pride and prejudice and zombies movie review

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Like the novel “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” the movie “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is predicated on a simple, single gimmick: It’s “ Pride and Prejudice ” … with zombies. This is a vaguely amusing idea which somehow got stretched out to an entire book, which somehow became a best seller, which inevitably means it had to be made into a film.

It is essentially Jane Austen ’s classic tale of social mores and machinations in 19 th century England, down to characters, settings, plot points and specific bits of dialogue, only with the pesky inclusion of the undead popping up here and there to complicate matters further (authorship for the project goes cheekily to both Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith .) While the 2009 book played this genre mash-up for dry, sly laughs, writer-director Burr Steers ’ film amps up the thrills and gore. And that’s a problem—not necessarily as a narrative choice, but from a technical perspective.

What differentiates “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” from its literary source material is its big action sequences, but they’re staged, lit, shot and edited in such muddled fashion, it’s often difficult to tell what’s going on. There’s no visual context to the assaults and no way to determine their source or size, which depletes these scenes of their tension, making it impossible to become engaged. Sometimes this is intentional, as in Steers’ frequent use of blurriness right at the point of when a zombie is about to devour someone, but it doesn’t work in those instances, either. Too often, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is so darkened as to be inscrutable, as in a basement scene when the Bennet sisters are bantering while sparring in preparation for the next possible attack—t he women have to worry about both marrying the right man and not being eaten.

In case it’s been a while since you read the book in high school English class: “Pride and Prejudice” centers on headstrong Elizabeth Bennet ( Lily James ), the second-oldest of five daughters of average means who’s not nearly so obsessed with marrying up as her mother ( Sally Phillips ) is. While her beautiful older sister, Jane ( Bella Heathcote ), becomes romantically involved with the handsome and obscenely wealthy Mr. Bingley ( Douglas Booth ), Lizzie enters into a love-hate relationship with Bingley’s close friend, the even more obscenely wealthy Mr. Darcy ( Sam Riley ). Social classes clash and sparks fly. Misunderstandings arise but eventually clear up, characters are forced to admit to both their pride and their prejudice, and everyone lives happily ever after.

In the zombified version, though, the Bennet girls have all been trained as warriors, and the social-strata element comes into play in regards to the location where that training takes place (Japan for the elite, China for everyone else). George Wickham ( Jack Huston ) isn’t just predatory and untrustworthy, he also might not be entirely alive. And the haughty Lady Catherine de Bourgh (a fierce, sleek Lena Headey ) is the most celebrated zombie-killer of them all—with an eye patch to prove it.

Sometimes, this mixture works—mainly in the quieter, calmer moments, as when the characters sit around a drawing room cleaning their guns or one-upping each other while comparing their expertise in the deadly arts. And as the sisters dress in their finest gowns and style their hair for a ball, they also carefully slide daggers into their garters for protection. The small, deadpan moments in Steers’ script have more of an impact than the massive, noisy set pieces.

Through it all, though, James is a delight to watch as Lizzie. If you saw her last year in Kenneth Branagh ’s “Cinderella,” you know how hugely appealing she can be. Here, she’s playing a very different kind of iconic figure, but in both cases there’s something pure about her screen presence that makes her seem accessible and true. And she has decent chemistry with Riley as the arrogant, abrasive Darcy—but then again, several of their key exchanges take place within the context of some sort of physical fight, either with each other or against the stumbling, mumbling undead, which detracts from their inherent romantic tension rather than enhancing it.

It’s a tricky thing to pull off, this delicate balance of tone. Very few directors could do it successfully, but it seems Steers—whose eclectic filmography ranges from “ Igby Goes Down ” to “ 17 Again ” to “Charlie St. Cloud”—wasn’t quite ready to expand his repertoire this far. Maybe someone else can crack the code to the ultimate Austen mash-up when the inevitable “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters” adaption comes along.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Jack Huston as Mr. Wickham
Pooky Quesnel as Aunt Phillips
Sally Phillips as Mrs. Bennet
Jess Radomska as Annabelle Netherfield
Morfydd Clark as Georgina
Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet
Aisling Loftus as Charlotte Lucas
Suki Waterhouse as Kitty Bennet
Ryan Oliva as Wilhelm
Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy
Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet
Bella Heathcote as Jane Bennet
Janet Henfrey as Dowager
Millie Brady as Mary Bennet
Dolly Wells as Mrs. Featherstone
Matt Smith as Mr. Collins
Douglas Booth as Mr. Bingley
Emma Greenwell as Caroline Bingley
Hermione Corfield as Cassandra Featherstone
Ellie Bamber as Lydia Bennet
Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Burr Steers
Fernando Velázquez
Jane Austen
Padraic McKinley

Cinematographer

Remi Adefarasin
Seth Grahame-Smith

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Why did rey bury the two lightsabers in rise of skywalker, five years after rise of skywalker, star wars shows how incredible darth rey really would've been, pride and prejudice and zombies is unwieldy horror-comedy - delivering an amusing but gimmicky blend of regency-era romance and zombie mythology..

In an alternate history of 19th century England, Britain fights a losing war against the spread of a mysterious plague and, subsequently, brain-eating zombies. With undead roaming the countryside, the British people abandon traditional forms of education, turning to Eastern philosophies and martial arts for guidance (and protection) in the pre-apocalypse. To that end, Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance), an aging English gentry, encourages his five daughters to become the most skilled warriors in Britain. Led by the family's second-oldest, Elizabeth (Lily James) the Bennet sisters become formidable zombie-killers - all while maintaining lady-like social conventions (per Mrs. Bennet's campaign to marry her daughters to rich husbands).

However, when the wealthy and handsome Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) takes an interest in the Bennet family's senior sister, Jane (Bella Heathcote), Elizabeth becomes romantic prey to three different suitors: a harsh but skilled zombie hunter, Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley), a bumbling and arrogant rector, Mr. Collins (Matt Smith), and a brave militia hero, Mr. Wickham (Jack Huston). Unfortunately, as Elizabeth struggles to navigate her own desires and the advances of her admirers, she also becomes the target of zombie-sympathizers - who plot to unleash an undead horde onto the only place left untouched by the plague: the walled city of London.

Based on Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 horror-parody of Jane Austen's 1813 literary classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is unwieldy horror-comedy - delivering an amusing but gimmicky blend of Regency-era romance and zombie mythology. Much like its novel source material, the pop-culture mashup premise offers appealing juxtaposition but struggles to stand on its own. Though, once the charm of blade-wielding belles in regency dresses decapitating rotting zombies wears-off, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies doesn't do anything particularly inventive with drama, romance, or zombies (other than blending them all together).

Sam Riley (as Mr. Darcy) and Douglas Booth (Mr. Bingley) in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Director Burr Steers ( Charlie St. Cloud ) has produced a cooky concoction that might appease zombie enthusiasts looking to see the undead invade Jane Austen - but Pride and Prejudice and Zombies isn't provided enough time to utilize the classic novel beyond a framework for reimagined fantasy. While Seth Grahame-Smith's novel isn't an exceptionally deep repurposing of Jane Austen, the book was playful and self-aware enough to be a diverting remix - especially for readers who were familiar enough with the literary classic to appreciate any subtle and not-so-subtle alterations. On the printed page, Grahame-Smith unleashed a clever and captivating chaos that is, on the other hand, surprisingly restrained - as the prose mirrors the absurd compliment of zombie-horror and aristocratic romance.

The film struggles to find that same balance. Steers shoots much of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as colorful period drama but switches stylistic gears for post-apocalyptic action and mythology staging. Instead of an immersive alternate history, much of the Zombies movie adaptation is wrapped around Jane Austen, rather than diffused at a steady pace throughout. Steers attempts to hit all the major plot beats that book readers would expect in a traditional Pride and Prejudice adaptation while also injecting zombie lore, a conspiracy plot, martial arts action sequences, and a major (albeit half-baked) third act set-piece - all at the expense of laying a sturdy foundation for memorable characters and a believable world.

Zombies invade Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The story jumps from one zombified remix of an iconic novel scene to the next, reinforcing that PPZ's gimmick is always priority one; yet, in spite of the film's narrative shortcomings, the cast manages to convey the absurd contrast of Grahame-Smith's reimagining (often where the larger film fails). Scenes of the Bennet girls squabbling and giggling, only to unite in a slow-motion battle with undead monsters moments later, are amusing - as are monologues about love and the nuances of desire... couched within zombocalypse hijinks.

In a cast that is packed with familiar faces, only Lily James (as Elizabeth Bennet) and Sam Riley (as Mr. Darcy) are afforded enough screen time and development to accurately convey the knowing and mischievous tone of Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies novel. Neither is turning in a particularly strong performance but the pair walk a delicate line between melodrama and spoof. In these scenes there's a hint of the genre-defying horror-comedy that Burrs aimed to achieve but the tone is still too unruly, and the script story too convoluted, for the director to consistently maintain the balancing act.

Matt Smith as Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Supporting actors, like Bella Heathcote ( Dark Shadows ) and Douglas Booth ( Jupiter Ascending ) as well as Matt Smith ( Doctor Who ) and Lena Headey ( Game of Thrones ), turn in entertaining counter-points to the featured pair - but, weighed-down by clumsy execution and storytelling, most side-characters are overly-theatrical cliches that exist only to advance the story and absorb jokes made at their expense. No doubt, that's how Austen envisioned many of her central Pride and Prejudice characters but the undead plague setup stretches thin caricatures to the point that their original thematic through lines are too convoluted to communicate anything insightful about them, Elizabeth, or Darcy.

