Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Plot synopsis:
Set in an alternate England of the early 1800s, the film opens with Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley) traveling to the home of a wealthy family to investigate the emergence of a zombie. He arrives at the home and sits with the family before taking out a small vial containing a particular set of flies that can detect the undead. The flies land on the house's patriarch, whose eyes turn red. Darcy breaks a glass and stabs the man in the throat before decapitating him. This frightens one of the young girls in the house, and she retreats upstairs. When she is discovered, she has turned into a zombie as well and proceeds to attack.Over the opening credits, we hear the voice of Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance) narrate the origin of the zombie outbreak, which is represented in the form of a pop-up book. The Black Plague hit London and began to create zombies. A wall was built to separate London from the zombies, leaving them in an area called The In-Between. It is said that the Four Horsemen are ready to rise up from Hell and bring about the apocalypse.The five Bennet sisters: Elizabeth (Lily James), Jane (Bella Heathcoate), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), and Mary (Millie Brady) have all been trained by their father in the art of weaponry and martial arts after being sent abroad to China. Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) wants her daughters to be married off to wealthy suitors. As it turns out, the Bingley family has moved in nearby and are throwing a ball, wherein Mrs. Bennet hopes that the young and handsome Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) will win over one of her girls. Elizabeth doesn't want to seek out a husband, to which Lydia makes a snide comment about Elizabeth not being able to attract men. She proceeds to chase Lydia out of the room.The Bennets attend the ball. Bingley instantly sets his eyes on Jane. Darcy is in attendance and takes notice of Elizabeth, but he makes comments that she is unappealing, which Elizabeth overhears. She walks outside tearfully and encounters a woman she knew named Mrs. Featherstone (Hermione Corfield), who is a zombie. Mrs. Featherstone is about to tell Elizabeth something until her head is blown off by Darcy. A horde of zombies then attacks the party, prompting the Bennet sisters to spring into action. As they slay every zombie in their path, Darcy instantly becomes smitten with Elizabeth when he witnesses her in combat.Jane is outside by herself on a rainy day and encounters a zombie. She kills it but then spots a zombie woman with her child. Jane hesitates and is attacked by the zombie. She is confined to her room, where it is feared that she may have been bitten. Darcy arrives at their home with the flies to detect a zombie, but Elizabeth catches each fly with her hand and returns them to Darcy.After Jane recovers, the sisters attend another ball for the Bingleys. There, Elizabeth meets the soldier Mr. George Wickham (Jack Huston), who seems to be charming and polite. He tells Elizabeth that he has had a history with Darcy and does not wish to further challenge him. Another group of zombies attacks the party, resulting in Bingley injuring himself (but not getting bitten), and Darcy joins Elizabeth in fighting the monsters.The Bennets are visited by Parson Collins (Matt Smith), who intends to marry one of the sisters. He initially sets his eyes on Jane, though he is told that she is with Bingley. He later tries to make a move on Elizabeth, but requests that she give up her life as a warrior, something that she adamantly refuses to do, even for a man. Mr. Collins later decides to settle with Elizabeth's friend Charlotte (Aisling Loftus).Elizabeth and Darcy meet with Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Lena Headey), a notorious zombie killer with major authority. Lady Catherine, who has several scars on her body that she carefully hides as well as a black eyepatch over her left eye, wants Darcy to marry her daughter Anne, but Catherine's skill are also needed to fight off the zombies.Elizabeth travels with Mr. Wickham to the In-Between, an area outside of walled-in London but inside a royal moat, to a church filled with zombies, who feed on pig brains to keep themselves from going completely savage. Mr. Wickham wants Elizabeth to join him in helping the zombies. He also suggests that she run away with him, but she remains conflicted.Back home, Elizabeth is told that Darcy has convinced the Bingleys to move away. When Darcy approaches Elizabeth with a proposal of his own, she expresses her outrage at his actions and fights him in a duel. Elizabeth gets the upper hand, and Darcy leaves.Mr. Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter to apologize for his actions and to state that he separated Jane and Mr. Bingley for fear that Jane only wanted to marry Mr. Bingley for his wealth, having overheard Mrs. Bennet drunkenly mention it. Mr. Darcy also mentions that Mr. Wickham had tried to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister for her fortune. Mr. Darcy's letter states that he is battling zombies in London, and that they have overrun the walled city. Elizabeth is then cornered by Lady Catherine and her bodyguard Wilhelm (Ryan Oliva). Lady Catherine states Mr. Darcy has been intended to marry her sickly daughter, Anne, from their youth and confronts Elizabeth about rumors over Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. When Elizabeth denies it, Lady Catherine instigates a fight between Elizabeth and Wilhelm in place of Lady Catherine who Elizabeth has refused to fight. Wilhelm attacks Elizabeth, but she claws his face and fights him off, causing him to get crushed under a pile of bricks. Catherine then holds her sward at Elizabeth's neck and states she doesn't know if she admires Elizabeth's skill as a warrior, or her resolve as a woman. She leaves Elizabeth alone.Afterwards, Lady Catherine decides to protect Elizabeth's family from approaching zombies and takes them to her estate. Elizabeth later finds out that Mr. Wickham ran off with her younger sister, Lydia and decides to go rescue her.Elizabeth and Jane travel to the canal on the outskirts of London where the Royal Army is blocking the last bridge out of the city. Elizabeth the leaves Jane behind in the army camp and hides her horse alone across the bridge to find her sister.Meanwhile, the zombies make their way toward London. Mr. Darcy then encounters Mr. Wickham at the old church and rescues Lydia in the basement. When a horde of zombies, who had been living normally until the pig brains they had been eating were switched with human brains by Mr. Darcy storm the cellar, Mr. Darcy escapes with Lydia.Elizabeth rejoins Darcy in the In-Between and helps him battle the undead. Darcy encounters again Wickham and fights him, eventually impaling him and seeing a bite mark on his chest, revealing he was undead all along. Before Wickham can kill Darcy, Elizabeth rides in and chops his right arm off and knocks him out. Darcy rides with Elizabeth across the bridge as other Londoners blow it up to keep the zombies away. Darcy is injured in the explosion and is rendered unconscious. Elizabeth tearfully admits her love for him.After Darcy recovers, he finds Elizabeth and tells her that he heard what she said on the bridge. They share their first kiss and agree to marry. The Elizabeth and Darcy have a joint wedding with Bingley and Jane, officiated by Parson Collins. Everyone attends including Lady Catherine, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, as well as Lydia, Kitty and Mary. The two couples walk away together to live happily ever after...Until a moment during mid-credits when everyone sees something beyond the church gates. The now one-armed Wickham is leading the four zombie Horsemen along with a HUGE army of zombies towards them, ready for war....

Tags: comedy, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, romantic, melodrama, revenge, alternate history

Review:
I know most people who love PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen are furious about this movie even existing, let alone being successful.
But I actually liked it a lot!I know the original classic fairly well (I'm a former high school English teacher and a current college librarian) and I was astonished almost from the very beginning at how much of the dialogue comes direct from Jane Austen's novel.
It follows the story of Pride and Prejudice so closely I kept looking for Keira Knightly to appear.The production quality however is what surprised me the most; it's incredibly high with great sets, realistic costumes, lighting and cinematography.
However, I am very glad that I didn't listen, because I feel like since this is a beloved classic book with zombies people may be upset that this movie was made in the first place.
The action is very well done and if you're a fan of women being in charge in an action movie then you will really like this!If you're a fan of Matt Smith then this is a MUST SEE, i've never watched Doctor Who, I'm not a fan of him (just b/c I haven't seen him in things) but he stole every scene he was in, he was excellent.
I purposely try to keep my reviews vague so as not to give anything away; the bottom line is this: if you're in the mood for a fun night with a movie with a crazy premise and some good action then I highly recommend it!I am quite surprised by the low rating currently (5.4); I imagine it is people who don't like seeing the novel turned into something with zombies.
The peculiarities of the novel are self evident and, when the zombie influences are absent, you could think you are watching another excellent version of Pride and Prejudice.
The zombie apocalypse has landed in the middle of Austen's prim and proper story, including the repressed attraction between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.Anyone expecting the serious undertones of Ms. Austen's1813 novel will be disappointed  but the title should have provided a pretty solid hint.
While her characters and general story line act as a structure here, it's really based on Seth Grahame-Smith's YA hit novel  delivering zombie battles and often zany humor.
