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Saturday, October 17th, 2020 03:25 am
pride and prejudice and zombies: living the dream
No period romance watching is ever complete until you watch Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Is it a masterpiece of cinema? Groundbreaking in reinterpreting the role of women in nineteenth century Britain? A fascinating dip into the culture and psychology of Regency-era zombies? Perhaps the greatest piece of media ever created on earth?
My opinion is yes; if you think otherwise, you're wrong. You're very wrong and must be put right one way or another by God.
If you're on the fence, though why I have no idea, but here's why you need to watch:
1.) Zombie/Bennet Sisters throwdown at a local dance. Bennet Sisters win.
2.) Darcy wanders around in a leather trenchcoat because God loves me.
3.) Wickham is actually hot for once. Evil, sure, and wearing suede, but still.
4.) Bingley is ungodly hot. Like, unreal hot. He combines that with still being goofy and finding Elizabeth hilarious.
Okay, lets talk about Bingley.
I can't believe I'm saying this: he's probably the best Bingley we've had. Much like Jane, Bingley is always cast as less hot than Darcy when canonically, not so much. Also, in general, Bingley and Charlotte get their screentime butchered in movies. This is about the same amount of Bingley in two hours than we got in five and change hours of Pride and Prejudice 1995. Sometimes, he's also mussed and dirty in the zombie battle fields.
(I seriously can't get over how almost terrifyingly attractive the actor is. Note: make him Edmund Bertram, and yeah, you get why Mary Crawford put up with his judginess and consider it a small price to pay. I'd overlook a growing collection of fresh bodies in the basement and an altar to Cthulhu in the living room. He gets dirty, I wouldn't question why our neighbors are disappearing in such alarming numbers.)
Bingley is hilarious. He's still goofy and overawed by Darcy In A Leather Trenchcoat Bless Whoever Decided That, but he's not above watching someone fuck with him on a professional level. And while I think he would have fallen in love with Jane no matter what, the process was probably sped up by the realization that if he married Jane, Elizabeth would probably come with her and he'd start living his best fucking life. Like someone else wrote (I cannot find where), he's super into a future where he marries the love of his life and gets twenty-four seven front-row viewing of Elizabeth mock the fuck out of Darcy, his sisters, his brother in law, and anyone who gets on her nerves. This is a man who didn't even have to understand Chinese to know a burn when he heard one and knows it was good.
5.) Zombie-fighting power couples Jane/Bingley and Elizabeth/Darcy on the field of battle.
6.) Darcy dramatically goes swimming in (random?) lake due to post-Elizabeth angst because that's canon now I guess?
7.) Darcy practices swordfighting alone, in the rain, at night, because he's on a mission to out-drama Darcy 1995 when it comes to Elizabeth angst. And yeah, he wins.
8.) Lady Catherine de Borough causes us all to question our sexuality and also realize how ungodly hot eyepatches are. Also, that outfit with all the buttons, holy shit.
9.) Realizing you really can combine your love of fancy dress and armed combat with visual instruction on exactly where to put your weapons.
10.) Bingley and Jane's reunion when she saves him as zombies explode behind them is like Disney but after a healthy dose of PCP was given to the writers.
11.) EPIC WICKHAM DARCY SWORDFIGHT.
I rest my case.
My opinion is yes; if you think otherwise, you're wrong. You're very wrong and must be put right one way or another by God.
If you're on the fence, though why I have no idea, but here's why you need to watch:
1.) Zombie/Bennet Sisters throwdown at a local dance. Bennet Sisters win.
2.) Darcy wanders around in a leather trenchcoat because God loves me.
3.) Wickham is actually hot for once. Evil, sure, and wearing suede, but still.
4.) Bingley is ungodly hot. Like, unreal hot. He combines that with still being goofy and finding Elizabeth hilarious.
Okay, lets talk about Bingley.
I can't believe I'm saying this: he's probably the best Bingley we've had. Much like Jane, Bingley is always cast as less hot than Darcy when canonically, not so much. Also, in general, Bingley and Charlotte get their screentime butchered in movies. This is about the same amount of Bingley in two hours than we got in five and change hours of Pride and Prejudice 1995. Sometimes, he's also mussed and dirty in the zombie battle fields.
(I seriously can't get over how almost terrifyingly attractive the actor is. Note: make him Edmund Bertram, and yeah, you get why Mary Crawford put up with his judginess and consider it a small price to pay. I'd overlook a growing collection of fresh bodies in the basement and an altar to Cthulhu in the living room. He gets dirty, I wouldn't question why our neighbors are disappearing in such alarming numbers.)
