![\"Simon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Simon-Pegg-Actor-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Alamy)<\/p>\n
Sun 10 August 2025 15:45, UK <\/p>\n
If you had to guess two genres that would encompass Simon Pegg<\/a>\u2018s favourite films, they\u2019d be comedy and horror and, most likely, a hybrid of the two.<\/p>\n The actor, screenwriter and comedian is best known for his Cornetto trilogy, which he wrote and starred in alongside fellow English actor Nick Frost, which consisted of Dawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World\u2019s End. His mastery of the violent action comedy genre has been helped by his collaboration with director Edgar Wright<\/a>, whose direction of Hot Fuzz and The World\u2019s End gave both films their well-known quick-cut shots and visceral soundscapes.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Quietus, Pegg laid his cards on the table, picking not one, not four, but 13 of his favourite movies, and he did not disappoint; from John Carpenter\u2019s iconic vampire horror Dawn of the Dead, which loosely influenced Pegg\u2019s own project Shaun of the Dead, to Blood Simple, an early brutal Coen brothers joint starring Nicholas Cage, Philip Kaufman\u2019s scifi horror Invasion of The Body Snatchers, and, of course, a Star Wars film.<\/p>\n In the mix was also the eclectic 1984 musical comedy film, This is Spinal Tap, a mockumentary starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as members of a fictional heavy metal band called Spinal Tap, characterised as \u201cone of England\u2019s loudest bands\u201d. <\/p>\n They\u2019re followed around on their American tour by documentarian Marty Di Bergi, who hilariously becomes the embodiment of the hagiographical, venerating approach to rock documentaries. It satirises the pretentiousness of rock bands and creates the iconic \u201cUp to 11\u2033 line, referring to the band\u2019s amplifier\u2019s knob, which goes up to eleven instead of ten.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things about This is Spinal Tap that amazed me was that when I first saw it was that I didn\u2019t even know those guys were American,\u201d Pegg told Quietus. \u201cI was shocked to discover they were doing accents. It blew me away, and subsequently watching films like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, they\u2019ve always been more fun to watch because of this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n Pegg recommended watching the film with commentary on the DVD with Guest, McKean and Shearer in character, which is \u201clike watching it for the first time \u2013 it\u2019s a whole new experience and really funny\u2026 That particular film is such a lightning in a bottle\u2026 It can be seen as a film or a series of very funny sketches.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n