Review for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Elizabeth Bennet is a fair, maiden of a good family who want nothing more than to marry her and her other sisters off to the most affluent and important batchelors in the land. One such suitor is the dashing, but mysterious Mr Darcy and the family must break through many barriers... oh and there's also a plague of zombies to deal with.

Yes, with a film called 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' it's not a surprise when the dead start rising from the grave, but it is a jarring moment when in the midst of all the corsets and cups of tea, the first decomposing member of the undead attacks. The Bennet sisters are not the shrinking violets we made be used to. Instead, they are well-trained, ninja like warriors with all sorts of weaponary hidden beneath all their finery.

This film is such an odd beast. It is not scary enough to be a horror and not funny enough to be a comedy. The mix of Jane Austen drama with the George A Romero zombie aesthetic feels almost like a one-note joke. As a sketch, it would have been funny, but like most comedy sketches it never really works as a feature film. Much like the Cleopatra Schwartz spoof from Kentucky Fried Movie it was funny as a fake trailer, but as a full length film, the joke would wear thin after a while. That is the case here.

My main issue with this film is that as I watch the cast all I kept thinking was they would have been perfect for a traditional version of the film. Lily James and Sam Riley are wonderful Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. Sally Phillips and Charles Dance also work wonderful as Mr and Mrs Bennet. I get the feeling that the filmmaker's thought the main attraction would be former Dr Who Matt Smith as Parson Collins.Though he had some funny moments it is certainly nothing memorable.

The look of the film is fantastic from both aspects. Director Burr Steers brought the world of Jane Austen to life with perfect costume and settings and then the make-up and effects of the zombies certainly has the same impact as any classic horror. The mixture between them is a little jarring and was not the combination that I was expecting. This is a shame as I really wanted to enjoy the film, but just felt at time the film just fell flat and I can understand why audiences didn't connect with the film the way they have with the likes of Shaun of the Dead.

Gag Reel consists of less than 2 minutes and not as funny as what they should have been. I expected more from a film like this. Over eight minutes of deleted scenes don't really add anything and are just here for completist sake. It is however interesting to watch the dance between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy without music, though it feels more like a rehearsal than a finished scene.

There are five featurettes and they are all fine at showing certain aspects of the film. Though I do believe they are all too short. The Bad-Ass Bennet Sisters looks at ow they created the fight scenes and the training that was involved. Courtship, Class and Carnage: Meet the Cast is a nice look at the characters and how they got into character and how they were cast. It could have been longer as it did feel like too quick of a roll call of so many characters.

From Austen to Zombies: Adapting a Classic should have been a longer talk with the Writer/Director Burr Steer and possibly with the original writer of the novel. Instead it is a quick look at how they came to create the work which would be fine as a small overview, but really should have been more. Creating the Unmentionables looks at the make-up design of the zombies which is great to see how they created the creepy designs and still keep it looking like the 19th Century. Finally, we have Mr Collins Line-O-Rama is almost every line spoken by Matt Smith's Parson Collins character. I'm guessng someone told them that Smith's performance was the greatest part of the film. Though a highlight this is certainly no reason to do this. Maybe these alternate takes and outtakes should have just been added to the Gag Reel?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies should have been amazing. It really should have. I watched, wanting to love this film. If anything, this is a film made for me. I loved the idea of making fun of the Austen classic and mixing it with the horror of the undead. Instead this film (much like the book) felt like a one-note joke. It just felt like once you got over the initial amusement of the usual prim and proper Bennet sisters now being bad-ass zombie killers you wait for the next joke. The problem is there isn't one.