Bingley is hilarious. He's still goofy and overawed by Darcy In A Leather Trenchcoat Bless Whoever Decided That, but he's not above watching someone fuck with him on a professional level. And while I think he would have fallen in love with Jane no matter what, the process was probably sped up by the realization that if he married Jane, Elizabeth would probably come with her and he'd start living his best fucking life. Like someone else wrote (I cannot find where), he's super into a future where he marries the love of his life and gets twenty-four seven front-row viewing of Elizabeth mock the fuck out of Darcy, his sisters, his brother in law, and anyone who gets on her nerves. This is a man who didn't even have to understand Chinese to know a burn when he heard one and knows it was good.
5.) Zombie-fighting power couples Jane/Bingley and Elizabeth/Darcy on the field of battle.
6.) Darcy dramatically goes swimming in (random?) lake due to post-Elizabeth angst because that's canon now I guess?
7.) Darcy practices swordfighting alone, in the rain, at night, because he's on a mission to out-drama Darcy 1995 when it comes to Elizabeth angst. And yeah, he wins.
8.) Lady Catherine de Borough causes us all to question our sexuality and also realize how ungodly hot eyepatches are. Also, that outfit with all the buttons, holy shit.
9.) Realizing you really can combine your love of fancy dress and armed combat with visual instruction on exactly where to put your weapons.
10.) Bingley and Jane's reunion when she saves him as zombies explode behind them is like Disney but after a healthy dose of PCP was given to the writers.
11.) EPIC WICKHAM DARCY SWORDFIGHT.
I rest my case.
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From:Seriously, there's not one second where it isn't just hilarious fun. And Darcy swishing his coat angstily never gets boring ever.
(And Elizabeth doing battle is like--hello, new kink here.)
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From:Also I did love the "here is where you hide your daggers in period clothing" montage because, hell yes, knowing where so strap your lethal instruments of destruction is *never* a bad idea!
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From:Could you add the occasional cut away shot to the Bennet sisters swashing a buckle too? *G*
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From:Jane/Bingley zombie-fighting power couple? Darcy in a leather trenchcoat? Sign me up.
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From:There's some kind of gross zombie stuff but seriously, it's mostly just stabbing level for fighting. I don't watch horror almost ever--The Ring still fucks with me and it's been like over fifteen years--and I don't do gore or torture porn ever.
Otherwise: if you're into cotillions ending in finely dressed and weaponed sisters wiping out zombies, power couple warfare, and a surprising amount of leather for Regency England watch this. This is just plain fun; it's on my movie playlist of Jupiter Ascending, Oceans 8, The Mummy, and Ghostbusters 2016 where I just love every minute watching and feel good after.
And honestly, the movie holds together fairly well if you just accept the 'why not' principle and go with it. The pacing is excellent, the fights hit the happy place of being long enough to be fun but not drag out into repetition, it's got some beautiful scenery, and Lady Catherine de Borough Greatest Swordswoman of Ever and Savior of Britain is--I don't know, it works?
Or to put it another way: the premise is dumb, but the movie's not. It committed to it without being ironic, the actors played like hell yes we're Regency Era zombie hunters what about it, and just--argh.
Tell me what you think after you watch!
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From:And omg that is 100% true for me too, about The Ring. Still can't watch it, even 15 years later.
*checks out the trailer for P & P and Zombies*
The "men with guns" type of zombie movie is on my Avoid list not so much for gore but because so many of those actually focus on what is (for me) a lot of violent ableism, sometimes thinly-veiled, sometimes overt. ("This body doesn't work the way Protagonist expects bodies to work, so it must not be human, and he must kill it")
But this movie is clearly all about flipping the tropes around and having an unexpectedly fun time, and...Yes. Yes please. Going to go watch :D
(edited for typo)
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From:The "men with guns" type of zombie movie is on my Avoid list not so much for gore but because so many of those actually focus on what is (for me) a lot of violent ableism, sometimes thinly-veiled, sometimes overt. ("This body doesn't work the way Protagonist expects bodies to work, so it must not be human, and he must kill it")
Interesting. Zombie movies--in general, and I've only really gotten into safe-for-me types and George Romero (I can deal with (much) older horror movies because they tend to not be gory, but only a few)--don't hit that one for me (though again, limited number of zombie movies). Though yeah, I get your point. This one might hit that for you, but I'm not really sure.
Other types of monster movies--not all, but some (again, very small sampling of what I can sit through or even want to)--sometimes do, but I couldn't tell you what specifically did it, just a general feeling. I just put it up to not really watching/liking to watch horror (I can read it! Just not watch it) but now I wonder if there's a common factor.
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From:So yeah... help me out, should I rewatch and spoil that utterly amazing experience to revel in the utter ridiculously of this movie?
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