To his credit, Steers delivers several moments of clever contrast, via genuinely striking (and horrific) cinematic language, in which the central mashup hits its stride, and a hint of what the film could have been shines through. Nevertheless, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies does little with such a rich idea - especially when it comes to the movie's zombie and martial arts scenes (a problem that was also present in the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter movie script - which Grahame-Smith penned). By the time Pride and Prejudice and Zombies arrived in theaters, the zombocalypse had already been explored in countless other zombie properties across a wide range of mediums - meaning that, in order to break through the pop culture clutter, Steers needed to do something fresh with the titular undead. Instead, the portrayal of zombies pales (in scale, mythology and action set-pieces) when compared to what audiences have seen in competing zombie properties ( The Walking Dead , World War Z , and even the quirky iZombie ).

The cast of Pride and Prejudice (and Zombies)

As a result, the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies leans disproportionally on its central gimmick - zombies in a 19th century Jane Austen novel. To certain viewers, Steers' adaptation will provide an intriguing blend of contrasts that, much like the Zombies book, will be even more enjoyable to those who are also well-versed in the original Pride and Prejudice text. Yet, given that action is sparse, implementation of zombies is uninspired, and the larger themes of Austen's classic are watered down, rather than enhanced, by the post-apocalyptic re-imagining, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is hard to recommend as casual viewing - even at a brisk 108 minute runtime. It might seem counterintuitive, but viewers who are intrigued by the mashup would be better off investing their time and money in a copy of Seth Grahame-Smith's book.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies runs 108 minutes and is Rated PG-13 for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material. Now playing in theaters.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comment section below.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Directed by Burr Steers, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies follows five sisters who face the pressure of marriage in 19th Century England, while zombies run the streets. The film is based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel, which itself parodies Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Lily James leads the film alongside Sam Riley, Jack Huston, and Bella Heathcote.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Reviews

This isn’t a throwaway movie. Despite its issues, it is still fun and manages to be more entertaining than it had any right to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2022

Exploits our culture's current obsession with zombies, but it lacks the winking charm hinted upon with its title.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 22, 2022

Seth Grahame-Smith's novel brings a modern classic bang up to date while always maintaining respect for the original material, and it looks as though this adaptation will do it justice.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2021

Makes the best of its one joke, the mashup of Austen romantic fiction with zombie realism, deftly (and ridiculously) blending the sublime with the ultraviolent.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 3, 2021

What could have potentially turned into an awfully overdone film, turned into a thoroughly enjoyable thrill ride that is no short of laughs.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2021

The sharp repartee of Austen's characters transcends the mediocrity of merely alternating zombie bloodshed with costume drama routines.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 5, 2020

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is just the sort of goofy fun that the title implies.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2020

The biggest problem with the movie is that the very delicately crafted PG-13 level blood and gore keeps things from really becoming interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: 5 | Feb 24, 2020

It is a shambling mound of undead intellectual property grimly stomping its way through the world, devouring all dumb money in its path.

Full Review | Jan 13, 2020

Bloody delicious!

Full Review | Nov 5, 2019

As a film, it's still amusing, though likely to resonate better with Team Austen than Team Undead.

Full Review | Oct 28, 2019

Whether it the best alt-version of Pride and Prejudice is up for argument but one thing is for sure. The Bennett girls have never been more badass.

Full Review | Oct 17, 2019

The romance is heartless, the plot is brainless, and the action is gutless - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies survives purely on its spine.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 17, 2019

It's silly but also creative and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 15, 2019

An excruciatingly long and tepid 107 minutes, a hollow pastiche of both the costume drama and the zombie movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 8, 2019

The inclusion of zombies doesn't make it a kick-ass tale of love and is ultimately a disappointing new take on Jane Austen's novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 5, 2019

It's silly and over the top, for sure, but I really, really liked it. Also, even if you've read the book there will still be some surprises!

Full Review | Mar 2, 2019

There's a balance to be struck between respecting the integrity of Pride and Prejudice while having fun with the wacky experiment of throwing zombies into the mix, and Steers' attempt is decidedly wobbly.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Feb 22, 2019

It's a fun movie that lends a wonderfully weird new energy to a literary classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 20, 2019

The many plot strands the script tries to weave together get so horrifically tangled they choke the humor out of any given situation.

Full Review | Feb 15, 2019

‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ Review: Coasting on a Clever Concept

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The brilliance of Seth Grahame-Smith ’s best-selling novel is right there in the title - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies . It’s simple yet insanely clever. Perhaps the industry is oversaturated with zombie outbreaks at the moment, but there’s a reason for that. They’re outrageous and addictive thrills that I, for one, can’t get enough of, especially when there’s a smart hook to the scenario like this. The idea to simply add zombies to the Jane Austen classic is a winning concept and Grahame-Smith finds some very smart ways to use the outbreak to shed new light on the original narrative, but director Burr Steers couldn’t seem to find the sweet spot between the original and the reimagining to make the big screen rendition work as well as it could have.

Just like the classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is set in 19th century England and focuses on Elizabeth Bennet ( Lily James ). Her mother is determined to find Liz and her four sisters wealthy, eligible suitors, but Liz is an independent, headstrong woman with little to no interest in submitting to societal norms or marrying because it’s what’s expected of her. As if that’s not stressful enough, Grahame-Smith opted to throw another challenge at this English literature icon - a zombie outbreak. So now, in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , the Bennet sisters aren’t just trying to find their place in a world that’s obsessed with reputation and class, but also one that’s overrun with the undead as well.

First off, Steers and his team deserve some serious credit for jumping feet first into a project that was going to be nearly impossible to pull off. Whether you’re a hardcore Jane Austen fan, a moviegoer with a taste for the undead or perhaps someone who appreciates both, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies still needed to hit a very particular balance between the two to ensure that viewers would appreciate both Elizabeth’s romantic pursuits and her dedication to being a skilled warrior. It is abundantly clear that Steers and his team knew that and went for it, but even with the best intentions, many of their attempts to combine the traditional Pride and Prejudice narrative with a zombie outbreak just didn’t work.

The most glaring problem with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is that the villains’ intentions make little to no sense. The book never explains why the outbreak begins or how the disease is progressing, but the movie attempts to do so and while that does lend itself to a stunning opening credit sequence, it also winds up taking a good deal of time away from some much-needed character development and leaves the film ridden with plot holes, too.

When you cast a guy like Jack Huston as Mr. Wickham, you’d expect the screenwriters to give the role a boost, but this particular book-to-screen change is overly complicated and isn’t nearly as memorable as where the character winds up in the book. Perhaps more screen time for Lydia Bennet ( Ellie Bamber ) and for Wickham and Darcy’s ( Sam Riley ) history could have helped, but it still seems as though all the character development in the world couldn’t have filled the gaping holes in this portion of the movie. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the movie also adds The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Why? Perhaps there was more to their involvement that wound up on the cutting room floor, but in the final version of the film, their presence adds nothing to the story beyond a few haunting visuals.

PPZ is also a bit of a technical disappointment. The film barely scratches the surface of the idea that, in this zombie outbreak, the infected can retain some of their human personality, but the zombie design is on-point and does what it can to highlight that concept while also throwing in some traditional gore. Trouble is, strong special effects make-up, production design and costume design isn’t going to do much for a movie that is so poorly lit. There are a number of noticeably dark scenes and a handful of others that are shot in a way that makes it nearly impossible to track the action and fight choreography. At one point, we also get something that looks like a tacky Instagram vignette that doesn’t enhance the moment and is so glaringly obvious that it winds up taking you out of the movie.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies could have made for a far better big screen adaptation, but what Steers winds up with is entertaining enough. Yes, the aforementioned flaws are major problems, but both Pride and Prejudice and the zombie outbreak scenarios have an inherent appeal that makes the film a good deal of fun regardless. Plus, James and Riley elevate the material immensely. James absolutely nails this rendition of Elizabeth Bennet. Her version of the character reflects the same blend of stubbornness and passion we’ve seen in previous versions of Pride and Prejudice , but she’s also got a naturally captivating on-screen presence that makes the character her own. Riley has a unique charm as well, and successfully takes Darcy from an “insufferable prick” to someone you can grow to like, perfectly mirroring his on-screen relationship with Liz.

This is definitely their movie, but Matt Smith comes dangerously close to stealing the spotlight with minimal screen time as Parson Collins. He lights up every scene he’s in with some much needed energy and levity. The movie could have used much more of that and more of Lena Headey ’s eye patch-wearing Lady Catherine de Bourgh as well. Steers’ dedication to the Jane Austen original serves the film well here and there, but the standout moments are the ones when characters embrace and have some fun with the absurdity of their situation.

So no, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies definitely isn’t as smart and sassy as I hoped, but there is an unstoppable entertainment value to the concept and some of the performances that make it fun and enjoyable enough.

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Lena Headey
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Den of Geek

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Review

Jane Austen and the undead make for a surprisingly lively (and gory) marriage in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

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Long-time comic readers will be familiar with the concept of “What If?” It’s a question asked when a creator wants to play with familiar characters outside their normal setting or circumstances. Going by the title of this genre-blending action movie based on the 2009 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, it may be hard to understand how combining Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and zombies might work. But it is in fact one of the most accurate titles a film can have, because it is indeed Austen’s literary classic if it were set in a world full of zombies.

Trying to combine action and horror genres into a period romance is not something that’s worked well in the past with obvious missteps like any number of failed attempts to adapt The Three Musketeers or even something as recent as Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak . Yet, the concept of Grahame-Smith’s popular book works better as an action film than it does as a novel.

