PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (2016)

Studio:       Screen Gems
Director:    Burr Steers
Writer:       Burr Steers, Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen
Producer:  Sean McKittrick, Allison Shearmur, Natalie Portman, Annette Savitch, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, Marc Butan
Stars:     Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston, Bella Heathcote, Douglas Booth, Matt Smith, Charles Dance, Lena Headey

Review Score:

---

Summary:

Sisters in 19-century England see their fledgling romances tested by class struggles against the backdrop of an ongoing war with the undead.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Colonel William Darcy arrives in Hertfordshire County to investigate reports of a zombie infection at a whist party. Darcy uses carrion flies to determine Mr. Kingston is undead and promptly exterminates him. It is subsequently revealed that Kingston’s niece Annabelle is secretly infected as well and panic erupts at the estate.

Hoping to find potential suitors, Mrs. Bennet brings her five daughters Elizabeth, Jane, Lydia, Catherine, and Mary to a ball where Jane and Charles Bingley take a mutual interest in one another. Lizzie storms out of the dance after overhearing Darcy speaking disparagingly of her.

Outside, Lizzie learns Mrs. Featherstone is undead when the woman attempts to tell her something. However, Darcy interrupts by shooting off Mrs. Featherstone’s head. A full zombie attack disrupts the assembly. Darcy and Bingley are surprised to see the Bennet sisters ably dispatch undead attackers using their swords and martial arts training.

Jane is summoned to have tea with the Bingley family at their Netherfield Park estate. On her way, Jane is waylaid by zombies. Upon hearing news of Jane’s encounter, Lizzie makes her way to Netherfield to help tend to her sister’s injuries. Darcy finds his newfound attraction to Lizzie growing during her brief stay at Netherfield. Lizzie rushes Jane back home after the other Bennet women arrive the next morning.

Parson William Collins, a cousin to the sisters and male heir to their Longbourn estate, arrives at Longbourn intent on Jane’s hand in marriage. Collins turns his eyes towards Lizzie instead after learning Jane is waiting for a proposal from Bingley.

Collins walks into town with Lizzie, Jane, Lydia, and Catherine. The girls dispatch an overturned carriage containing zombies along the way. Once arrived, Lizzie meets Leftenant George Wickham and learns of a discord between he and Darcy over Wickham being a favored godson of Darcy’s father.

At another ball, Lizzie and Wickham renew their flirtation. Lizzie ends up dancing with Darcy to avoid advances from Collins. Darcy overhears Mrs. Bennet exclaim that she intends to marry her daughters for money. Zombies from an area orphanage attack downstairs. Bingley falls during the fray. Darcy arrives in time to help Lizzie finish the fight.

A short time later, the Bennets learn that the Bingleys closed down their house and left Netherfield. They also discover that Charles Bingley is bequeathed to Darcy’s sister, presumably as a measure to spurn Jane Bennet.

Collins expresses his wish to marry Lizzie. Lizzie refuses. Although Mr. Bennet approves of his daughter’s decision, Mrs. Bennet objects, prompting Lizzie to run into the woods alone in frustration.

Lizzie comes across Wickham in a cemetery. Wickham escorts Lizzie to the Church of St. Lazarus where he shows her that zombie aristocrats have organized into a functioning faction. By subsisting on pig brains, these zombies have retained part of their humanity and avoided full transformation by never feasting on a living person.

Lizzie returns home to learn that her friend Charlotte is engaged to Collins. Charlotte convinces Lizzie to be her chaperone when she goes to meet Collins’ employer Lady Catherine de Bourgh at Lady Catherine’s sprawling Rosings Park manor. Darcy, who is Lady Catherine’s nephew, and Wickham also show up at Rosings Park. Wickham makes an appeal to have Lady Catherine help fund the zombies at St. Lazarus in order to establish a treaty with the peaceful aristocratic undead and end the war. Wickham’s proposal is dismissed by everyone in attendance.

Privately, Wickham reveals to Lizzie that Bingley left her sister Jane due to Darcy’s persuasive assertion that the Bennets would make inferior wives for men of their class. Wickham asks Lizzie to run away with him, but she turns him down.