The sets, costumes, dialogue and fight scenes work together to create an unusual movie experience that will generate plenty of laughs while not dwelling on the zombies or violence (it is PG-13).
Expect most critics to destroy this one because it's made simply for fun, not for art.Of course, any Pride and Prejudice spin-off (even one with zombies) must pay particular attention to Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.
It's this element of strong women (physically and emotionally) that might even allow Ms. Austen to appreciate what's happened to her characters  were she alive to see it.Even though the film offers plenty of fun with laughs and action and romance, let's hope it doesn't kick off a new zombie-adaptation trend.
And the atmosphere kept a good mix of an old Pride and Prejudice feel while also adding a new element of dark zombie-apocalypse tension that I loved seeing.
There were a few parts that I rolled my eyes at, especially when things got a bit too dramatic between the lead characters Darcy and Elizabeth, but all in all it was a good movie that I enjoyed.
I was curious to see how it played on the big screen and was not totally disappointed in the effort.I must confess that I watched the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice to get some feel for the story on film.
However, the adjustments made to the classic tale in order to fit into this zombie adaptation actually cause parts of the story to make more sense.Pride and Prejudice and Zombies isn't a bad movie.
The actors are magnificent and the argument stay hold to the original story, the origin of zombies it not only well explained but also is not abused and it stick with the drama perfectly.The scenes are beautiful, the costumes are gorgeous also the action scenes fit perfectly on the right time having the right length for it not being tedious or non sense.That post-credit just puts an awesome cliffhanger for a second movie that i will obviously going to watch.
It wasn't perfect, but I thought it was a pleasant surprise.So, while this movie departs from the classic story, my problems with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies don't have anything to do with those changes.
There's a considerable buildup with the rivalry between Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) and George Wickham (Jack Huston) and the movie seems to be preparing you for a bad@$$ zombie fight.
I liked the tongue-in-cheek humour, how they decided to work in the zombie elements in and the movie boasts a dynamic lead performance from Lily James.
I would recommend this to people looking for an interesting mashup of genres, but I would also warn you ahead of time, if you're a fan of the classic novel, this film probably will seem like blasphemy..
I have to admit I'm coming to this film as someone who has never seen the original movie or read the book, therefore, I enjoyed it possibly more than someone who knows the story.
Wickham is a proper villain, the zombies are better placed as an integral part of the story instead of just a silly backdrop, the fight scenes are awesome, the zombie war more plausible if you will, and thank goodness they did away with a lot of the silliness like Wickham's weak sphincter muscles and the cauliflower heads (readers of the book will know).
I loved the acting in this movie, like I said Lily James stole the show, but Sam Riley playing Mr. Darcy also did an amazing job.
The bad taste and lack of respect of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Burr Steers is impressive, destroying the wonderful romance with a brainless and silly version.
( assuming you don't take anything with zombies in it too seriously.)The acting was good, the story was believable, the characters were developed and there was even some humour (Matt Smith added a lot of this).
Like most people, when I heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies being turned into a film, I scoffed.
With some surprisingly good visuals, a well developed history behind the story, and some great action sequences, I had a fun time with the film.Lily James stars as Elizabeth Bennet and Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy.
I think overall, it does what it set out to do, and that is to pull off an interesting twist on the classic love tale, even with that romance is actually rather weak.+Great action+Cinematography and landscape was set up well+Matt Smith+Lily James kicks butt-Romance is iffy-Sam Riley brings nothing new to the role of Mr. Darcy6.5/10.
And with each one the film grows more and more unbelievable and boring.'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' may offer an interesting cross over type movie but it doesn't actually do anything with this offer.
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' manages to improve on both versions of the book (the original and the zombie version), with an exciting and entertaining plot, comedy that is actually funny, and plenty of action.
Pride and Prejudice and ZombiesIf zombies had existed in Victoria times the wealthy would've just thought them ugly peasants.Mind you, the affluent in this horror movie are fully aware of their flesh-eating epidemic.In the wake of a zombie outbreak, 19th century England's most opulent families are required to send their offspring away to be trained in marital arts.