Adapted and directed by Burr Steers, the filmmaker behind the indie fave Igby Goes Down and a couple Zac Efron films, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies works first and foremost because he finds just the right balance between the two disparate elements that makes it seem almost natural for the story of Elizabeth Bennett (Lily James) and her sisters to be transplanted into a world of zombies.

But this isn’t just a simple edict of “Let’s throw a bunch of zombies into Austen’s story,” because there’s some actual world-building involved to explain how people can be killed by a zombie but not fully transform until they actually eat someone else’s brains. This may not seem very important until later in the film when we encounter “unturned zombies” who look horrific but still have their faculties in terms of being able to live a normal life.

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Other than that, it’s basically Pride and Prejudice , so we essentially have the same story of a family trying to get out of poverty by marrying off their daughters.

In this case, the Bennett girls are more than just boy-crazy young women hoping to find rich and handsome suitors; they’ve all been trained in the martial arts to help fight the zombies that have permeated their world.

Following her role last year as Disney’s Cinderella , Lily James makes a fairly kick-ass Elizabeth Bennett, dealing with the same conflicts from Austen’s book, as she’s being pursued by a series of undesirable men while her sisters desperately try to find husbands. All of them have an eye on the real prize, the wealthy Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) who immediately is stricken by Lizzie’s beautiful sister Jane (Bella Heathcoate), while Lizzy herself is constantly encountering the brusque Captain Darcy (Sam Riley), who seems to have as little interest in her as she does he.

The youngest Bennett girl Lydia (Ellie Bamber) has her sights set on the dashing soldier George Wickham (Jack Huston), but he also has his eyes on Lizzy, and then along comes the Parson Collins (Matt Smith), who will take what he can get but is most interested in Lizzy.

The complex romantic entanglements are deliberately faithful to Austen’s novel and its previous adaptations, but then every once in a while, a zombie or two will show up to disrupt the romantic encounters and marital dealmaking.

At times, it’s surprising how funny and entertaining the movie is, especially if you’re familiar with Austen’s original work, as there are points when the movie takes specific conversations directly from the book, except in most cases, the dialogue is being said in the middle of a martial arts fight.

Not all the cast is up to the performance by James, who’s able to transition into the corset and heaving bosom role quite readily, while being equally convincing in her action scenes. Sam Riley tries and fails to live up to the many better Darcys that have come before him, but Matt Smith is deliciously funny as Collins, having to hold up to the standard set by Tom Hollander who was so good in the 2005 Joe Wright film. Smith’s clearly having fun playing up Collins’ nerdy enthusiasm that makes him so unappealing to most women. (One might wonder whether Smith was deliberately emulating one of his Doctor Who fans when portraying the character.)

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Steers rounds out the mostly British cast with two ringers with Charles Dance playing Mr. Bennett and his Game of Thrones daughter Lena Headey as Lady Catherine, Darcy’s aunt who also happens to be a formidable zombie hunter herself.

Beyond the great ensemble cast, Steers has made a film that’s reverential to the epic nature of period costume dramas that have come before but never skimps on the gore or action one expects from a zombie movie.

This is quite an accomplishment in itself, but it does lead to a question some might have, which is: who might want to watch Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ? Certainly women familiar with Austen’s books who can also appreciate The Walking Dead. Also, fans of Matt Smith’s turn as Doctor Who should find a lot to enjoy here. It also delivers the Shakespearean level of theatrics found in the better Underworld movies.

The results are fantastically fun and clever, surprisingly so at times, because the marketing focuses so much on the zombies and martial arts it’s likely to lose those who may just want to watch a fun take on Austen’s tale if set in an alternate universe.

Edward Douglas

Based in New York City, Edward Douglas has been writing about movies for 14 years, including his weekly movie preview column The Weekend Warrior. He's a…

Sony Pictures Releasing

Summary Jane Austen's classic tale of the tangled relationships between lovers from different social classes in 19th century England is faced with a new challenge -- an army of undead zombies.

Directed By : Burr Steers

Written By : Burr Steers, Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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Film Review: ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’

Tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt substantial audiences.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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Tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt substantial audiences, “ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ” is in fact a moderately entertaining film, not deficient in old-fashioned costume drama when it pleases, nor in the power of being clever where it chooses, but awkward and unsatisfying. It comes with a very encouraging pedigree, based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s high-concept bestseller; it has the fortune of well-qualified cast members, all in the habit of investing their roles with more than they ought, and taking cues from other films of rank; and its producers ought therefore in every respect to have been entitled to think well of their box office prospects, and meanly of others. However, in Hollywood, the power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possessor of the rights to a hot property, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance. But the public’s good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.

It is not hard to fix on the minute, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation for America’s passing fixation with cheeky genre mash-ups. It was not too long ago. Yet the trend reached its endpoint before this film had begun shooting. As a novel, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” cheerfully exploited public-domain laws by combining the actual text of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel with additional new details that wove in parallel tales of a zombie plague (even impertinently crediting Miss Austen as co-author), creating a literary sensation and a wealth of imitators upon its publication in 2009. Gimmick or no, the novel managed to combine its warring components charmingly: Such squeamish readers as cannot bear to connect their Georgian-era drawing-room comedies with brain chomping and exploding heads are not worth a regret. In director-screenwriter Burr Steers ‘ filmic adaptation, however, there seems a gulf impassable between them, and the film’s cast must learn to be content with being cleverer than the material deserves.

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The tonal progressions of the film are very rapid; it jumps from dancing to zombie slaying, and zombie slaying to talk of matrimony in a moment. It opens gaily, with a prologue that introduces the leather-frock-coated Fitzwilliam Darcy ( Sam Riley ) — a gentleman of handsome features, noble mien, 10,000 pounds a year, and a quick trigger finger — as he investigates and eliminates a zombie infestation at a whist party. As further explained by a delightful storybook credits sequence, England has been overrun by hordes of the undead, uncharmingly grouped, which appear to uncommon advantage in their sieges against the living.

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For the Shaolin Temple-trained Bennet sisters, of which the eldest Jane (Bella Heathcote) and the headstrong Elizabeth ( Lily James ) are the only ones of consequence, the zombies are but a minor obstacle in the path of the more pressing matter of securing suitable marriages. Using generous dialogue directly from Austen’s novel, Jane and Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth, the type of happy actor to whom almost every female eye is turned) undergo a dissonant courtship, while Elizabeth and Darcy play out a more tempestuous battle of wits amid the zombie raids. That expression of “violently in love” is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite that it gives very little idea of Elizabeth and Darcy’s repartee, which at one point encompasses hand-to-hand combat and verbal jousting simultaneously. Their performances are well met, and their bouts of acrobatic flirtation provide the film’s chief pleasures: Is not general incivility the essence of both love and kung fu?

Regarding the sequences of zombie mayhem, Steers’ camera does not move over these scenes in the masterly manner which one sees so many directors do. He does not have the same force or rapidity, and with the violence confined to PG-13 parameters, it does not produce the same expression. Jump scares and genuine suspense are different things, though the two are often thought of synonymously here.

As for the zombies themselves, they attack in various ways — with bare-faced lurching, ingenious strategies and distant swarming; but making them interesting eludes the skill of all involved, and the film is at last obliged to concoct a secondhand doomsday scenario to increase the stakes. At intervals, Steers appears as eager to escape all the swordplay as the characters, with the scenes of ballroom courtship curiously more intense than the scenes of carnage. (Adieu to dismemberment and spleens! What are flesh-eating ghouls to quadrilles and duets after supper?)

In acting, James is the superior. Riley is by no means deficient, but James’ performance is clever. She is at the same time haughty, reserved and deadly, and her manners, though alive to the potential for parody, are always presented with a straight face. In that respect her co-star has greatly the advantage. Riley seems sure of playing the material for laughs wherever he appears; James is continually straddling the line. Elsewhere in the cast, Lena Headey is excessively diverting as the Amazonian superwarrior Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Matt Smith, ideally cast as the odious Mr. Collins, is all astonishment. (Jane Austen contributed to this review.)

Reviewed at Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, Calif., Feb. 1, 2016. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 107 MIN.

Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Screen Gems and Cross Creek Pictures presentation of a Sierra Pictures, Madriver Pictures, QC Entertainment, Allison Shearmur Prods., Handsomecharlie Films production in association with Head Gear Films. Produced by Marc Butan, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, Sean McKittrick, Allison Shearmur, Natalie Portman, Annette Savitch. Executive producers, Sue Baden-Powell, Lauren Selig, Compton Ross, Phil Hunt, Edward H. Hamm, Jr., Alee Keshishian, Nick Meyer, Kimberly Fox.
Crew: Directed, written by Burr Steers, from the novel by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith. Camera (color), Remi Adefarasin; editor, Padraic McKinley; music, Fernando Velazquez; music supervisor, Laura Katz; production designer, Dave Warren; costume designer, Julian Day; supervising art director, Steve Carter; set decorator, Naomi Moore; sound (Dolby Digital), Jon Casali; supervising sound editor, Martyn Zub; re-recording mixers, Michael Barry, Zub; visual effects supervisors, Simon Stanley-Clamp, John Bair, David Isyomin, David M. V. Jones; visual effects, Cinesite, Phosphene & Co., Rampage; special effects supervisor, Chris Reynolds; assistant director, Matthey Penry-Davey; casting, John Papsidera, Des Hamilton.
With: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston, Bella Heathcote, Douglas Booth, Matt Smith, Charles Dance, Sally Phillips, Lena Headey. (English, Japanese, Mandarin dialogue)

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Review

A TALE OF TWO NARRATIVES

Back in 1813, English novelist Jane Austen published her newest book Pride and Prejudice, following the narrative of character Elizabeth Bennet, as she deals with society issues of manners, mortality, upbringing, and marriage in 19 th Century England, while also courting her relationship with the prideful gentlemen Mr. Darcy. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice went on to become a literary classic, selling over 20 million copies, adapted on several mediums throughout its lifespan, and still retain its fascination with modern readers. In 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith’s published Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an alternative take on Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with modern-day fixation of zombies thrown into the mix. Interestingly, the book was a success as Seth Grahame-Smith followed up his literary work with the 2012 book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Now, several years later, Lionsgate and director Burr Steers, brings to life Grahame-Smith’s twisted Jane Austen novel to life with the film Pride and Prejudice and Zombies . Does this movie marriage the two concepts cohesively or is it a failed cinematic mashup?

