Fears of recession, climate change and pandemics have made recent popular culture rich in apocalyptic scenarios and supernatural creatures. Thankfully, Zombieland’s approach to such fears is a completely irreverent one, so it’s best to enjoy it before the new wave of apocalyptic blockbusters makes us heartily sick of end of the world.

Here, the eschatological scenario involves a zombie-ridden America; familiar territory, but this time the mayhem doesn’t just start with some unexplained virus. Instead, it kicks off when someone turns violent after eating a hamburger (mad cow disease leading to mad human disease) and starts chomping on human flesh and spreading insatiable and unspeakable appetites among his fellows. Weeks later, 99 nine per cent of the population seem to have joined the hoards of brain-eaters, but unlikely survivor and geeky narrator Columbus explains to us why he is not one of them yet. His rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse set the tone of the film in the wonderfully orchestrated and hilarious main credits, where the fearless sense of rhythm makes it hard to believe that this is Ruben Fleischer’s first feature film as a director.

Zombieland is a road movie designed specifically for, and presumably by, geeks. The nerdy main character befriends a hero-like figure (a fantastic Woody Harrelson) and falls for an out of his league badass girl with a pre-adolescent sister who can easily put him to shame. It’s kind of like Easy Rider, but with creative zombie killing, a surreal stop-over in Hollywood and a brilliant climax in an amusement park. It also contains one of the funniest, most delirious cameos ever seen in a film, one that will probably ensure its cult status. Just don’t let anyone ruin the surprise for you.