This was the case with Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) and her sisters (Bella Heathcote, Suki Waterhouse, Ellie Bamber, Millie Brady).The undead, however, are not Elizabeth's only adversary as she has found an infuriating rival in zombie-hunter Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley).Not as over-the-top as one would expect a pairing of Jane Austin and the living dead to be, P+P+Z is also not as insipid either.
I guess that was a good choice because you want to see some action and drama if you pay for a "Just-for-entertainment-movie"The cast, expect Sam Rileys, was really fitting.
Although I wasn't expecting a zombie parody to fully satisfy this need, I watched this film expecting a nice blend of comedy-romance-female badassery.P&P&Z can indeed be credited with some achievements (and even dare-I-say improvements to the original dynamics of the plot): the female characters are also warriors, there is an external motivator to the plot, other than the dull issue of who is going to marry whom, there is action and there is even the potential of well-justified character development and motivation for the two central characters (e.g. there's no much to justify the moodiness of Mr Darcy in the original, other than his minor family troubles, whereas in this one he is a seasoned zombie hunter who has seen and lived through a lot) The problem is that the film (sticking to the P&P&Z book, I presume, which is a parodic exercise) decides to keep whole chunks of P&P intact, retaining the original text and feel, despite the zombie apocalypse that's added into the equation.
If the P&P affiliation had been looser and the zombie apocalypse scenario had worked out as the main story-line, then we could have had a great movie.I still liked the comedic feel though - Parson Collins (Matt Smith) in particular was great..
The director (somebody named Burr Steers) understood from the ground up what matters about this movie is less the zombie half than the Pride and Prejudice half, ie, beautiful women and pretty girls walking around in cleavage and cute smiles, wielding knives like ninja warriors and guns like bounty hunters.
The movie, like the book, spoofs the classic 1813 novel 'Pride and Prejudice', by Jane Austin.
The movie stars Lily James, Sam Riley, Bella Heathcote, Jack Huston, Sally Phillips, Charles Dance, Douglas Booth, Matt Smith and Lena Headey.
Elizabeth (James) and Jane Bennet (Heathcote), look like they've found ideal suitors; but zombies threaten to spoil everything.The movie is surprisingly hilarious, that's what I most enjoyed about it; it's full of witty humor and clever dialogue.
Just putting zombies in a classic novel is not enough to turn into a movie, it's just not, and it upsets me that this is allowed to happen and that people spent good money making it.
This film didn't know if it wanted to be the actual pride and prejudice or pride prejudice and zombies, the filmmakers should have thought about that before going into production.This film had a good premise, but suffered due to poor direction, for the most part bad acting, pitiful cinematography, and lack of understanding of what it's supposed to be.
I can also handle pretty much everything else in terms of cinema, but I'm truly petrified of one thing: having to watch movies like "Pride & Prejudice", "Atonement" or "Sense and Sensibility" with my wife.
That being said, I feel that this movie would appeal to anyone who enjoys the zombie genre and Pride & Prejudice.
I saw a lot of reviews from Jane Austen fans who were doubtful about being able to enjoy a zombie version of her stories, but were pleasantly surprised to find it quite enjoyable.
If you like engaging characters, clever comedy delivered with gusto, a movie that knows when and how to laugh at itself, and which will sometimes make you want to stand up and cheer, then I highly recommend Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the movie that makes you jump You may think you know pride and prejudice (the original story) but do you know it with dead people?!?
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is based on the Quirk Books novel of the same name, by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a highly entertaining film.
However, Seth Grahame-Smith's decision to add zombies in his Quirk Books version of Jane Austen's classic is gutsy & works wonders for this movie.
Burr Steers' screenplay of the novel & his skillful direction, makes sure that this adaptation of the tale of the Bennet sisters, Mr. Darcy(Sam Riley), Mr. Bingley(Douglas Booth) & George Wickham(Jack Huston), feels like a brand new adventure.
I've seen Pride & Prejudice before and I love zombie movies.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies should had been a fun mash up but it takes itself too seriously.Burr Steers seems to be overawed by the Jane Austen novel itself and was maybe too respectful.It is love in the picture pretty 19th century England.
This movie is just Pride and Prejudice.....with zombies.
But there is real drama and romance among the characters--Mr. Darcy is a tool, Elizabeth is inexplicably drawn to him, Bingley and Jane Bennet make the perfect couple--but it seems they're constantly being interrupted by zombies at the gates.The writers did a great job of making it all feel fairly believable--London is under siege, ringed with battlements and a wide no-man's-land to protect the city.
