead is one of the most quintessentially British zombie horrors of all time, with a blasé sense of humour, as two average men try to survive a zombie apocalypse. With both of them working dead-end jobs and being stuck in the mundanity of small-town life, the arrival of the walking dead is a huge curveball in their otherwise sluggish lifestyle, leading to many great moments as they try to make it out alive.
From the genius of the line “You’ve got red on you” to the record-throwing scene, there isn’t a moment not to love, a sentiment shared by Florence Pugh after being ambushed for an interview at Glastonbury. When asked about the film, the actor said, “Oh my goodness, I love that movie. I grew up on that movie. I shouldn’t have watched it that young”.
For many of us, it was the ultimate forbidden watch, with parents warning us about the gore and blood for fear that it would do irreversible damage to our impressionable minds. But it’s hard for this to happen given just how funny the film is, with the friendship between Shaun and Ed and their beloved pub remaining one of the greatest twists on the zombie genre, especially given just how many tired iterations of this narrative there are. Whether it be the brutal murder of an old man set to Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ to the first supermarket scene after the infection has spread, Shaun of the Dead just doesn’t age and simply gets better over time.
