The success of The Walking Dead must have spurred the circulation around Hollywood of memo saying zombie movies need more human drama and less flesh eating undead from now on. That's the only reason I can see to explain why, after Life After Beth, we have two more movies focusing on ordinary people dealing with a loved one becoming a zombie: Maggie (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin ), and the Joe Dante directed Burying the Ex, which shares quite a lot in common with this movie, right down to the punny title. Anyway, Life After Beth is the first out of the traps, putting a romantic comedy spin on the usual zombie apocalypse scenario.
Zach (Dane DeHann) is devastated when his girlfriend Beth (Aubery Plaza) dies while hiking. Unable to cope with his grief, he begins to spend more and more time with Beth's parents Maury and Geenie (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon), but when they block him out of their lives suddenly, he discovers Beth is alive and well, the result of what they call "a resurrection". Beth and Zach pick up exactly where they left off, but when Beth starts to develop a taste for human flesh Zach must deal with losing the love of his life all over again.
The directorial debut of I Heart Huckabees scribe Jeff Baena (also writer here), Life After Beth has a great premise at its core, and for the most part, Baena makes it work. It is quite charming at time, and doesn't take itself too seriously, providing some neat spins on well worn zombie lore, from the undead originally continuing on their life as usual, completely unaware of their deaths, to their love of smooth jazz. It's more concerned with subtle humour than out and out belly laughs, hitting its stride when Beth claws her way out of the grave. Plaza is fantastic in the role, her trademark snarkiness used to great effect, and displays some incredible psychical comedy as she is thrown about like a rag doll and picks herself up like nothing happened. As the story goes on, and Beth's condition becomes more apparent, she becomes more and more manic, before fully becoming the type of zombie we are used to, but still retaining her humour. DeHann plays off her nicely, and watching him become more more flustered as Beth deteriorates before his eyes is oddly entertaining. Reilly and Shannon provide good support, especially Reilly, whose grip on reality you can practically see slipping as he tries to convince himself and everybody else that Beth is still daddy's little angel.
But as inventive and unique Life After Beth's story is, it is also it's biggest problem. The premise ultimately proves too small for a feature film, all its tricks exhausted pretty quickly, and it soon falls into predictability as it becomes clear Beth isn't the only dead body walking around town, and begins to hit the same beats as hundreds of zombie films before it. Also, the inclusion of Anna Kendrick as a point of jealousy for Beth is completely wasted. It could have shaken things up considerably, but is dropped pretty much as soon as it is introduced, and only comes up again at the end in a pretty awkward way.
Showing a lot of promise early on, Life After Beth soon shows the cracks of a story that is stretched way too thin, but some great performances from Plaza and DeHann keeps this entertaining.
Zach (Dane DeHann) is devastated when his girlfriend Beth (Aubery Plaza) dies while hiking. Unable to cope with his grief, he begins to spend more and more time with Beth's parents Maury and Geenie (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon), but when they block him out of their lives suddenly, he discovers Beth is alive and well, the result of what they call "a resurrection". Beth and Zach pick up exactly where they left off, but when Beth starts to develop a taste for human flesh Zach must deal with losing the love of his life all over again.
The directorial debut of I Heart Huckabees scribe Jeff Baena (also writer here), Life After Beth has a great premise at its core, and for the most part, Baena makes it work. It is quite charming at time, and doesn't take itself too seriously, providing some neat spins on well worn zombie lore, from the undead originally continuing on their life as usual, completely unaware of their deaths, to their love of smooth jazz. It's more concerned with subtle humour than out and out belly laughs, hitting its stride when Beth claws her way out of the grave. Plaza is fantastic in the role, her trademark snarkiness used to great effect, and displays some incredible psychical comedy as she is thrown about like a rag doll and picks herself up like nothing happened. As the story goes on, and Beth's condition becomes more apparent, she becomes more and more manic, before fully becoming the type of zombie we are used to, but still retaining her humour. DeHann plays off her nicely, and watching him become more more flustered as Beth deteriorates before his eyes is oddly entertaining. Reilly and Shannon provide good support, especially Reilly, whose grip on reality you can practically see slipping as he tries to convince himself and everybody else that Beth is still daddy's little angel.
But as inventive and unique Life After Beth's story is, it is also it's biggest problem. The premise ultimately proves too small for a feature film, all its tricks exhausted pretty quickly, and it soon falls into predictability as it becomes clear Beth isn't the only dead body walking around town, and begins to hit the same beats as hundreds of zombie films before it. Also, the inclusion of Anna Kendrick as a point of jealousy for Beth is completely wasted. It could have shaken things up considerably, but is dropped pretty much as soon as it is introduced, and only comes up again at the end in a pretty awkward way.
Showing a lot of promise early on, Life After Beth soon shows the cracks of a story that is stretched way too thin, but some great performances from Plaza and DeHann keeps this entertaining.
