This is a perfect film for our mash-up/viral culture in which short, clever, easily digestible bits of entertainment are passed along giddily from friend to friend. But most shareable YouTube videos run a couple minutes. "Zombies" is much, much longer.
... looks like someone mashed up a Zombie 5K with a Renaissance faire. It shouldn't work, but by sheer force of will and a game cast of actors, it's wonderful.
Though P&P&Z is uneven and could have used more visual wit than it gets -- it's shot like a fairly standard underlit action-horror movie -- it mostly works.
It almost feels like the filmmaker was yelling "this isn't your mom's Jane Austen!" without realizing there's a lot going for Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice (and zombies) that we still like.
Both pride and prejudice still play their parts, but now in service to one tediously repeated joke: the sight of a gentleman or a lady, together or alone, playing cards or ballroom dancing, fatally swarmed by devouring zombies.
The problem is that the movie offers just enough to tantalize both fan groups -- the Austenites and the horror fans -- but not enough to fully satisfy either.
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.
The zombie crowd may be bummed by all the talking and prancing about. The Austen crowd is, well, not typically into zombies. But if you're in the sweet spot in the middle, it's oddly moving. And peppered with zombies!
