As a English literature graduate, there are certain books I am embarrassed to say I haven't read. I have never started To Kill a Mockingbird, I have never finished A Tale Of A Tub, and though I seemingly know Pride and Prejudice word for word, I haven't read a single one. The same could be said for the parody book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, though I don't know how much that matters when it comes to understanding the film version.
The movie of P&P&Z is a heavily truncated version of both books, taking the plot beats and most famous quotes from the original and juxtaposing them with zombie fights. The Bennet sisters are re-imagined as a gang of gorgeous, kung fu fighting debutantes, with knives in their garters and precariously heaving bosoms. The brilliant cuts and thrusts of Darcy and Bennet's arguments are carried out alongside actual cuts and thrusts with swords, as the two try to murder one another in what has to be the most passive-aggressive fight scenes in cinematic history.
Whilst I worried at first that the entirety of the thing would be one long "lol wot, zombies in Jane Austen?" joke, the film has a surprisingly dense and imaginative bit of World building. Zombies have apparently plagued England for decades, giving time for the nobility to retreat to custom made, fortified, death trap mansions. Meanwhile, rather than make the zombies the generic, boring, shuffling sort, a big laugh in this comes from the fact that these zombies are not only sapient, but capable of carrying out dignified conversation whilst they lunge for your brains. There is a class warfare going on, with most of the zombie ranks being made up of the working class who would otherwise be invisible in Austen's work.
I'm not sure how much overlap there is with fans of both Jane Austen and zombie flicks, but I guess I am now one. The most surprising thing is how much the film commits to its ridiculous premise; not only is the smart text faithfully recreated for the most part, but the fights have far better choreography than most action movies I have seen these days. The chances are you probably skipped this movie at cinemas, but as it has just been made available on Netflix, I think you should give this transparently silly movie a chance.
Film Sadly Overlooked
As a English literature graduate, there are certain books I am embarrassed to say I haven't read. I have never started To Kill a Mockingbird, I have never finished A Tale Of A Tub, and though I seemingly know Pride and Prejudice word for word, I haven't read a single one. The same could be said for the parody book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, though I don't know how much that matters when it comes to understanding the film version.
The movie of P&P&Z is a heavily truncated version of both books, taking the plot beats and most famous quotes from the original and juxtaposing them with zombie fights. The Bennet sisters are re-imagined as a gang of gorgeous, kung fu fighting debutantes, with knives in their garters and precariously heaving bosoms. The brilliant cuts and thrusts of Darcy and Bennet's arguments are carried out alongside actual cuts and thrusts with swords, as the two try to murder one another in what has to be the most passive-aggressive fight scenes in cinematic history.
Whilst I worried at first that the entirety of the thing would be one long "lol wot, zombies in Jane Austen?" joke, the film has a surprisingly dense and imaginative bit of World building. Zombies have apparently plagued England for decades, giving time for the nobility to retreat to custom made, fortified, death trap mansions. Meanwhile, rather than make the zombies the generic, boring, shuffling sort, a big laugh in this comes from the fact that these zombies are not only sapient, but capable of carrying out dignified conversation whilst they lunge for your brains. There is a class warfare going on, with most of the zombie ranks being made up of the working class who would otherwise be invisible in Austen's work.
I'm not sure how much overlap there is with fans of both Jane Austen and zombie flicks, but I guess I am now one. The most surprising thing is how much the film commits to its ridiculous premise; not only is the smart text faithfully recreated for the most part, but the fights have far better choreography than most action movies I have seen these days. The chances are you probably skipped this movie at cinemas, but as it has just been made available on Netflix, I think you should give this transparently silly movie a chance.