Shaun of the Dead has many, because both Wright and Pegg are big zombie film fans:
- Night of the Living Dead (1968):
- A radio news report talks about radiation from a crashed Omega 7 satellite, in reference to the Venus probe theorized to be the cause of the zombie plague in Night.
- The Winchester pub is named after the shotgun Ben used as his main weapon (though he used a Model 1894 instead of the Model 1866 displayed and used in Shaun).
- Don't forget this paraphrase from both the original movie and its remake:Ed: We're coming to get you, Barbara!
- Amusingly enough, George A. Romero himself actually missed this one on his first viewing, as Edgar Wright discovered when he excitedly asked what Romero had thought of the line.
- Dawn of the Dead (1978):
- The title of the movie itself references it with "Shaun" sounding similar to "Dawn."
- The opening music (over the production bits) is the same as Dawn. Another audio shout-out to Dawn is the odd synth "Twanging" sound that plays during tense, foreboding moments. The track "Zombi" by Goblin is used when Shaun and Ed discuss their plan and a remix of "The Gonk" plays at the end of the credits and during the zombie gameshow on the TV at the end of the movie.
- Shaun works at Foree Electric, which is a reference to Ken Foree, who starred in Dawn of the Dead (1978), as well as Dawn of the Dead (2004).
- The zombies portrayed by the film are faithful to Romero's characterization of them, down to maintaining quirks of their original selves; the supermarket worker continuing to push carts even as a zombie, zombified Phillip turning off the music that annoyed him, zombified Barbara not attacking Shaun (but snarling at David) and zombified Ed playing videogames with Shaun.
- On the way to rescue Barbara, a dozen zombies are seen shambling through a field in the background.
- Day of the Dead (1985):
- The shot of a half-awake Shaun's shadow entering the screen before we pan up to his face mirrors the first shot of the jawless zombie in the opening titles of Day.
- David being torn in half by zombies (though he never says "Choke on 'em!!"), and Shaun and Liz ascend in the freight elevator at the end exactly the same way as the ending of Day.
- Zombified Ed being a sympathetic undead who is spared and kept on a leash chained to the wall harkens back to Bub.
- There's also the pizza joint called Bub's Pizza.
- Every Romero zombie film has included at least one completely nude zombie. Pete honors that quota.
- Another news report blames GM crops in reference to the agricultural experiments from the obscure Italian flick The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie). And at the end the TV briefly says "...And reports that the disease was spread by Rage-infected monkeys have been dismissed as total bo-"
- Ed's game of choice at the beginning is TimeSplitters 2. Free Radical reciprocated by putting some references in TimeSplitters Future Perfect with the zombie Clip Clamp asking "Do I have red on me?" if selected.
- There's also the rather appropriate use of the first few chords of "Ghost Town," by The Specials at the start of the film.
- And the song someone was listening to when Shaun was on the bus? "Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation.
- The restaurant where Shaun and Liz are supposed to have dinner early in the movie is called Fulci's, after Zombi 2 director Lucio Fulci.
- One of the things Shaun and Ed drive by on the way to Barbara and Philip's is an abandoned ambulance with the doors wide open, no paramedics in sight, and a gurney directly behind it, a likely reference to The Return of the Living Dead.
- A subtle shout-out to the Evil Dead series after Shaun discovers Pete zombified in the shower: as he backs away in terror, he babbles "We were wondering if you'd like to (beat) join us?"
- Another subtle Evil Dead shout-out appears earlier in the film when Shaun arrives at work and briefly mentions a co-worker named "Ash" who called in sick that day.
- An even subtler reference is the fact that plenty of the music heard in the first part of the movie (particularly the music on Ed's cassette) is from the band Ash.
- The nervous running man wearing a Badass Longcoat who Shaun sees early on in the movie outside the flower shop is meant to be a homage to Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) according to the DVD commentary.
- Shaun closing the mirror to reveal Pete reflected in it (as well as Pete mentioning the front door being left open the previous night) references An American Werewolf in London.
- The zombie woman named Mary worked at Landis Supermarket, which is a reference to John Landis, the director of American Werewolf and the Michael Jackson music video Thriller.
- During the Mexican Standoff, Shaun calls a rifle-toting David "Charlton Heston", a possible reference to Heston's role in the 1971 film The Ωmega Man.
- In the scene where Shaun and Ed try to use LPs as a weapon against a zombie, Ed brings up The Stone Roses' Second Coming, to which Shaun protests "I like it!" This is a reference to the album's infamous reputation as a Creator Killer, with Troubled Production and a lukewarm reception from critics and fans.
- Other records mentioned in the scene are New Order's Blue Monday, Prince's Sign o' the Times, Purple Rain and his Batman (1989) album, Dire Straits, The Stone Roses' self-titled Album and Sade.
- Shaun shouting "Reload!" which is straight from House of the Dead.
- The movie poster itself (as seen at the top of the main page) is a reference to the back cover of Face the Music, an album by Electric Light Orchestra.
- Given that it's the first full Pegg/Wright/Frost movie, it wouldn't be complete without several shoutouts to Spaced, including attempting to beat the zombie at the pub to death with pool cues and the "He's not my boyfriend!"/"Thanks, babe" exchange between Pegg and Frost's characters. In fact, the third episode of the first series of Spaced was a major inspiration for Shaun of the Dead.
- A zombified Tyres, the drug-addled bike messenger (played by Michael Smiley) can be seen as the group make their way to the pub. He's even still dancing.
- A poster for the Aphex Twin album drukQs can be seen in Shaun's flat early on in the movie.
