Edgar Wright, the mastermind behind some of the most beloved British movies of the 2000s, is a prime example of passionate filmmakers making for the most passionate cinephiles, the ones who could probably write scholarly essays on their favourite movies, having seen them a multitude of times.
The Shaun of the Dead often stops by one of his favourite places to catch a film on the big screen, The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, to introduce his own movies and bask in the atmosphere of being surrounded by like-minded movie lovers. Here, and across many other iconic cinemas, he has re-watched his favourite movies, made even better if he can catch them on 35mm or 70mm.
There is a select number of movies that Wright admits to always coming back to for inspiration, and he once revealed them in an interview with BBC Radio 1. Whether it be down to mind-blowing visuals or a unique offering of comedy, these movies keep orbiting some part of his mind, their scenes tattooed on the very membrane that makes up his film obsession.
Taking the top spot for perhaps his favourite most rewatched film ever is 2001: A Space Odyssey, the classic sci-fi masterpiece that Stanley Kubrick so gracefully delivered in 1968, changing the course of cinema in the process. Talking to Letterboxd, the director once expanded on his love for the film, explaining, “I first saw it on TV when I was a kid, probably in the wake of Star Wars being released and my parents saying, ‘Oh, you should watch 2001′. I’m not sure I entirely understood it, but I was completely transfixed by it… I have seen it maybe like once a year for at least the last ten years, so it has become the film I’ve seen the most on the big screen.”
Another classic that he mentioned in both interviews was Carrie, Brian De Palma’s blood-soaked foray into a teenage girl’s unsteady mind, where supernatural powers, bullies, and an oppressively religious mother make for a disastrous concoction. “Carrie is my favourite Stephen King adaptation, and I think, horror-comedy aside, my favourite horror film,” Wright said.
His list of repeat films had to of course include An American Werewolf in London, a movie that significantly shaped his approach to filmmaking. The blend of horror and comedy that makes John Landis’ film so gloriously dark can be seen in many other directors’ works, but none more so than in Wright’s.
“I suppose the reason that this film changed my life is that very early on in my film-watching experiences, I saw a film that was so sophisticated in its tone and what it managed to achieve. It really changed my life. It’s informed both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz,” he revealed in The Film That Changed My Life by Robert K Elder.
Besides these, the humour of movies like Airplane!, This Is Spinal Tap, Raising Arizona, and Evil Dead II make them titles that he could watch over and over. You can sense a theme here; while all of these films are quite different, they all take rather serious topics and inject them with a funny bent or satire, bringing light to what would otherwise be a rather grim viewing experience.
It’s not hard to see how Wright has let these films set the scene for his own career, which has moved through action flicks and horror to graphic novel adaptations and surrealism. What these projects all have in common, however, is Wright’s innate sense of humour, something he can find in all of his favourite movies.
