Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Parent Guide

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.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.