Set in 19 th Century England, a zombie plague has broken out across the country due to nation’s trade efforts that reached too far into parts unknown. Raising his daughters, including Elizabeth (Lily James) and Jane (Bella Heathcoate), to be zombie-killing warriors with Chinese martial arts training, Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance) also secures the martial prospects with intense vigor, with Jane falling for Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth). As Jane and Bingley begin their courtship, Elizabeth is caught off-guard by Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley), a general officer committed to hunting zombies whose arrogant pride often blocks matters of the hear. As a zombie apocalypse spreads across London, threatening civility with horde of the undead, Elizabeth is placed in a difficult position, with an interest from Mr. Wickham (Jack Huston), a noble soldier who forces the young lady to choose between duty and her ambiguous love with Darcy, while her combat skills are needed to battlefield as whispers are spreading that the end of days approaches.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

Working at a bookstore, I known all of Jane Austen’s written work and yet, beyond reading Pride Prejudice, I haven’t read them. I know…where “literary dunce” hat for saying that. Being a movie buff. I’ve seeing a lot of the film adaption of Austen’s stories, including the two recent Pride and Prejudice movies (the 1995 version and the 2003 version). I remember when Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out and everyone was talking about and how the two concepts collided in a unique storytelling way. I was intrigued, but never picked up the book. Spending a lot of time at the movie theaters, I kept on seeing the trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and (I have to admit) was sort intrigue by to eventually buy a ticket to see. After seeing it, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , while entertaining with its premise, doesn’t really reinvent itself in the categories of romance, drama, action, or zombie fascination, besides the obvious of blend them all together.

Director Burr Steers, who previously directed Charlie St. Cloud and 17 Again , takes up the mantle of bringing Seth Grahame-Smith’s book to life on the big screen. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is definitely an interesting concept and Steers is up for the task, bringing a bizarre effectiveness to English romance that juxtaposes zombie-horror aspect. Steers seems to keep up appearances, creating the film’s backdrop setting of 19 th Century that’s reminiscent to everyone’s imaging (wardrobe costumes, set pieces, locales, etc.), while adding some new ideas into its alternative time period. It’s also interesting to see the “marriage” of the two ideals play out in the movie, with the courtship of love and fighting zombies thrown together with stylized playful charm.

The main problem, especially with page to screen adaptations, is how much written context can be saved as feature films have a “time constraint” on what can be said and shown in its undertaking. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies feels like its burden of carrying two stories in one (the original Jane Austen story and Seth Grahame-Smith’s reimaging of it). As I said above, it very interesting concept and does have moments where the two narrative hits its intended strides, but the movie, beyond its surface context, does little to enrich the two ideas. Steers tries to cram a lot of iconic scenes from Pride and Prejudice, only to have them watered down and / or rushed into the frenzy of zombie attacks. Even the film’s third act, which almost completely deviates from Austen’s work, is haphazard, feeling more chaotic than a the “climatic” resolution battle of a commonplace narrative.

As for the zombies themselves, it’s a little “too little, too late” to fully capitalize on its premise. Due to its popularity in pop culture reference, the uprising of the zombocalypse has been countless explored in other properties and across the many media facets (books, TV, films, video games etc.). Thus, this means that Steers needed to “refresh” the whole concept of these undead beings to standout in the crowd of mainstream zombie clutter. Unfortunately, beyond its inclusion to Austen’s literary work, Steers does not accomplish this task as the zombies themselves are, more or less, the weakest element in this new retelling. Sure, they make-up usage for the zombies is pretty good (and little bit gruesome), but they ultimately pale in comparison to others zombies (i.e. The Walking Dead , World War Z , and Games of Thrones ).

The movie’s cast is jam-packed with familiar faces, portraying all the beloved characters from Pride and Prejudice, with some playing the original personas, while others are more slightly modified to fit this retelling. Downton Abbey alum Lily James does well as Elizabeth Bennet, proving to handle all the grace of a 18 th Century lady as well as handling Austen’s dialogue lines. Coinciding with that, Sam Riley plays Mr. Darcy, who (like James) is giving enough screen time to make a lasting impression. Riley has the overall “stuffiness” persona of Darcy as well as the mischievous tone that Grahame-Smith did to rework the character, but, like the zombies, pale in comparison to other who played the part before (i.e. Colin Firth or even Matthew Macfadyen). In turn, both are good, but fall short due to the script’s story being too convoluted of balancing the romance saga of Elizabeth and Darcy, while thrilling their new personas of zombie-killers.

Of the supporting cast, the best is former Doctor Who Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Bennet’s irritant cousin Collins (if you know the P and P story, then you know the character). Smith’s rendition of Collin’s is a welcomed one, a really delight in the feature even though he’s more in the background. Boardwalk Empire alum Jack Huston certainly looks the part of George Wickham as his character as little bit more to do than Austen’s original story, but again falters underneath a weak execution and clunky script. In truth, the same can be said for the rest of the cast, including Douglas Booth as Mr. Bingley and Game of Thrones stars Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet and Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, which are a little bit more “theatrically bolder” in this version of Austen’s tale, but merely in the background, acting as story devices caricatures.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s a tale of two narratives in the literary Austen / zombie mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies . Burr Steers’s theatrical adaptation of this peculiar reimaging of the classic Jane Austen story has its merits, including a recognizable cast and is well-presented with enough 19 th Century charm and nuances as well as its outlandish zombie premise. However, the balancing of Austen’s original tale and of Seth Grahame-Smith’s work is a little bit at odds with another, with iconic P and P scenes watered-down, a haphazard third act and yes…more uninspired zombie implementations. To me, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an iffy choice, proving an interesting piece of work, but nothing grand beyond its colliding narrative premise. Some viewers, most notably those well-versed with the Austen’s original text, might wholeheartedly buy into (and love) the contrast of romance and zombies, while others (causal moviegoers) might steer clear of seeing this strange mashup of turning Jane Austen’s characters into zombie-killing warriors.

3.2 Out of 5 (Iffy Choice)

Reviewed on february 9th, 2016.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is rated PG-13 for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material

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DVD & Streaming

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Action/Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Horror , Romance , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

February 5, 2016
Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet; Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy; Bella Heathcote as Jane Bennet; Ellie Bamber as Lydia Bennet; Millie Brady as Mary Bennet; Suki Waterhouse as Kitty Bennet; Douglas Booth as Mr. Bingley; Sally Phillips as Mrs. Bennet; Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet; Jack Huston as George Wickham; Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh; Matt Smith as Parson Collins

Home Release Date

May 31, 2016
Burr Steers

Distributor

Sony Pictures

Movie Review

The labors of the 19th-century British aristocracy are never done. There are balls to attend, card games to play, gowns to wear. Oh, and of course, zombies to kill.

The zombies spring from the ground like so many gory roses, you see. And while they can certainly add a bit of energy to a dull dinner party, it’s never pleasant when the host winds up being the main course.

Such is the England that Elizabeth Bennet and her four comely sisters have been born into. Though technically part of the island’s nobility, the Bennets have fallen upon hard times. Their father was never particularly rich, and what wealth he does have must pass on to the oldest male relative. Which means there’s a bit of pressure to marry the sisters off into stable, if not extravagantly wealthy homes.

Alas, the kind Mr. Bennet was also far more interested in making sure his daughters were more skilled in the arts of zombie killing than in exercising femininely wiles. “A woman is either highly trained or highly refined,” Elizabeth says. “One cannot be both in such times.”

Still, Elizabeth and her siblings are quite the lookers, and it’s not long before a bevy of suitors come knocking. There’s Mr. Bingley, new heir to one of the region’s finest houses (and a fine fortune beyond that). There’s Parson Collins, the sisters’ pompous cousin who will eventually claim the Bennet estate. There’s mysterious George Wickham, a military man who has been brought in to deal with the most recent zombie incursions.

And then there’s brooding Mister—excuse me— Colonel Darcy, a man whose skill with a blade is beyond reproach, but his manners less so.

All these men have designs on the Bennet women, especially the lethal, headstrong Elizabeth. Many wish to claim her hand.

Hopefully the zombies won’t claim it first.

Positive Elements

Despite the presence of the walking dead, the manners of the British aristocracy are still impeccable. And it’s always nice to hear people take time to show basic courtesy and etiquette even as they hack off the occasional undead head.

But the qualities of these men and women go deeper than just them knowing how to mind their p’s and q’s. Elizabeth in particular shows a great deal of gumption in saving her sisters—be it from an unhealthy marriage match, a horde of zombies or, occasionally, both. Additionally, she stands on principle in an age when such stances aren’t always rewarded.

Col. Darcy is also a man of principle (if, at times, a bit more brusquely spoken than polite society would like). He’s a relentless zombie hunter, and he works like crazy to keep his skills up (much to the dismay of his shrubbery). He’s always keen to save a life—whether it’s in only figurative or quite literal jeopardy.

