Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) Review

Way back in 2009, when the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies first hit store shelves, you better believe my 19-year-old self thought that it was just about the funniest thing ever conceived. Well, the title was at any rate, and I bought the sucker solely because of that title. The book was an admittedly clever idea for the nerd crowd. It was approximately 80% of Jane Austen’s classic romance novel more or less untouched, but with zombie attacks thrown in, transforming the entire narrative into a horror story, just with a few gory references here and there. As written by Seth Grahame-Smith, the idea worked better as an idea than as a novel, and actually reading the book was a bit tiresome. Austen was a brilliant author and there’s a point where you’re sick of her work being interrupted by immature violence that does nothing for the story except make it potentially more accessible for a certain crowd.

Both the book and movie begin with the same line, reworked from Austen’s original: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” How you react to this opening line of the film, whether it be a laugh, eye-roll, or sigh of indifference, will be the sign of how you’ll feel for the remaining 100 minutes. It’s either gonna be a blast or an excruciating agony, although you must be open to the idea of a zombie apocalypse version of Jane Austen to begin with or you shouldn’t bother with the movie at all.

The story is essentially the same as the novel. Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) is the smartest (and, in this case, fiercest) of the Bennett daughters whose mother (Sally Phillips) really wants them married off to the first wealthy men who show interest. The most promising match at the start of the story is between young Jane (Bella Heathcote) and rich Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth), while Elizabeth is faced with interest from three potential suitors: the handsome Mr. Wickham (Jack Huston), the dim-witted Mr. Collins (Matt Smith), and the stand-offish Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley). Elizabeth is forced to weigh her feelings for Darcy, who she grows to love despite his rude personality, against her desire for Wickham, all while avoiding Collins.

That’s the basic story of the original. This time around, it’s all set during a period after a plague has swept the world which I guess resurrected the dead or whatever, so now the Bennet girls face both unwanted courtships and attacks by the undead. And these are the most intelligent zombies I’ve ever seen. They can speak, reason, plot, fight, and disguise themselves as normal people. But not to worry, wise Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance) has trained his daughters as warriors, and Austen has already written them as strong-willed women, so those zombies had just better watch out!

Again, if you’re not open-minded about Pride and Prejudice and Zombie’s gimmick, you’re better off sticking to whichever serious film version of Austen’s novel you already love. For everyone else, it’s all up to personal tolerance. Because the movie presents the original story mostly in tact, there’s a lot of romantic drama that could make horror fans anxious, and despite the PG-13 rating, the zombie stuff is icky enough to deny it traditional “chick flick" status. But the novelty of these things being together at all, and both being treated with a certain degree of dignity makes the movie fun for someone like me, who enjoys a wide variety of entertainment types.

This is a handsome-looking movie, full of the costumes and sets and stuff that’s customary for a dramatic period picture, and the casting is surprisingly well thought out. Though the nature of the film is such that there isn’t time to delve into the emotional complexities that make Austen’s story so timeless, all the actors are well-suited for their parts. Matt Smith seems to be having an especially good time as the silly Mr. Collins, as is Lena Heady as Mr. Darcy’s sword-weilding aunt. Plus, much of the dialogue is still Austen’s, even if it’s being said in less elegant scenarios than for what they were written, and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet still get the biggest laughs.

What’s just as surprising is how well-executed the action scenes are, with the climax being the biggest departure from the original novel and also what makes the best use of the zombies as savage monsters. Basically, whenever the movie is all Austen or all zombie, it works. What it doesn’t do as successfully is balance the two, especially since I still don’t know if the whole thing is supposed to be funny or not. In the end, it may not have any brains, but it’s harmless Saturday afternoon fluff and as good a movie as the material deserves. And if it brings more interest to the real Pride and Prejudice, all the better.

B-