Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The zombie movie craze hits what I hope to be its low point with this crap attempt at horror comedy featuring a fairly faithful take on the Jane Austen classic mixed with the undead. Lily James, so delightful in Cinderella, plays Elizabeth Bennet, one of the esteemed Bennet sisters and zombie hunter. She sets her sight on Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley), who thinks she’s pretty and all that but must refrain from serious courtship in order to behead some ghouls. For starters, director Burr Steers shoots for a PG-13 rating, which results in much of the action taking place off screen, via incomprehensible editing, or in the dark so as to reduce the bloodletting. The movie features so much carnage that it feels incomplete for soft-shoeing the yucky stuff. As for the balance of period romance and comedic bloodletting, Steers never finds a comfortable place. The movie feels uneven and sloppy, with lousy special effects and players that look lost. Like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter before it, a perhaps clever idea gets lost in messy direction and lousy scripting. It’s a shame, because Riley and James are much better than this.