Movie Review: "Pride & Prejudice and Zombies" (2016)Carefully put into Sony Pictures' affiliated branch Screen Gems, a company constantly re-inventing itself since 1933 with mainly daring close to b-roll horror, science-fiction and daring comedy films since enterprising resurrection from December 8th 1998, rarely exceeding production bugdets of 35-Million-Dollar, nevertheless have fairly-expensive genre hits as the "Resident Evil" movie series starring Milla Jovovich under their rooster; here comes along this utterly re-interpretation of a Jane Austen classic love story book, firstly published in 1813, ingnited by film-maker Burr Steers, who had been nourishing industry connections since being part of "A Band Apart" production team days of Quentin Tarantino & Lawrence Bender realizing "Pulp Fiction" in season 1993/1994; a writer/director fulfills his dream of a genre-borderlining motion picture with a capable cast surrounding actors Sam Riley and Lily James as world-literature-inhabited famous soon-to-be fighting and coupling Mr. Darcy & Mrs. Bennett, while here so many obstacles are pushed to PG-13 timid endeavors of killing zombie creatures with no major red blood leaking wounds given, which might have saved the picture from a total brain-numbing experience of sweet-to-look at supplementary cast including short-passed actresses Bella Heathcote, Ellie Bamber, Millie Brady and Suki Waterhouse as samurai sword to short daggers swinging heroines to forget as soon as the curtain calls.FAZIT: Picture rejected (unprepared)
I wasn't expecting that much "Pride & Prejudice", but that worked and was portrayed very well.The demerits are the zombie parts of this movie.
That, and it does try to follow the original story of Pride and Prejudice, and it does a pretty great job actually (at least, in accordance to the 2005 movie).
Overall Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a pretty good movie.
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most loved books in the world and the idea of mashing it with a zombie concept it could be fun.
Of course, it has the base on Pride and Prejudice (a movie and a novel that I love) but I was prepared to see it ripped apart by zombies in a really bad way well let me tell you that I was so wrong I'm ashamed!
It has the perfect dose of weird romance, bizarre and funny (and zombies OF COURSE) stuff and a little bit of action that made the movie quite good, like a deceiver of the seven starts that I am giving to it.
Jumping on the zombie bandwagon, Burr Steer bets heavily on the popularity of Seth Grahame-Smith's quirky novel "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Perhaps, as a desperate attempt to interest people in Jane Austen's classic story of 19th century love tirades, Grahame-Smith creates a world in which the British aristocracy are all trained in Martial Arts, Zombies talk and have some debate about the merits of eating live humans over pig brains, and that Lena Headey is still rather fetching with a plucked out eye.
I've never read any Jane Austen novel, but I have watched a few traditional adaptations of her work including Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley that I really liked.
Two things I've never really cared for: the novels of Jane Austen, and zombie movies.
Based on a 2009 novel, the story isn't just a zombie movie set in 19th Century England, but instead a retelling of Pride And Prejudice, where there just happen to be zombies all around.
Normally, good acting isn't the sort of thing you'd expect in a zombie movie, or a parody for that matter, but everyone is right at the top of their game here.
Lily James is excellent in the main role, and shows how good she can be in both a serious romantic lead (because there are a lot of moments where the romance does take centre stage here), and as a great action hero, making her huge fun to watch right the way through.Also, Matt Smith, Sally Phillips, Douglas Booth and even Lena Headey were brilliant, but my favourite performance of the entire movie has to be Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy.
Having never watched Pride and Prejudice, I liked the idea of zombies infecting this era.
I was amazed at the critical reviews I had read about this film as I thought it was the most romantic version of Pride and Prejudice I had seen and that the fighting and the zombies made it great fun to watch .In fact I who loved Colin ,tolerated Matthew and laughed at Lost In Austen thought Sam Riley was the best ever Darcy and Lily James equally the best ever Elizabeth and this was the most entertaining film I had seen this year and I saw it on TV ,which doesn't say much for new ones ..
If you are just looking for good, entertaining, beautiful movie, and don't care about saving the original novel from creation, you will agree with me.I personally expected for more action scene from the girls.