Shaun of the Dead: One of the Genre's Greats?

I took a quick look at the Rotten Tomatoes rating for Shaun of the Dead yesterday after the early reviews started to come in and was encouraged enough by that that I planned to write a little article labelling the film the genre's best since Army of Darkness. Well, the full slate of reviews are out now and after taking another look at the Tomatoes listing the scope of the article has expanded just a bit. After doing a quick survey of all the major zombie related titles I could think of, and after sending Mack on a quest to dig up anything I may have forgotten about, Shaun of the Dead's rating is bested by only two directors: Sam Raimi and George Romero.

I think that now makes it fair to make this pronouncement: Shaun of the Dead is an instant classic. It is the most acclaimed genre film in roughly twenty years. Go see it. Right now.

The complete list of films, listed in descending order based on Rotten Tomatoe rankings, follows. Feel free to chime in if I've left anybody out.

Night of the Living Dead (Romero) - 100%
Dawn of the Dead (Romero) - 100%
Evil Dead - 100%
Evil Dead 2 - 100%
Shaun of the Dead - 94%
28 Days Later - 89%
Day of the Dead - 88%
Braindead / Dead Alive - 87%
Night of the Living Dead (remake) - 81%
Versus - 80%
Dawn of the Dead (remake) - 76%
Army of Darkness - 74%
The Serpent and the Rainbow - 73%
Cemetary Man / Dellamorte Dellamorte - 60%
Undead - 50%
Resident Evil - 35%
Resident Evil: Apocalypse - 23%