Pride and Prejudice and Zombies parents guide

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Parent Guide

The novelty of seeing Jane Austen's prim and proper characters morphing into zombie hunters quickly pales. While the Bennett sisters now have something to do, the violence introduced is vicious.

Overall C-

Jane Austen might just roll over in her grave if she could see this adaptation of her famous romance novel, Pride and Prejudice, being turned into a horror story featuring zombies.

Release date February 5, 2016

Violence D
Sexual Content B
Profanity B+
Substance Use A-

Why is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Pride and Prejudice and Zombies PG-13 for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material

Run Time: 108 minutes

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Parent Movie Review

Seth Grahame-Smith is a writer who has discovered a moneymaking idea that we may all wish we had thought of. He takes literature that’s in the public domain or familiar characters and creates what can be best described as a Halloween mashup. He started with Dark Shadows, then moved to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Now Seth brings us Pride & Prejudice with Zombies.

It seems zombies have infested all of England and those of the living are fighting to contain the outbreak. The Bennett sisters have been sharpening their hunting skills since childhood and are just as adept at tracking down the undead as are their male cohorts. The lead of the brood, Elizabeth, played by Lily James, is a keen warrior who doesn’t hesitate to despatch anyone who reeks of zombie flesh. And just as Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln spent his off time seeking vampires, now the unlikable Mr. Darcy, played by Sam Riley, is an expert zombie detective.

Admittedly, Pride and Prejudice has never been my cup of tea. And while the addition of angry zombies does, at the very least, give the Bennett women something to do aside from sitting around their drawing room and gossiping, it also introduces to this rather tedious tale a lot of vicious violence. Zombies, like space aliens, Nazis, or many other movie antagonists, are disposable characters that justify massive bloody mayhem in an all out effort to achieve their extinction. Many fighting scenes depict these ghoulish humans being decapitated, impaled or even having their heads shot off their bodies. In fact, had this movie contained any significant sexual content or profanity, it would likely have moved it to a restricted rating in the US.

Coming to theaters at a time of year when horror movies rule the dark days of January and romance begins to blossom in time for Valentines’ Day, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a marketing checkmate. However, the novelty of seeing Jane Austen’s prim and proper characters morphing into zombie hunters quickly pales. And the story just trades those boring conversations for equally mundane and gory battle scenes.

Directed by Burr Steers. Starring Lily James, Lena Headey, Matt Smith. Running time: 108 minutes. Theatrical release February 5, 2016. Updated

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Rating & Content Info

Why is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies rated PG-13? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material

Violence: Scenes of explicit violence are found throughout, usually between people and zombies. The zombies appear as humans with disfigurements and disintegrating flesh, one female holds a baby with similar afflictions. People seek to kill zombies through highly violent means, including decapitation, dismemberment and impalement, along with blasting their heads off with guns. Blood effects are included during these attacks. Other violent confrontations have characters beaten with and thrown against various objects. Men and women fight together and, at times, against one another.

Sexual Content: Many scenes feature women in low cut dresses associated with the fashion of the era, however the camera and director often take advantage of this by including cleavage in scenes. A man and woman fight with swords—she cuts the buttons off his vest and he opens the top of her dress, revealing her undergarments. Women are seen in their underwear while dressing and concealing weapons against their thighs.

Language: A couple of mild profanities are heard.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Social drinking is depicted.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Parents' Guide

Is this movie intended to “shock” you? How does it do that? What contrasts does it take advantage of to create this effect?

For a movie to be scary, we must relate the make-belief onscreen to something in reality. While we know zombies are not real, what might they represent in reality? Would our reactions parallel those of the characters in this film? What alternatives are available when dealing with people who are different from our own beliefs and social makeup?

Zombies are “disposable” characters that give creators of movies free reign to eliminate them as they please. What other disposable movie characters can you think of? Are stories with these clearly formed antagonists beneficial or harmful to audiences? Do they allow us to work out our violent thoughts in productive ways, or just indulge our darkest fantasies?

Learn more about Jane Austen and her novel Pride and Prejudice.

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie is May 31, 2016. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Release Date: 31 May 2016
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies releases to home video (Blu-ray/Digital Copy) with the following special features:
- Deleted Scenes
- Mr. Collins Line-o-rama
- The Badass Bennet Sisters
- Creating the Unmentionables
- Courtship, Class and Carnage: Meet The Cast
- From Austen to Zombies: Adapting a Classic
- Gag Reel

Related home video titles:

Pride & Prejudice is amore serious film adaptation of Austen’s novel. Other screenwriters have taken artistic license with her tale, such as Bride & Prejudice and Austenland. The author’s biography is dramatized in the film Becoming Jane.

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