GORE PLUS BRAINS
A novel zombies flick
I sometimes wonder if our modern predilection for whimsical mash- ups might not have worked just as well in an earlier pop culture age. Imagine Maxwell Smart getting stranded on Gilligan’s Island, or The U. S. S. Enterprise running into the cast of Lost in Space. Or what if Ralph Kramdem hired Perry Mason? Mind you, there was that time Charlie’s Angels took a cruise on The Love Boat
But recent mash- ups have tended toward mixing something old ( preferably in the public domain), and something new. Hence the novel Android Karenina; Seth Grahame- Smith’s book- turnedmovie Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter; and this new one, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, from the same writer.
Well, one of the same writers. Grahame- Smith owes a heavy debt of gratitude to Jane Austen, whose 1813 novel provides the spine of the story. GrahameSmith adds spleen, intestines and circulatory system. One can imagine Austen turning in her grave — maybe even rising from it.
He also adds brains, although that can be taken in two ways. On the one hand there’s the visceral sense, used in the opening line of the film: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
It’s the other sense that should concern moviegoers. Is P& P & Z smart? The answer is yes — intermittently so. The screenplay, adapted by director Burr Steers, takes the basic plot of girl meets/ misunderstands/ falls for boy, and imagines it takes place in a 19th- century Britain under siege from zombie hordes. London is encircled by a great wall, with a moat to boot. Britons practise various fighting arts to keep safe.
Such is the case with Elizabeth Bennet, played by Lily James of TV’s Downton Abbey and the recent Cinderella. She swears by her Shaolin training, which allows her to join with her four sisters to create a whirling circle of steel- tipped death. Mr. Darcy ( Sam Riley) prefers a Japanese fighting style, and also carries a vial of flies to help identify zombies- in- development.
Differing methods of selfdefence are just the start of the social miscues and misunderstandings between the couple, which culminate in a drawingroom chat that is also a brawl. But there is comedy in addition to the burgeoning mayberomance. As in the original novel, the Bennet sisters’ cousin, Parson Collins ( a perfectly simpering Matt Smith), provides a counterpoint to Darcy’s more refined masculinity.
We also have Jack Huston as George Wickham, a cad in every iteration of Austin’s story. Here he plays a kind of apologist for the zombies, some of whom are trying to lead normal lives — if you count a pig- brain diet as normal.
The final element in the film is of course the horror, which tends toward gore more than frights. ( It’s difficult to feel too fearful of a group still tossing around words like “blackguard” and “pantaloons,” no matter how viciously they fight.) It all fits together in a neat package — not a very original one, given that it is just a combination of others’ ideas, but satisfying enough.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies aims for unbridled terror — but with all the horseback riding, it must settle for mere bridled terror more often than not.