Summary
Period action horror starring Lily James, Sam Riley and Matt Smith. Elizabeth and Darcy unite on a blood-soaked zombie battlefield to discover their true love for one another.
Period action horror starring Lily James, Sam Riley and Matt Smith. Elizabeth and Darcy unite on a blood-soaked zombie battlefield to discover their true love for one another.
Jane Austen's celebrated classic about Regency social manners and aristocratic romance meets George A Romero-style zombies in this consistently engaging and precision-tooled mash-up based on Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 parody novel. Set 70 years after a pandemic of the living dead isolates London and keeps the gentry to their country piles, the story remains anchored by Austen's original hero and heroine, only here feisty Elizabeth Bennet (pitch-perfect Lily James) is a martial arts and weapons expert, who joins Colonel Darcy (deliciously deadpan Sam Riley) in fighting off the zombie menace while figuring out her conflicted feelings. Director Burr Steer's perversely clever construct is superbly cast with a roster of costume drama favourites (Lena Headey, Charles Dance, Downton's James) but it's hilarious Matt Smith who steals every scene as dozy Parson Collins. By playing things completely straight in both the bodice-ripping/heaving bosom and zombie horror departments, it also means the potency of the swashbuckling splatter is crucially reinforced, while epic panoramas and polished production values add enormously to the success of the glossy contrasts. The almost Python-esque daffiness is another welcome surprise in this fresh and flesh-eating tale of two well-collided genres.
role | name |
---|---|
Elizabeth Bennet | Lily James |
Mr Darcy | Sam Riley |
Lady Catherine de Bourgh | Lena Headey |
Parson Collins | Matt Smith |
Mr Wickham | Jack Huston |
Mr Bingley | Douglas Booth |
Mr Bennet | Charles Dance |
Jane Bennet | Bella Heathcote |
Mrs Bennet | Sally Phillips |
Kitty Bennet | Suki Waterhouse |
Lydia Bennet | Ellie Bamber |
Caroline Bingley | Emma Greenwell |
Mrs Featherstone | Dolly Wells |
Aunt Phillips | Pooky Quesnel |
Georgiana | Morfydd Clark |
role | name |
---|---|
Director | Burr Steers |