Review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This is an action horror film, with themes covered including aristocracy, chases, danger and eavesdropping. I found it quite amusing from early on, with the genteel 'frightfully polite' style English spoken word seeming to clash with the main plot aspect, of course. There are some relatively disturbing images from quite early on as well (certainly within the first 15 minutes or so) and I did jump at times but I didn't find myself feeling really sick, thankfully. I imagine thats mainly due to the fact that its so unfeasible (or so I'd like to think in any case), so you know it isn't real. The main protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, is very regal and upper class in appearance and speech and has some witty dialogue. I like that she is a seemingly independent and self assured person, reminding me a little of the the titular character in the 90s US drama show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, although that was set in the modern day.

I liked the music featured, mostly quite light and airy classical tunes, very reminiscent of traditional period dramas. Its a bit like someone with two personalities and it can take you by surprise when it swaps from one to the other, although I should point out that, if anything, there are more period drama scenes.

Cast wise, Lily James plays Elizabeth Bennet and looks very much the respected Victorian lady , wearing respectable dresses and so on. She reminded me a bit of Keira Knightley. Her sisters include Ellie Bamber, who plays Lydia, Millie Brady, who plays Mary and Suki Waterhouse, who plays Kitty. Douglas Booth plays Mr. Bingley,while Matt Smith (who played Doctor Who in the past) plays Parson Collins and Charles Dance plays Mr. Bennet. Of course, Pride and Prejudice wouldn't be Pride and Prejudice without a Mr. Darcy and in this version of the tale, he is played by Sam Riley. Sally Phillips, known for her roles in Channel 4's Smack The Pony etc., plays Mrs. Bennet. The acting certainly seemed pretty competent to me, for the most part.

Of course its undeniably camp, in as much as any film with a serious side and a quite preposterous/wacky side would likely be. I did feel at times that it was possibly trying a little hard to be serious, which is a bit of a shame - it would have probably worked a bit better if the main characters were to have spoke to the viewer via the camera as if their in on the joke. All the same, I still found it pretty amusing and reasonably entertaining during the zombie related scenes. If anything, I was slightly disappointed that there was no spoof of the famous Thriller music video, which I imagined could have been fun!. I was frustrated that there wasn't more of an emphasis put on the zombie aspect and less on the 19th century England background/setting.

Content wise, the film contains moderate violence and an element of gore, due to the themes of course. There are characters depicted as bloodied, skeletal types, with decomposing flesh visible, which could disturb some, especially younger, viewers. It should be noted that this violence is really quite sporadic but when it is present, it may frighten some, although I wouldn't have thought it'd greatly scare anyone especially familiar with zombie films and the like. The main themes of the film aren't especially frightening as such, given its so unfeasible and thus is more comedy based overall. The film has been given a 15 rating in the UK, to reflect this.

Yes I'd recommend this film, as I thought it was quite amusing and something a bit different - it won't appeal to everyone but if it sounds a good laugh then its probably worth a watch. However, as a word of warning, there are some scenes which are primarily period drama based and that don't focus on said zombies, so if your really disinterested in period dramas then this may put you off but overall I enjoyed the zany mix of zombie film and period drama. Whether you will, ill leave to yourself to decide.