Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The mash-up genre, popularised by Seth Grahame-Smith, became something of a publishing phenomenon back in 2009 when he squashed together public-domain novel Pride & Prejudice with tropes of zombie horror to create the aptly-titled Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. The craziness of it all saw the novel shoot straight to the top of bestsellers' lists and, pretty soon, Hollywood came knocking. Natalie Portman was set to produce and star as Elizabeth Bennett whilst David O.Russell was due to direct. Pretty soon, he bailed out over budgetary concerns whilst Natalie Portman, the very next day, did the exact same.

The project limped its way through various directors and stars before it eventually landed with Burr Steers as director and Lily James as Liz Bennett. The reason why we're prefacing it with this is because it's clear that there's a better version of this film that could have been realised. PPZ is set more or less in the same world as the original Pride & Prejudice, except that zombies are becoming an increasingly dangerous part of society. In order to combat the threat, the British Army has been mobilised and is battling the hordes at every available opportunity. However, zombies still manage to seep into society - often in the lower orders, mind - and wreck social occasions and the like. Col. D'Arcy, played by Sam Riley, has been dispatched the countryside to root out zombies and finds himself entranced with Liz Bennett, played by the aforementioned Lily James. A courtship of sorts arises between himself, Lt. Wickham (Jack Huston) and Pastor Collins (a scene-stealing Matt Smith).

Let's begin with the positives. The idea of smashing two completely disparate genres together - zombie horror and period romance - is crazy enough just to work. It's clear that just about everyone is aware of just how crazy it all is and are fully prepared to play it to the hilt in order to get a laugh. Matt Smith, in particular, raises more than a few chuckles as the fumbling Pastor Collins whilst Lena Headey of Game of Thrones' fame is a blast as the samurai sword-wielding, eye patch-wearing Lady De Bourgh. Sam Riley, meanwhile, is able to give up enough gravitas as the steely Mr. D'Arcy whilst Lily James is able to work a sword and pirouette very well. The set design, as well, is as lush as you'd expect for a period piece and it all's a bit fun.

Where it all begins to falter is in the cack-handed direction and the clearly-restricted budget. There's more than a few instances where it's clear something bigger was written and then merely alluded to, such as a final battle between the Army and a horde of London zombies. Likewise, the action beats aren't exactly directed all that well, despite the actor's best efforts. There's a few scenes that, with a better director, could have been much memorable than what they are. It's no surprise, really. Burr Steers is the guy who directed Charlie St. Cloud and has done a few TV episodes and, for the most part, has little to no experience directing either action or horror. In that sense, the film doesn't really work. It's a shame because, with a more experienced director, there really could be something here. Instead, we're essentially left with a half-formed thing.

It's a fun watch and not to be taken seriously, but there was something much better in the offing.