PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES – The Review

Zombies make everything better! Jane Austen devotees needn’t worry that the makers of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES have ridiculed her perennially popular story of love among the British upper classes. They’ve merely added zombies to it – an improvement if you ask me! I’ve never had the inclination to read Austen’s novel (I’ve heard it’s good), but I once saw a big screen treatment starring Keira Knightly. This high-concept hybrid adapted from novelist Seth Grahame-Smith’s revisionist tome is one of the more interesting horror movies I’ve seen in a while. Not only does director Burr Steer skirt the edges of camp with PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, he accomplishes a wonderful sense of surrealism and whimsy missing in much modern horror. Here’s a movie that delivers on exactly what its title promises. There are the unmarried Bennet sisters, as well as Mr. Darcy and various other suitors, and they do indeed battle the living dead for a great portion of the film. Adapted for the screen by the director, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is absurd, outlandish, and even ridiculous in concept, but thanks to a team of filmmakers who take a straight-faced (but not entirely serious) approach to the material, it works. It’s as if the producers gathered and said “This is already going to be silly, so let’s just try to keep it from being stupid.’ They succeeded. Rarely is a film this silly also this clever.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is the story of the Bennet family and their lives in England amidst a mid-19^th century zombie apocalypse. In the tradition of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice we still have Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) on a quest to marry off all of her daughters while Mr.Bennet (Charles Dance) makes sure his girls have been to China to train in the art of eliminating the walking dead. In a world filled with the dead devouring the brains of the living, one would think it a low priority to find love, yet the two older Bennet sisters do. The eldest Jane (Bella Heathcoat) falls for Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth), not for his money but for his affections. The more headstrong Elizabeth (Lily James) puts her pride and the prejudices that she had against Mr.Darcy (Sam Riley) aside, and after a furniture-smashing knife duel, finds she loves him too.

If you’ve read Austen’s book (or seen a movie version), you immediately recognize how faithful PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is in regards to the romantic pairings and matrimonial deal-making – then there’s that whole zombie thing.  This crazy concoction rests on the shoulders of these charming young actresses, and they carry the film exceedingly well. There are numerous quiet moments in which leading-lady Lily James (as instantly likable as she was in CINDERELLA) strikes a strong chemistry with Sam Riley’s Darcy as does Bella Heathcoat with Booth’s Bingley. Every plucky action heroine, especially ones introduced tucking their weapons into corsets and garters and bustiers, deserves some capable support, and this is a rather winning ensemble. As head antagonist we have a hissable Jack Huston as George Wickham, and he’s fun, though I wish they had fleshed out another villain or two. Lena Headley is an over-the-top hoot as one-eyed warrior woman Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the most famous zombie killer in all of Britain. Matt Smith plays the insufferable Parson Collins, the Bennet girls’ creampuff clergyman cousin with remarkable style and wit, handily stealing every scene he’s in. There’s not a weak link in this scrappy cast, and that’s no small feat for a risky flick like this.

Directed with high-octane energy by Steers and consistently eye-pleasing thanks to the cinematography by the excellent Remi Adefarasin, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is a candy store of genre treats. I thought the bleary, red-stained zombie point-of-view shots were a nice touch. Those, along with some pulpy-but-quick decapitations, and bloodless brain-eating, were a creative way to keep the violence within the PG-13 parameters. The film does sag a bit in a mostly zombie-free middle section. The screenplay is so intent on hitting so many of Austen’s original plot points that the horror elements at times seem an afterthought. But why snipe at a couple of minor complaints when this mishmash is presented so craftily? Call it “better than it should have been,” a “pulpy matinee,” or (gasp) a “guilty pleasure” if you must, but it only seems right to give PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES a pat on the back for getting so much right.

4 of 5 Stars