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Burr Steers, charles dance, Douglas Booth, Jack Huston, Lena Headey, Lily James, Matt Smith, Sam Riley
Directed and written by Burr Steers, starring Lily James, Sam Riley, Douglas Booth, Jack Huston, Matt Smith, Lena Headey and Charles Dance. Adapted from the parody novel written by Seth Grahame-Smith; England is under threat by a hoard of zombies based on the Pride and Prejudice novel.
I’ve never read the book this is adapted from, nor have I read Pride and Prejudice, but it is my understanding that this book is simply the Pride and Prejudice story with an element of zombies mixed in. This mixture creates a very odd tone throughout the film resulting in an uneven balance of narrative of the original book while attempting to include zombies. This unevenness grows as the book moves further away from the original story of Pride and Prejudice in order to incorporate zombies, resulting in much weaker and predictable narrative than the original book, I would imagine.
When the zombies are on screen, the tone and direction of the film felt as though it ought to be comedic and reminiscent of the stlyle used in Hot Fuzz, as you watch these iconic literary characters discussing the subject of the undead.
During the actual Pride and Prejudice narrative, the story becomes more interesting and compelling, still with elements of zombies but the grounding of reality in this particular world helps; however, as the story becomes more zombie focused it also becomes more predictable and boring. The two subjects never seem to successfully merge as one and the tonal shifts between the period piece and the zombies never seem to flow successfully.
I am a great fan of the zombie genre, one of my favourite books, and possibly the best interpretations of zombies is World War Z. I have watched The Walking Dead and listened to We’re Alive podcast. So I feel I have a great understanding of that particular supernatural entity. This is by far the worst interpretation of zombies as they do not seem to consistently follow any rules or laws, as one quick swipe of the blade across a zombie’s throat seems to kill them which is inaccurate, to say the least. There is never a great sense of threat from them though this threat is discussed in great detail, so that when you finally do see a hoard of them they are disappointing, with various shots depicting several going for a jog and moaning oddly.
Though this is a very poor understanding of the zombies, one of the benefits that stems from this adaptation is that it creates an interesting and progressives platform for gender. The women are all trained and skilled fighters as they are either sent to Japan or China depending on criteria and desired skill set where they are taught to fight the undead.
Leana Headey’s character, who seems to be Cercei from Game Of Thrones, only with more humility, is known throughout England as the deadliest and most fearsome killer, a refreshing approach considering this is set during the period times where women scarcely had any privileges if any.
Darcy and Wickham are the only men capable of fighting the zombies, while other men run in fear or approach zombies only when they believe to be contained behind wired fencing.
Matt Smith’s character, Parson Collins, provides the best comedic value of the film, with the most intelligent script. Smith for once, outshines everyone and though you may not like his character, he is very funny and manages to outshine anyone on screen.
So while scenes from the original Pride and Prejudice have been mixed with martial arts or some have been used as a reference for the fans. The only vaguely interesting component of the film is that by using the loose interpretation of zombies, it has enabled a feminist approach to a very familiar story.
OVERAL ** As I say the zombies have allowed a feminist twist on a usually male dominated narrative; however owing to the uneven tempo between normality and Zombies with a frankly boring and predictable story in parts. This was a waste of a usually charismatic and powerful cast.
RECOMMENDATION – Watch if you really feel the urge to see Matt Smith’s acting or a feminist twist, otherwise I would give this a miss.
This movie is lush with exacting attention to detail in the costumes, settings and props. The production values are outstanding, better than most adaptations. The language and syntax is what Jane Austin would have written if there were zombies in England during the early1800s. I found myself having to think about what the characters meant. If you can follow their conversations the movie has some very funny moments. The language and social norms are true to the time period if you ignore warrior-women fighting zombies. The sisters’ disdain for Parson Collins is a little overdone. (Parson Collins comes across as very foppish.) The movie adds two new ideas to zombie lore. First, Darcy demonstrates a simple way to detect who is infected by the zombie virus. Second, the movie gives a new interpretation of how the zombie disease progresses. I almost stopped watching this movie during the cheesy scene after the titles when the director explained the zombie outbreak history using illustrated cutouts. Keep watching the movie is worth watching for the costumes and settings alone. How the director convinced the UK government and very wealthy homeowners to film a zombie movie on their property would make an interesting story. The zombies are very realistic. The sword fights and martial arts are well done. By the way, keep watching the end credits or you will miss the lead up to a sequel.
Firstly, thank you so much for commenting, it really does mean a great deal to me.
I just need a moment to recall the details of the film, it has been quite some time since I last watched it. So if I am incorrect in any of my own thoughts in my reply to you then I do apologise, and feel free to please let me know.
In terms of being a Jane Austin film, there is no doubt it’s good, but then again we know how to make period piece dramas. And we especially understand how to adapt a Jane Austin novel, God knows we have made enough of them, the current Tom Hardy TV series ‘Taboo’ being further evidence of this. So while the film does create great costumes, settings and props, this is surely just to be excepted rather than praised as a highlight of the film.
I do see your point regarding the social norms; however, you cannot possibly ignore the warrior-women fighting zombies, that is, after all, the supposed selling point of this film, otherwise it is just another Jane Austin adaptation. Parson Collins does come across as foppish, but he is the comedic Jem of the film because of his silliness.
I would certainly agree that the use of flys to detect Zombies is novel, but it’s hardly simple. Each time you encounter a zombie you then have the painstakingly difficult task of capturing the fly once more, that cannot be an easy task. As you know I had many issues with the portrayal of zombies in this film, for as well as being inconsistent with its own zombie rules, the scene towards the end where the zombies surrounding Darcy on his horse but totally ignoring him made little sense and made the zombies quite redundant as the villain of the piece.
Is there a sequel to be made? I didn’t think the film did nearly well enough financially to justify another.
Do get in touch about whether you agree or disagree on my points, thank you so much.