Spiritual Elements

Wickham takes Elizabeth to a very strange church called St. Lazarus, where the half-undead—still in possession of their minds despite their craving for brains—listen to sermons (delivered by, you might say, a like-minded cleric) and partake of communion, the “blood” and “body” components composed of pig parts. It is thus that they remain at least partly human. (It’s only when they give in to temptation and eat human brains for the first time that they truly become zombies.) As Elizabeth says, they are kept human through “religious piety and pigs’ brains.”

[ Spoiler Warning ] This would be a twisted yet interesting rumination, perhaps, on the saving power of Jesus—who, after all, has taken Christians all from death into new life—but, alas, real brains are sneaked into the communion banquet, thus turning these faithful few into the fully undead and, thus, in dire need of extermination.

Parson Collins is a pompous pastor with a very high opinion of himself. He volunteers to read several sermons (a tedium from which the Bennet girls find reasons to excuse themselves). He also suggests that the book of Revelation tells us that the Antichrist will lead an army of the undead to knock off the rest of us. (It’s something I must have missed in my own Bible reading.) We hear of the “four horsemen of the zombie apocalypse,” black-cloaked braineaters with top hats and masks.

A Bennet girl crosses herself after killing a zombie. When she’s confronted by two more—a mother and her baby—she declares, “By God, this cannot be!” A couple of couples get married in a church by a Christian pastor.

Sexual & Romantic Content

The women of the 19th century aristocracy are shown here to have dressed fairly modestly—except, of course, for their necklines. As such, we see lots of cleavage, especially when Darcy and Elizabeth fight each other and Darcy slices a few buttons off the top of Elizabeth’s dress. (He winds up on top of her, the two breathing heavily.) Elsewhere, the Bennets strap a variety of knives to their thighs and stick them in their boots, giving the camera opportunity to ogle both their bare legs and lacy undergarments.

An older gentleman, examining Darcy’s body for bite marks, appears to leer. “No zombie bites on this pristine, young body,” he says. Male nudity shows up via classical statue and painting. Mrs. Bennet manipulates events to allow one of her daughters to stay overnight at Mr. Bingsley’s (to further the matchmaking). And an unsavory ne’er-do-well runs away with the Bennets’ youngest daughter. (We learn it’s not the first time he’s done so with a young girl.) We see several couples kiss.

Violent Content

Whether in The Walking Dead future or Jane Austen’s 1800s, the only good zombie is a dead zombie. As such, we see a quantity of undead heads and limbs chopped off grotesquely. Creatures are skewered, stabbed and thrown in ovens to be baked “alive.” Darcy and Elizabeth spend a pleasant afternoon stabbing through soil in a potter’s graveyard, so slaughtering the undead (while dodging their outstretched hands) before they can officially rise. Some zombies are blown up. Some have their heads blown off. In flashback we see someone kill his own father (or rather, the zombie that used to be his father). A couple of zombies are hacked in the back of their heads with axes.

‘Course, these shamblers are none-too-pretty to begin with, most of their faces sagging down in various states of disrepair—skin flapping off leaving muscle and bone clearly visible. One girl’s nose has partly decayed, and mucus bubbles off to the side. And the bites they perpetrate upon the living always look quite gruesome.

Humans get into some pretty serious fights with other humans, too. As mentioned, Darcy and Elizabeth go at it, hitting and kicking each other, breaking up furniture along the way. Two men get into a swordfight wherein grievous injuries are inflicted. The Bennet girls train relentlessly, and they’re shown hitting, kicking and leg-whipping one another. Elizabeth battles a behemoth of a man; he chokes her and holds her up by her neck before she finally flings him into a pillar, knocking him senseless and sending part of the house crumbling down around his head.

We see the bodies of British soldiers with gaping holes in their heads. (Someone apparently stole their brains.) A head with the top of the skull missing sits in the middle of a salon. Darcy, as mentioned, beheads shrubs and garden statues. Mrs. Bennet bites her daughter—not because she’s a zombie, but because she’s drunk.

Crude or Profane Language

One use each of “b–tard,” “bloody h—” and “b-gger.” God’s name is misused once or twice.

Drug & Alcohol Content

When Mrs. Bennet gets tipsy at a ball, she blurts out an unfortunate secret which is overheard by Darcy. Elsewhere, people drink wine, port, sherry, etc.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Some people lie or mislead. Others are just kind of jerks.

Zombies can sometimes be handy metaphors for whatever societal ills we seem to be dealing with at the moment, and they can even wield a bit of spiritual heft if you look at them in just the right way.

That’s mostly why I read Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 best-seller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , upon which this movie is (loosely) based. But in so doing, I grew to appreciate much more Jane Austen’s original book, Pride and Prejudice . The more I read, the less interested I became in the “unmentionables” (as zombies are referred to in the book). Austen’s original words were what sang in this added-onto edition—her charm and wit came through in Elizabeth, Darcy and a bevy of other characters. In the end, I reacted to the appearance of a zombie much like the Bennet sisters did: as an annoying distraction to what was really important.

Alas, I don’t think the makers of this movie ever quite grasped the charm of either Austen’s original novel or the kooky appeal of Grahame-Smith’s armed invasion of it. It instead turns this strange, surreal mash-up into a pre-steampunk comic adventure overlaid with apocalyptic urgency.

Just as Grahame-Smith must’ve looked at Austen’s book and said, “You know what this needs? Zombies!” it feels as though the movie’s creators looked at Grahame-Smith’s book and said, “You know what this needs? A violently dramatic, life-or-death reason for being!” Which is the exact opposite of the silliness Grahame-Smith seemed to have in mind.

I’m certainly not trying to prop up the book in any way, mind you. I’m merely making the point that the movie is little more than a bloody mess (with enough beheadings and limb-choppings for me to question why it didn’t get an R rating) that feels a lot like all of its extras: mostly dead.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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All the winners, ‘pride and prejudice and zombies’: film review.

Jane Austen's beloved comedy of manners gets defaced with reanimated corpses in a lifeless adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's high-concept best-seller.

By Keith Uhlich

Keith Uhlich

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that most people will do anything to make money. And really, who’s to blame the editor at Quirk Books who first suggested to author Seth Grahame-Smith (he of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter infamy) that there was great potential in mashing up Jane Austen’s enduringly popular 19th-century novel Pride and Prejudice with the living dead genre? Ladies must live, bottom lines must be met and the trends of the moment must be exploited.

Release date: Feb 05, 2016

Once the final product — titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and released in April 2009 — became a runaway best-seller, there seemed little point in letting out a Chris Crocker-esque “Leave Jane Austen alone!” But what will those innumerable readers think of this long-delayed movie adaptation, which has gone through so many iterations (at highest profile it was to star Natalie Portman and be directed by David O. Russell) that it now resembles something of a reanimated corpse itself? Lumbering, lifeless and — strange thing to say about a cadaver — almost entirely charmless.

Almost entirely, because both Lily James, as headstrong heroine Elizabeth Bennet , and Sam Riley , as her brooding suitor Mr. Darcy, make for a delightful onscreen pair. And whenever they’re able to do Austen’s comedy of manners straight (which is rarely), it’s easy to get involved in the slow-build romance that’s made many a reader swoon.

Unfortunately there’s the matter of the brain-craving zombies the duo have to deal with in almost every scene. These ravenous stiffs have swarmed across 19th-century Britain and are now very close to bringing about the apocalypse. It should come as no surprise that Elizabeth’s other potential beau, the manipulative Mr. Wickham ( Jack Huston ), is in large part responsible. Nor should it be a bombshell that the original book’s sharp social satire makes for an awkward fit with the demands of a tale about gluttonous ghouls from beyond the grave.

To be fair, there’s promise in even a one-joke premise like this. One of the few inspired ideas is turning the sequence in which Elizabeth refuses Darcy’s first marriage proposal into a literal brawl. It’s terrific — though fleeting — fun watching both characters roundhouse-kick each other while speaking in bodice-era patois.

But screenwriter-director Burr Steers ( Igby Goes Down , Charlie St. Cloud ) shows little affinity for the horror elements, keeping the gore strictly PG-13 (decapitations and other such entrail-spilling moments tend to happen tastefully offscreen , blunting any truly transgressive impact) and proving extremely ineffectual at filming action scenes. There should be a visceral charge in watching Elizabeth and her sisters slo-mo strut their way through a high-society ball with swords drawn, slicing down every zombie in their midst. Yet it plays like a half-hearted riff on Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ s uniquely feminist archness: Girls in corsets kicking undead ass … cool! Except not.

Best curl up with a good book, instead. I know one you might like …

Distributor: Sony/ ScreenGems Production: Cross Creek Pictures, Handsomecharlie Films, MadRiver Pictures, Head Gear Films, Darko Entertainment Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Lena Headey , Douglas Booth, Matt Smith, Jack Huston, Charles Dance, Bella Heathcote Director: Burr Steers Screenwriter: Burr Steers, based on the novels by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin Editor: Padraic McKinley Music: Fernando Velázquez

Rated PG-13, 108 minutes

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Review: <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i>—Jane Austen, with Teeth

Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies —Jane Austen, with Teeth

Lily James, as Elizabeth Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

T he pleasures of Burr Steers’ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies —adapted from Seth Grahame-Smith’s zombiefied retooling of Jane Austen’s masterwork—are surprisingly sturdy, considering the whole enterprise is built on a fragile gimmick: Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) isn’t just a Regency smartie, but also a ruthless slayer of the hordes of undead that have invaded England. (The movie’s preamble explains that no one really knows what caused the influx of brain-eating beasties, though many suspect “the French were to blame.”) Still, this zombie-ridden world isn’t so different from Austen’s: Elizabeth and her four sisters, including the eldest, Jane (Bella Heathcote), need to ensure their financial security by finding husbands. Luckily, all five are well versed in the art of zombie destruction—but even though they’re better at kicking zombie ass than most men they know, they’re still dependent on men for the day-to-day basics.