The next morning, Darcy professes his love for Lizzie. Lizzie reveals everything Wickham told her. Darcy admits that he intentionally separated Bingley from Jane, leading to a physical fight between Darcy and Lizzie.

Darcy later sends Lizzie a letter from the frontlines of battle against the zombies during a siege of London. In it, Darcy implies Wickham may have murdered Darcy’s father in order to gain an inheritance. He also reveals that Wickham tried eloping with Darcy’s 15-year-old sister. Lizzie sees the line of thinking in Darcy’s explanation for separating Bingley and Jane. Darcy reiterates his feelings for Lizzie while explaining that the zombies appear to be organizing.

Lizzie returns home to discover that Wickham ran off with her sister Lydia. Lady Catherine arrives at Longbourn to confront Lizzie about marrying Darcy, claiming that her own daughter is bequeathed to the man. When Lizzie refuses to duel Lady Catherine, Lizzie is forced to fight Lady Catherine’s proxy Wilhelm for refusing to back away from a relationship with Darcy. Lizzie defeats Wilhelm.

Lizzie and Jane journey to London to find Lydia on Mr. Bennet’s behalf. Jane rescues Bingley from the undead while Lizzie joins Darcy on the battlefield. Lizzie tells Darcy about the zombie conclave at St. Lazarus, asserting her belief that Wickham likely took Lydia there. Darcy tells Lizzie that the church was razed to the ground five days earlier.

Darcy sets off on horseback after putting a plan in motion with Bingley. Lizzie suspects something odd and confirms with Bingley that Darcy lied about the church’s fate so that he could spare Lizzie by assaulting Wickham and rescuing Lydia himself.

Darcy rescues Lydia and discovers that Wickham is the mastermind behind organizing zombies into a competent army. Wickham attempts to kill Darcy, but Darcy triggers his plan to feed the zombies human brains harvested from dead soldiers and turn them into mindless creatures. Feral zombies swarm Wickham as Darcy escapes the church with Lydia.

Darcy sends Lydia away on horseback. Wickham emerges from the church to do battle with Darcy. Darcy thrusts his sword through Wickham, discovering that he had been undead all along. Lizzie arrives in time to cut off Wickham’s hand and rescue Darcy.

Jane and Bingley make it back across Hingham Bridge to safety. So does Lydia. Lizzie and Darcy cross the bridge just as it is intentionally destroyed to impede the zombies’ advance. The couple is violently thrown from their horse. Lizzie professes her love for Darcy and kisses his unconscious body.

In the aftermath, Bingley proposes to an excited Jane. Darcy reveals that he heard what Lizzie said at the bridge and makes his own marriage proposal to Lizzie. Parson Collins marries both couples in a joint ceremony. After the ceremony, the two couples peer into the distance to see Wickham at the forefront of an advancing zombie horde.

---

Review:

Chalk it up to my reading of 19th-century female authors being limited to Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters, but I’ve not read Jane Austen’s celebrated classic “Pride and Prejudice.”  Nor have I read Seth Grahame-Smith’s merger of Austen’s novel with undead antics that kickstarted a brief horror/history hybrid craze in 2009.  I don’t know if that first sentence makes me uncultured in the eyes of some, though I do know the second puts me in position to come at the film adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” without affinity for or familiarity with either slice of source material.

Which could be a very good thing.  Of the negative criticism regarding “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” a fair deal of it stems from distaste for repurposing deified public domain text as pop culture parody.  Austen purists see a sanctified book being disrespected.  Horror fans wonder why a period costume romance is cluttering up the carnage.  It’s poetic that “Pride and Prejudice” with and without zombies concerns people whose presuppositions lead them to misperceptions.  Because open minds without a dog in the debate can find a movie that works well as genre-blending entertainment once prejudicial expectations are hanged at the door upon entrance.

Up until its third act, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” follows Jane Austen’s outline virtually beat for beat.  Occasionally, something originally authored as an ordinary illness is swapped for an undead outbreak or a zombie encounter is briefly inserted before the story carries forward as usual.

