Movie Review: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (2016)

Hello, everyone!

Okay, I know what you are all wondering,

"Why in the world did she watch Pride & Prejudice & Zombies?"

But hear me out.

Other years when I have announced my Blog Costume Party I knew what I was going to be.

This year I was absolutely stumped! My sister and I stayed up so late just throwing ideas out, trying to come up with literary characters to be. Finally we decided on Jane Austen characters, but in my house the rule for dressing up was always that we had to be magical or scary. For nostalgia's sake I wanted to keep the tradition up. Therefore, I said,

"Hey, there is something called Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, why don't we be Jane Austen characters as zombies?" 

My sister thought that it sounded weird, but went with it even though neither of us had seen it.
It wasn't until after we had our costumes did I watch the movie.

I am now here to tell you my disclaimer:
If you do not like the idea of zombies or want to see anything with them, I totally respect that! I'd just mention that this movie is not for you. To me, the idea of zombies are okay in a fantasy setting.
Do I believe in winged horses, pegusai? No.
Do I like to read stories that include them? Yes.
Even famous authors like J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkien have had their own version of zombies in their fantasy worlds. When I think of zombies I think of this quote:

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

― Neil Gaiman

Just something to think about. Now I'll finally get on to the actual review.

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (2016):

Based on: Pride & Prejudice - by Jane Austen, and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies - by Seth Grahame-Smith.
"Handsome is as handsome does."
In England the growing zombie population is getting worse. Having zombies in the country is rare, but just in case all of Mr. Bennet's daughters are trained in martial arts and weaponry to protect themselves if there is ever an attack. At a ball there are two new gentlemen, Mr. Bingley who is instantly attracted to Mr. Bennet's oldest daughter Jane, and Colonel Darcy who is a renowned zombie killer. When the attacks start happening more frequently there seems to be something deeper going on. Will everyone be able to put aside their dislike of each other to fight against this uprising?
"Keep your swords as sharp as your wits."

Genre: Horror, Romance, Fantasy.
Length: approx. 108 minutes.
Costumes: 7, there are a few that are a little low, and we see people in underclothing, but they are cool besides that. They did a good job of mixing regency style and a martial arts feel.
Script: 9, I don't recall any bad words. It is neat that they added lines that are references to other of Jane Austen's works.
"If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village she must seek them abroad."
Crew:
Directed by: Burr Steers.
Written by: Burr Steers, Seth Grahame-Smith, and Jane Austen.
Starring:
Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet.

Sam Riley as Colonel Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Jack Huston as Mr. Wickham.

Bella Heathcote as Jane Bennet.

Douglas Booth as Mr. Bingley.

Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Ellie Bamber as Lydia Bennet.
Matt Smith as Parson Collins.

Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet.

Suki Waterhouse as Kitty Bennet.
Emma Greenwell as Caroline Bingley.
Millie Brady as Mary Bennet.
Sally Phillips as Mrs. Bennet.
Aisling Loftus as Charlotte Lucas.
Dolly Wells as Mrs. Featherstone.
Cinematography: 7.
Cinematography by: Remi Adefarasin.
Music: 7, I didn't notice it at all. Oops!
Music by: Fernando Velázquez.

Quotes: 8, "Of all the weapons in the world I now know love to be the most dangerous."
Content: 3. I was worried that there was going to be some suggestive things, but there was only some kissing. There is a lot of: violence, blood, killing, death, and fighting. I know from the photos I picked that it doesn't look like it has that, but it does. I personally am not really bothered by that because I have been watching movies with fighting for as long as I can remember, and when I was little I saw a documentary about make-up in movies and have always known that the blood is just fake, but I totally understand that other people don't like seeing these things (and it's not that watching movies like this is my favorite thing ever, I actually prefer it when there isn't as much violence, but I'm just used to it). All together my score for this would be about 5 or 6, so why is it lower? Well, I was just fine when this weird thing happened. I even wrote down "Okay, that just got weird." As I mentioned in my introduction, I am fine with the idea of zombies, but there was this scene with zombies in a church receiving communion, that wasn't communion, and then later relating the Bible with zombies. As a Catholic that was something that went too far. I was very confused about what was happening and rather uncomfortable. It wasn't necessary I thought, but it is there for a warning to any of you who are going to watch this.
"What's right to do cannot be done too soon."

Originality: 9, this had some really clever things! Remember how much I disliked the 2005 Pride & Prejudice because I love the 1995 version so much? With the 2005 I was frustrated with all of the differences in script, costumes, and the story. With this, I was totally fine with all of the changes they made! It isn't the exact same thing, it is a retelling, so it was a ton of fun to see one of my favorite stories in a different way. There is some debate about people thought that Elizabeth Bennet was boring until they added this element of her fighting skills. I never have found Lizzy to be boring in just her usual self, so I don't agree with that. I think that they did a good job with her character and adding the fighting except for the time that she was fighting Mr. Darcy, that was just weird.
"Is there some sort of trouble? Oh, I guess there is."
Good For: I would recommend it for anyone who is a fan of Pride & Prejudice just to be able to have a new look at it.
Age Range: I would say this is PG-13 for the violence, but even if you are older than that and if you are uncomfortable with any of the things that I mentioned then you could skip on this. You don't have to like this, how boring would life be if we all liked the same things?
"Laugh at me as much as you choose, but you shall not laugh me out of my opinion."
Overall Score: 7.

Bonus thoughts:
I had fun watching this! Of course the 1995 Pride & Prejudice will always be my favorite, but this was fun to see. All of the actors were really well cast and the story kept me interested. The ending felt a little rushed, while I knew what was happening, if they had just added a few minutes to explain things I think it could have been smoother.
This was fun to watch once, and I'll probably show it to my sister sometime, but then after that I might not watch it again.


For the blog party:

"You are as unfeeling as the undead."

This is always my favorite part of my blog party, talking about the costumes! So my sister and I decided to be Elizabeth and Jane Bennet as zombies. That isn't what it is in the movie, but it's what we thought, so we are now calling ourselves as Jane Austen characters as a zombie and a ghost (she backed out on me at the last second, can you believe it?).

These costumes came together thanks to my sister who had these awesome dresses from a thrift store.

I was going for a zombie look so I had a falling apart look and rubber flies pinned all over me (I know it sounds gross, but it looked really cool). My make up was just really dark around my eyes and a pale face. I also have an awesome pair of boots which you sadly can't really see in the photo.
My sister decided to go for more of a ghost look. "Making it look like I had come out of the attic" were her exact words. She has a shawl that up close looks like a spider web (another thrift store find!), a cameo necklace that I had, and she has rubber spiders pinned to her. For her make up I threw flour at her, which was really fun. Heehee. (Also, we both kind of look like ghosts in the picture because I blurred our faces a little too much).

I have the picture here for you to compare to Elizabeth and Jane in this movie, but as I said, when we came up with the costumes we were a little confused.


To check out what Kara and Anna had for their costumes for this blog party, click HERE.

Thank you so much for reading! Have you seen this movie? What are your thoughts on it? Oh, and how do my sister and I look?

MovieCritic