Elizabeth meets her match, in both romance and zombie-thrashing acuity, in Sam Riley’s Darcy: In an early scene, he dispatches a pesky brain eater with a broken sherry glass, and later steps in to save Elizabeth from a seemingly benign dowager who’s really looking for a meal. But more often than not, it’s Elizabeth (or one of her sisters) who’s swooping in to save the gents. At its best, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has some of the feisty energy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Elizabeth and her sisters pinwheel through the air like wuxia warriors, taking on the sluggish, witless invaders with weapons they’ve artfully sharpened themselves. (An amusing pre-party sequence shows the sisters, rendered in baby-powder soft-focus, dressing in their finery, fastening garters and leather knife holsters around their milky thighs.)

Still, the novelty of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies wears thin in the last third: How is it that the threat of a zombie apocalypse is always more thrilling than the event itself? But Riley and James help carry the picture to the finish line, and not just because they’re good at exchanging the requisite smoldering glances. James glows with the understated dignity of a classic English rose, whether she’s wearing an empire gown or an intentionally anachronistic black leather bustier. And Riley, in his high-collared leather zombie-killer’s coat, makes a dashing—and suitably inscrutable—Darcy. In Austen’s novel, Darcy’s social awkwardness, so entwined with his integrity and his intelligence, is key to his appeal. Riley captures that essence: his prowess at clobbering mindless demon creatures is just a handy extra, like the ability to unscrew a stubborn jar cap or reach something on a high shelf. Our Elizabeth is fully capable of taking care of herself, but it’s still nice to have a man around the house—especially when zombies are afoot.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Fans of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — okay, there are no fans of that 2012 cinematic fizzle — are bound to be intrigued by what writer-director Burr Steers (his Igby Goes Down still resonates with me) has done to put the bite on Jane Austen. You can’t accuse Pride and Prejudice and Zombies of false advertising since it totally lives up to the one-joke punch of its title. Did I mention that novelist Seth Grahame-Smith wrote both of the bestsellers that these films are based on?

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Ready to co-opt the text of Austen’s 1813 novel at will (public domain and all that), Steers steers his gorgeously garbed ladies and gentlemen of 19th-century England onto what looks like the set of The Walking Dead. Don’t get your hopes up. PP&Z is rated PG-13, so the gore is decidedly decorous. But before repetition dulls the party, Pride gets in a few juicy innings. If you enjoyed the lovely Lily James in Downtown Abbey and Cinderella (I sure did), you’ll be pleased to see her here as Elizabeth, the most headstrong and independent of the poor but marriageable Bennet sisters. Elizabeth still has it in for the snobbish Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley), but he’s an ace zombie hunter and that comes in handy in any century. The movie begins with a naked Darcy being examined for zombie bites by a geezer who practically slobbers over his “pristine young body.” Wait, what? And the camera all but licks Douglas Booth, playing a smoothie who courts Elizabeth’s sister Jane (Bella Heathcoate). What’s a girl to do? If you’re one of the Bennet sisters, you clean your rifle, grab a samurai sword and make good use of the martial arts you learned in China. Mission: to waste these brain-munching ghouls.

It’s utter nonsense. But James and Riley give it their all. Ditto Lena Headey as Darcy’s warrior aunt and Headey’s Game of Thrones daddy Charles Dance as the harried patriarch of the Bennet clan. Matt Smith ( Doctor Who ) overacts everyone in sight as a godawful parson asking for Elizabeth’s hand. But its human brains the zombies want. Somehow they can’t come back to life until they’ve dined on grey matter. Funny? Sometimes. Scary? Almost never. PP&Z spins merrily and menacingly along for about half an hour. Bad luck that the movie’s running time is 107 minutes.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

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These 'zombies' make an austen update even the undead can't revive.

Scott Tobias

Annabelle (Jess Radomska) chewing her grandfather in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Jay Maidment/Courtesy of Screen Gems hide caption

Annabelle (Jess Radomska) chewing her grandfather in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

It sounds like the worst sort of date-night compromise, like some terrible aesthetic treaty between a couple that fights over DVR space for Downton Abbey and The Walking Dead . And yet Seth Grahame-Smith's genre mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was released to mostly kind reviews and robust sales, launching a cottage industry of horror-themed twists on literary masterpieces or popular historical figures like Sense and Sensibility (now with sea monsters) and Abraham Lincoln (now a vampire hunter). For many, Grahame-Smith's use of Jane Austen's prose — she's credited as co-author — retained the integrity of the book while playfully grafting a period horror-comedy on top of it.

Away from the page, however, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies reverts to being the unredeemed awful concept of Austen's peanut butter getting in George Romero's chocolate . Combining a classic novel of manners with a subgenre rooted in modern political metaphor feasts on the brains of both hosts, reducing Pride and Prejudice to a glib assortment of bullet points and losing the editorial relevancy that has always distinguished zombie pictures from other monster movies. The impulse alone to transform the Bennet sisters into sexy, kick-ass zombie hunters feels more conspicuously of its time than timeless. It's early yet, but this could be the most 2016 movie of 2016.

Owing to a complicated set of circumstances that visited a zombie plague on England at the turn of the 19th century — this alternative history is laid out like a pop-up book in the clever opening titles — Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) now roams the countryside with a cache of weapons, swiftly dispatching the undead. In the opening scene, he informs a roomful of upper-class revelers that zombies may be in their midst, but the newly turned are not always easy to identify. (He keeps a vial full of flies to locate rotting flesh.) Meanwhile, Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance) has trained his four daughters in the deadly arts while Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) readies them for possible suitors.

Of the Bennets, most of the drama focuses on the eldest daughter, Jane (Bella Heathcote), who is paired off with Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth, with CW-sculpted hair), and the stubborn Elizabeth (Lily James), who dislikes Mr. Darcy on first, second and most subsequent impressions but eventually comes around. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy share a common cause, but their union is postponed by the zombie hordes that have overwhelmed the outskirts of a fortified London and are threatening to devastate the city itself. Meanwhile, a plan is hatched to placate the living dead to keep their numbers from growing, but the motives behind it seem dubious.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies clings to the dim hope that one of literature's great romantic pairings might be amplified by their partnership as warriors, but Riley's sour Mr. Darcy immediately short-circuits any chemistry he might have with James' much livelier take on Elizabeth. Director Burr Steers comes to the assignment with the indie drama Igby Goes Down and two Zac Efron romances (17 Again and Charlie St. Cloud) under his belt, which indicates a desire from the producers to keep the action from overwhelming the love story. But if Steers' resume were unknown, it would be easier to assume the opposite: that he is an experienced choreographer of blockbuster mayhem with no feeling for Austenian wit or matters of the heart.

In truth, though, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies isn't about finding space between two entities but about a perceived need to make boring old Jane Austen palatable to geek culture. While it's possible to gussy up the classics for a young, commercial audience without losing their integrity — Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet immediately leaps to mind — not enough has been preserved from Austen's book to give it any presence, much less gain an exciting new resonance. The only true zombie metaphor here is the impulse to turn everything into fodder for teenage boys.

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Pride and prejudice and zombies.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 3 Reviews
Kids Say 15 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

A good Jane Austen movie, but a poor zombie movie.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Zombie attacks, zombie fighting (though a large portion is more implied than sho

Passionate kissing. During a fight scene, a man cuts the top button of a woman&#

Social drinking of sherry/brandy.

One (obscured) use of "prick."

Any Positive Content?

Women are encouraged to be strong and don't necessarily have to choose betwe

Elizabeth Bennet is a cunning warrior, a protector of her family, and a woman wh

Violence & Scariness

Zombie attacks, zombie fighting (though a large portion is more implied than shown). Slicing and slashing with knives/swords. Guns and shooting; a gun backfires in a woman's hand, leaving a bloody wound. Severed limbs, beheadings, and exploding heads, but little blood/gore shown. Martial arts fighting, with punching and throwing. Sword fighting, with kicking and head-butts. Battle and explosions. Gross zombie imagery. Zombie mother and baby shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Passionate kissing. During a fight scene, a man cuts the top button of a woman's dress off, revealing slightly more cleavage. Man's naked body is checked for bite marks (nothing graphic shown). Women getting dressed; stockings are shown, and they slide weapons into sheathes under their dresses. Many discussions of marriage.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Women are encouraged to be strong and don't necessarily have to choose between marriage and personal (martial arts) training. They're allowed to choose both, to be themselves, and to show their strength and courage.

Positive Role Models

Elizabeth Bennet is a cunning warrior, a protector of her family, and a woman who stands up for what she wants and believes in. She refuses to settle for less, and when she marries, she does so on her own terms.

Parents need to know that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is both a romantic drama and a horror-action movie, just like the 2009 mash-up book by Seth Grahame-Smith (which itself was inspired by Jane Austen's classic novel ). There's a lot of zombie violence, though it's largely bloodless, with more suggested than actually shown. Still, zombies are killed, and there are some scary and/or gross images, as well as martial arts fighting, swords, blades, guns, battles, and explosions. Characters talk a great deal about marrying each other; there's one scene of passionate kissing and a flirty fight scene during which a male character pops the button off the top of a woman's dress, exposing a bit more of her cleavage. Language isn't an issue, and characters drink only in social settings. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (3)
Kids say (15)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Great movie full of suspense.