The Bennets are an English family anxious to wed five daughters to elite upper class bachelors.  Misters Darcy and Bingley fit that bill and end up with eyes for sisters Lizzie and Jane, respectively.  Unfortunately, a sizable class divide stands in the way of marriage, as do assorted other suitors including a clergyman cousin and a soldier with shady ties to Darcy’s family.  As if the ladies didn’t already have their hands full taking up swords against articulate aristocrat zombies littering the surrounding countryside.

Mashup might not be the best descriptor for “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” since it implies at least two elements blending together.  In truth, “PPZ” bats its focus from one distinct side to another at a very leisurely pace.

If a zombie is not onscreen, then the horror side of the story is decidedly not in play.  Anyone antsy for undead action may wonder exactly what type of movie is on hand when scenes run long on gowned society types conversing in cavernous banquet halls or while wandering manicured estate grounds.  With an emphasis firmly on the first two words of its title, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is a dramatic period romance with a slight tongue in its cheek before it can be considered anything else.  Whether this fact dismays or delights, the last word of the title is only an accent.

What is refreshingly unique about this is how purposefully zombies are not made the center of the story.  Be it movies, video games, or comic books, in major zombie franchises such as “The Walking Dead” or Romero’s “Living Dead” universe, simply surviving is always the primary focus.  Here, an ongoing war against the undead is only required as a backdrop for a different purpose.  It’s tremendous to see a zombie apocalypse for once depicted as something almost ancillary rather than every character or plot point’s sole reason for existence.

As Lizzie, Lily James is wonderful to watch, carrying a Keira Knightley quality about her.  Only after writing that note did I discover Knightley actually played the same character in 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice” proper.  The two films might make for interesting companion viewing based on actress similarities alone.  This is likely at least partially intentional since James and Knightley also resemble Natalie Portman, a “PPZ” producer who was once attached to star in the Lizzie role.

Matt Smith steals scenes at will as Parson Collins, mugging in a manner suggesting he is having more fun than anyone else.  At the same time, Smith being calibrated as more comical than his often grimacing co-stars highlights the film’s greatest flaw: inconsistent directing flattening an otherwise fun atmosphere.

Burr Steers’ direction is reserved, limited as if by a subdued supply of visible enthusiasm, when the very concept of combining a literary masterpiece with flesh-eating creatures screams for unbridled rampage.  “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” should be embracing inherent insanity at all times instead of keeping its heart rate consistently calm.  Possibilities for more electrified personality exist in setting and setup, but Steers is content to let action and actors go their own ways, hoping they’ll end up unified by happenstance even when there are frequently different destinations in mind.

“PPZ” is a 2016 film, yet it still uses map animations as a time passage transition.  It may be a period piece, but it isn’t a retro presentation.  Outdated and arguably lazy storytelling techniques only add more tasteless water to the flavor.

“PPZ” employs a number of other elements it also doesn’t need.  Among other characters, the story features at least one sister too many (I had to look up Mary’s name after the fact as I’m uncertain if it is even spoken in the film).  It’s a relief that the script doesn’t shoehorn every ounce of Austen or Grahame-Smith’s material into the movie, though it is concurrently curious that it chooses to keep so much unessential fluff.

Credit for most of what the movie does right, which is more than it does wrong, is due unsurprisingly to the strength of Jane Austen’s story.  The core plot of “Pride and Prejudice,” again with or without zombies, is a highly engaging comic melodrama given life in this instance by a charismatic cast and incredible scenery.

I went in prepped for a cheeky “Masterpiece Theater”-style sendup with a hearty helping of flesh-eating monsters, which is not at all the film’s first foot forward.  I ended up unexpectedly invested in the outcomes of multiple 19th-century romantic entanglements, which I assert is uncharacteristic of my usual entertainment interests.  Even more unpredictably, I came out with an overwhelming interest in further exploring Jane Austen’s writing, which I believe has to count as some sort of accomplishment for “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.

Review Score:  70

---