Pride and prejudice and zombies isn't that bad, but it isn't that good either, what's the story.

Elizabeth Bennet ( Lily James ) and her four sisters are the daughters of an English country gentleman ( Charles Dance ). Their mother ( Sally Phillips ) wants them to marry rich, but their father has trained them to fight zombies, the outbreak of which has spread throughout Europe. As various suitors make their attentions known, including the brooding Mr. Darcy ( Sam Riley ), it's revealed that a certain group of "leader" zombies might save the day. But as trust is betrayed and hearts are broken, the battle between humans and zombies escalates, and the undead creatures must be contained -- at least long enough for a wedding between Elizabeth's sister Jane ( Bella Heathcote ) and the handsome Mr. Bingley ( Douglas Booth )!

Is It Any Good?

Perhaps not surprisingly, this is a poor zombie movie, but it is a pretty good Jane Austen movie. When it focuses on humans, the mood is playful, buoyant, romantic, and even funny. Director Burr Steers made his debut with Igby Goes Down (2002), a literate movie about smart characters, and in adapting Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 mash-up novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, he clearly brings that penchant to Austen's creations as well.

Unfortunately, Steers doesn't seem to care about zombies. His creatures are fast-moving action-movie zombies (i.e. not scary). Plus, the film's fast, jerky cutting is clearly designed to minimize gore, and the remaining visual effects are third-rate. Likewise, the martial arts fight scenes, while well-choreographed, are shot with an equal lack of care. Eventually, action takes over, and the movie suffers through too many dead spots. It's too bad that Steers couldn't have hired a good "B" movie co-director to boost the movie's zombie half.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ' violence . How much blood and gore is shown? How much is implied? What's the difference in impact? Does exposure to violent media desensitize kids to violence?

Are the zombies scary in this movie? How do they compare with zombies you've seen in other movies?

What is a mash-up? How do you feel about zombies being added to Austen's 200-year-old story? Is it funny? Exciting? Inappropriate?

How does this take on Elizabeth Bennet compare with other versions of the character, either in movies, TV, or print? Is she stronger? More interesting? Less interesting? Do you consider her a role model ?

Zombie-killing aside, what conclusions can you draw about the importance of choosing a mate carefully in love and in life?

Movie Details

In theaters : February 5, 2016
On DVD or streaming : May 31, 2016
Cast : Lily James , Lena Headey , Matt Smith
Director : Burr Steers
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studios : Sony Pictures Releasing , Screen Gems
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Book Characters , Brothers and Sisters , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Run time : 108 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material
Last updated : August 31, 2024

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Movie Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

Movie Reviews
7 responses
--> February 6, 2016

I teach high school English and have a master’s degree in my content, so I’ve read quite a bit and I’ve studied many authors. I took a seminar in Jane Austen, but, to my disappointment, the only book I enjoyed was one NOT written by Austen ( Evelina by Frances Burney, in case you’re curious). I’ve read the classic novel Pride and Prejudice a few times, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. Austen, as talented a writer as she was, simply isn’t my thing.

I’m also a horror fan. I’ve seen (and reviewed) all kinds of horror films, and I’ve learned what I like and don’t like in the genre, just as I have in my reading habits. While I can respect the subgenre of zombie films, most of them don’t do much for me, aside from “28 Days Later” and the Romero films. They don’t particularly frighten me, and I got tired of the recent resurgence pretty quickly. Now don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying they’re boring or bad movies; I’m just saying they’re not my favorite.

When the Seth Grahame-Smith mash-up satire novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was released in 2009, I bought it, thinking it might make the classic novel more palatable for me. As popular as the novel was, I couldn’t get through it either. I just didn’t like it, I’m sorry to say. So going into the film adaptation, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , I was convinced I was going to be bored. The trailers looked ridiculous, and I was sure it was going to be an travesty like “ I, Frankenstein .” I was actually embarrassed to ask for ticket at the theater.

I was wrong. Oh, boy . . . was I wrong.

In 19th century England, a plague broke out, and those who succumbed to the virus died, later rising from their graves and attacking the living. To protect the population, the Grand Barrier, a 100-foot wall, was built around London and the waterway called the Royal Canal, to protect the city. The wealthy traveled to Japan and the wise ventured to China, each to learn the ancient arts of battle. Women are raised in refinement, and are expected to be demure, well-read, polite company, and good wives. The Bennets have raised their daughters to be exceptional in the deadly arts, which means there was less time for certain refinements, and the family occasionally has to deal with the condescension of wealthier society.

Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips, “The Decoy Bride”) now spends her time trying to find suitable husbands for her five girls — Elizabeth (Lily James, “ Cinderella ”), Jane (Bella Heathcote, “ The Curse of Downers Grove ”), Lydia (Ellie Bamber, “The Falling”), Mary (Millie Brady, “Legend”) and Kitty (Suki Waterhouse, “ Insurgent ”) — with the hopes that they will all be cared for after she and her husband (Charles Dance, “ The Imitation Game ”) have passed away.

Jane is the most lovely of the Bennet girls, and immediately attracts Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth, “ Jupiter Ascending ”), a gentleman with considerable wealth. He and his friend, Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley, “ Maleficent ”) meet the Bennets at a social gathering, and he soon makes his formal intentions clear. Darcy, on the other hand, clashes with Elizabeth, who finds him intolerably prideful and rude. Over the course of the story, they run into each other repeatedly, as polite society often does in Austen’s London. Lizzie’s distaste for the proud Darcy eventually changes, however, as she discovers what kind of a man he truly is — loyal, trustworthy, and misunderstood. Besides, he’s the only man who can truly match her wit and skills as a warrior.

Director and screenwriter Burr Steers has taken Grahame-Smith’s version of Austen’s classic novel and has created a romp that’s incredibly entertaining and sharp. All of the elements of Austen’s societal sarcasm are still here, with the occasional zombie nuisance getting in the way. Even the zombies are refined, since victims don’t complete their full transformation until they’ve tasted human brains. At times, zombies approach humans and want to politely interact, situations that produce some of the best laughs from the film.

The casting is fantastic, and each character is more entertaining than the last. Lily James and Sam Riley are spot-on perfect; where Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are huge characters shadowed by looming performances from earlier adaptations (Colin Firth, anyone?), James’s and Riley’s interactions lead us to simultaneously loathe and love the arrogance and tension between their characters. Elizabeth’s classic confrontation of Darcy for attempting to break apart Jane and Mr. Bingley is brilliantly staged here as a physical sparring match where wit and battle prowess are equally wielded as weapons.

However, the real gem of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is Matt Smith (“ Terminator Genisys ”) who plays Parson Collins (an inept and foolish man trying to marry any girl he can get close to) and steals the show more than once; he fully embodies the role, is the heart and soul of many comedic scenes, and he shines on-screen each and every time he appears.

The film isn’t particularly frightening though, but it’s not meant to be. It’s a sharp-witted, entertaining film that’s, tragically, in danger of not being seen. The trailer has done this movie no favors; what appears to be a ridiculous action film with dainty English girls carrying knives in their garters who steadily hack and slash the undead is actually a clever satire that’s incredibly funny and brilliantly acted.

I unfairly prejudged this one, and I’m very proud to admit I was wrong. Don’t make my mistake, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is one not to miss.

Tagged: England , family , novel adaptation , sister , zombie

School teacher by day. Horror aficionado by night.

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'Movie Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)' have 7 comments

February 6, 2016 @ 7:57 pm Harrow

Campy and ridiculous and so much fun. Everyone should see it. Thrice.

February 6, 2016 @ 8:29 pm CrackerJackSurpriseInside

I don’t see how ‘dainty English girls carrying knives in their garters who steadily hack and slash the undead’ can be labeled as a bad thing. Especially when those girls include Lily James and Bella Heathcote.

February 6, 2016 @ 11:16 pm silkworm

I don’t believe the reviewer is saying there is something wrong with that, She is saying it isn’t all that but instead “a clever satire that’s incredibly funny and brilliantly acted.” If you were hoping it was just dainty English girls hacking through zombies for 100 minutes as the trailers would lead you believe you would be let down.

February 6, 2016 @ 8:43 pm momrules

Silly zombie flick. Doesn’t take itself seriously at all and if you go in with that attitude you cannot not enjoy it.

February 6, 2016 @ 9:00 pm triple lindy

Finally a Pride and Prejudice rendition I can tolerate.

February 6, 2016 @ 9:33 pm MACH VII

I didn’t like how Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter turned out so PPZ was off my sonar. Happy to hear it was done mostly right.

February 7, 2016 @ 12:53 pm Blair

Zombies can apparently spice up even the stodgiest of works.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (film)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a 2016 British-American comedy horror film based on the 2009 novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith that parodies the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen . The film is directed by Burr Steers , who wrote the adapted screenplay, and stars Lily James , Sam Riley , Jack Huston , Bella Heathcote , Douglas Booth , Matt Smith , Charles Dance and Lena Headey .

1 Elizabeth Bennet
2 Mr. Darcy
3 Mr. Bennet
4.1 Dialogue
5 External links

Elizabeth Bennet

I shall never relinquish my sword for a ring.
Your abilities as a warrior are beyond reproach, Mr. Darcy. If only you were as good a friend.
Mr. Darcy, you are as unfeeling as the undead.
(under her breath, as she stands outside) Mr. Darcy.
I don't care to be paraded like a herd of heifers at a farm auction.
(to Darcy when the bridge was blown up) From the very first moment I beheld you, my heart was irrevocably caught.
A woman is either highly trained or highly refined one cannot afford the luxury of both in such times.
My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
(About Mr. Darcy) Never have I encountered a man so consumed by his own pride
(in his letter to Elizabeth) Dear Miss Elizabeth Bennet, I'm not writing to renew the sentiments which were so disgusting to you, but to address the two offenses that you accuse me of. I did not intentionally wound your sister. It was a most unfortunate consequence of protecting my dearest friend. Mr. Bingley's feelings for Miss Bennet were beyond any I had ever witnessed in him, or indeed even thought him capable of. The evening of the dance at Netherfield, after overhearing your mother coldly state her intention of having all her daughters marry favorably, I persuaded Bingley of the unfitness of the match. If I have wounded Miss Bennet's feelings it was unknowingly done. As to your other accusation of having injured Mr. Wickham, no sooner had my father made clear his intention to leave Mr. Wickham a handsome sum than Mr. Darcy was mysteriously infected by the plague. It was left to me, his son, to provide a merciful ending. Still I gave Wickham the inheritance my father left. Wickham squandered it, whereupon he demanded more and more money until I eventually refused. Thereafter, he severed all ties with me. Last summer he began a relationship with my 15-year-old sister and convinced her to elope. Mr. Wickham's prime target was her inheritance of 30,000 pounds, but revenging himself on me was a strong additional inducement. Fortunately, I was able to persuade my sister of Mr. Wickham's ulterior motives before it was too late. I hope this helps explain and perhaps mitigate my behavior in your eyes. Of all weapons in the world, I now know love to be the most dangerous, for I have suffered a mortal wound. When did I fall so deeply under your spell, Miss Bennet? I cannot fix the hour or the spot or the look or the words which laid the foundation. I was in the middle before I knew I began. What a proud fool I was. I have faced the harsh truth: that I can never hope to win your love in this life. And so I sought solace in combat. I write to you from the siege of London. There is now a cunning design to the zombie attacks. I sense a dark hand is at work here, guiding the enemy, Miss Bennet. By taking London they've increased their ranks a hundredfold. Now we endeavor to keep them trapped within the great wall. This isn't the random act of some mindless horde. They struck the palace and both houses. They cut off our heads before we could cut off theirs. If we should fail to contain them and they breach Hingham Bridge, it'll be as if a great dam has broken and they'll reach out for us swiftly, and in overwhelming numbers. Dear Miss Bennet. I implore you to be ready.
(Having just been rejected, and nearly stabbed in the chest, by Elizabeth) I fully comprehend your feelings and now have only to be ashamed of what my own have been. Please forgive me, and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.
A newly infected zombie is almost impossible to detect. Until they've ingested their first human brains, at which point the transformation accelerates with every subsequent kill.
A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages. She must be well trained in the fighting styles of the Kyoto masters and weapons and tactics of modern Europe.
(watching Elizabeth slay zombies) Her face is rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. And I'm forced to acknowledge her figure as both light and pleasing. That her arms are surprisingly muscular yet not so much as to be unfeminine.
(to Parson Collins) My daughters are trained for battle, sir, not the kitchen.
Daughters do not dance well with masticated brains.
(in narration) It wasn't always like this my dear daughters. As the century began Britannia was rich with the fruits of worldwide trade. From the colonies there came not just silks and spices but a virulent and abominable plague. Naturally many suspected the French were to blame. Are you surprised? Once bitten, the newly infected were filled with an insatiable hunger for the brains of the living. Millions perished, only to rise again. As legions of undead. So certain it would seem the end of days had come. But even the four horsemen of the apocalypse are said to have ascended from hell. To protect the living, the Grand Barrier was built. A one hundred foot wall, encircling London. Then excavation began on the royal canal. A vast mote thirty fathoms deep surrounding both the city and its walls. The land twixt the two fortifications became known as The Inbetween. At this time it became fashionable to study the deadly arts of the orient. Japan for the wealthy. China for the wise. In the second battle of Kent, one of the bridges that cross the royal canal was breached. Ravenous zombie hordes massacred every villager of The Inbetween. It was said the sight of this slaughter drove young King George mad. When the battle was finally won, he ordered the destruction of all the bridges, save one. Hingham Bridge. Which to this day remains the only means by which to cross the royal canal. Many believed the enemy was finally vanquished. The gentry began to leave the safe confines of London's defenses for their newly fortified country estates. But vigilance is still every essence. Remember this. Keep your swords as sharp as your wit. For the ultimate battle between the living and the undead has yet to be staged.

External links

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies quotes at the Internet Movie Database

Apocalyptic films
Romance films
Period films
Films based on novels
Comedy horror films
Films based on works by Jane Austen
British films
2010s American films

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie review (2016)
A film adaptation of the novel that combines Jane Austen's classic romance with zombie horror. The review praises Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet, but criticizes the muddled action scenes and the darkened visuals.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
A movie adaptation of the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, which combines Jane Austen's classic romance with zombie horror. See the trailer, cast, reviews, ratings, and clips of this 2016 film.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Review
Verdict. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is as fun as the premise warrants, if sometimes it has difficulty making the Pride and Prejudice work alongside the zombies. The movie absolutely wouldn't ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Review
Based on Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 horror-parody of Jane Austen's 1813 literary classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is unwieldy horror-comedy - delivering an amusing but gimmicky blend of Regency-era romance and zombie mythology. Much like its novel source material, the pop-culture mashup premise offers appealing juxtaposition but ...
Review: 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'; More Tea, Dear?
The larger problem, though, is that each moment spent on this movie is another spent away from Austen's novel. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
A comedy horror film based on a novel that combines Jane Austen's classic romance with zombie apocalypse. Watch the trailer, see the cast and crew, read user and critic reviews, and find out more about the plot and trivia.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 5, 2020. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is just the sort of goofy fun that the title implies. Full Review | Jul 7, 2020. The biggest problem with the ...
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' Review: Coasting on a ...
Yes, the aforementioned flaws are major problems, but both Pride and Prejudice and the zombie outbreak scenarios have an inherent appeal that makes the film a good deal of fun regardless. Plus ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Review
Going by the title of this genre-blending action movie based on the 2009 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, it may be hard to understand how combining Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and zombies ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
A horror-romance mashup of Jane Austen's classic novel, featuring zombies, action, and dark humor. Read critic and user reviews, see the cast and crew, and watch the trailer of this 2016 film.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [Reviews]
Everything you need to know about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Film Review: 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'
As a novel, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" cheerfully exploited public-domain laws by combining the actual text of Jane Austen's 1813 novel with additional new details that wove in ...
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies Review
In 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith's published Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an alternative take on Austen's Pride and Prejudice with modern-day fixation of zombies thrown into the mix. Interestingly, the book was a success as Seth Grahame-Smith followed up his literary work with the 2012 book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Movie Review: 'Pride And Prejudice And Zombies'
Movie Review: 'Pride And Prejudice And Zombies'. By AINARA TIEFENTHÄLER and ROBIN LINDSAY • February 4, 2016. The Times critic Manohla Dargis reviews "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.".
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
That's mostly why I read Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 best-seller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, upon which this movie is (loosely) based. But in so doing, I grew to appreciate much more Jane Austen's original book, Pride and Prejudice. The more I read, the less interested I became in the "unmentionables" (as zombies are referred to ...
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies': Film Review
Jane Austen's beloved comedy of manners gets defaced with reanimated corpses in a lifeless adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's high-concept best-seller. It is a truth universally acknowledged that ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (film)
A 2016 action comedy horror film based on Seth Grahame-Smith's novel, which parodies Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with zombies. The film follows the plot of the original novel, with Elizabeth Bennet and Colonel Darcy fighting zombies and a villainous Wickham.
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' Review: Austen, Zombiefied
February 4, 2016 6:07 PM EST. T he pleasures of Burr Steers' Pride and Prejudice and Zombies —adapted from Seth Grahame-Smith's zombiefied retooling of Jane Austen's masterwork—are ...
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' Movie Review
Don't get your hopes up. PP&Z is rated PG-13, so the gore is decidedly decorous. But before repetition dulls the party, Pride gets in a few juicy innings. If you enjoyed the lovely Lily James in ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Read what IMDb users thought of the zombie-infested adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. Find out how they rated the cast, the humor, the action and the romance in this unusual movie.
Movie Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies : NPR
The impulse alone to transform the Bennet sisters into sexy, kick-ass zombie hunters feels more conspicuously of its time than timeless. It's early yet, but this could be the most 2016 movie of ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Movie Review
Parents need to know that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is both a romantic drama and a horror-action movie, just like the 2009 mash-up book by Seth Grahame-Smith (which itself was inspired by Jane Austen's classic novel).There's a lot of zombie violence, though it's largely bloodless, with more suggested than actually shown. Still, zombies are killed, and there are some scary and/or gross ...
Movie Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
However, the real gem of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is Matt Smith ("Terminator Genisys") who plays Parson Collins (an inept and foolish man trying to marry any girl he can get close to) and steals the show more than once; he fully embodies the role, is the heart and soul of many comedic scenes, and he shines on-screen each and every ...
Customer Reviews: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [Includes Digital
One unfortunate scene with a zombie snot sets the movie off on the wrong foot, but by the third act Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has melded its Austen side well with its undead one. In this world, the zombie plague overtook London, sending many members of the British aristocracy to their reinforced country estates to protect themselves and ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
official trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride & Prejudice: The 17 Best Movie & TV Adaptations
Unlike many other Pride & Prejudice movies, it's interesting to note that Pride And Prejudice And Zombies is an adaptation of an adaptation. The book that inspired this 2016 movie took Elizabeth ...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (film)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a 2016 British-American comedy horror film based on the 2009 novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith that parodies the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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