Romantic Comedy Meets Horror

     Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice has been adapted many times over, but only Pride and Prejudice and Zombies directed by Burr Steers based off of Seth Grahame-Smith's book can boast introducing the classic romance to horror. The film takes the regency era story and places it into an alternate history of a zombie plagued Great Britain. It's additive in nature, the same story we know and love just add zombies and follow the logical conclusions of what the world would then look like. 

Colonel Darcy at Mrs. Featherstone's Party

    Mr. Darcy, or Colonel Darcy in this film, plays a
larger role in the crowns attempt to fight back against the zombies. He acts almost like a one-man inquisition searching for zombies amongst the nobles, leading men, and being one of the first in the fight at any opportunity. We first meet him doing just this at Mrs. Featherstone's party where he quickly finds and dispatches a zombie despite the distrust and dislike he is shown. Then again, a zombie hunter at your door is never a good sign no matter how rude he comes across. He is shown to be both intelligent and strong with a loyalty that pushes beyond the original text of not just threatening embarrassment or social ostracism but outright death at the hands of a zombie hoard to help the woman he loves family.

Elizabeth and her sisters at the Meryton Ball

    Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the second Benet daughter, is still the outspoken young woman we know, but with a deadly twist. She, like her sisters in this adaptation, have been taught the deadly arts to defend themselves and fight against the undead that plagues their world. This physical power leads further into a more direct way of speaking out seen best in the adaptation of the proposal scene at 1:06turning into a brawl between the two. Elizabeth is still allowing her emotions to rule her even leaving the Meryton Ball to cry after being humiliated. Of course, her humiliation is soon forgotten thanks to the approaching zombies at which point she makes full use of her training, but the underlying
rule of emotionality still reigns over her in this adaptation.

    The main changes to the story follow the zombie's involvement. Each party and ball end with an invasion of zombies. Each travel scene involves at least seeing if not fighting zombies. Mr. Wickham is a zombie sympathizer who eventually is revealed to be the zombie antichrist. Instead of Lydia marrying Mr. Wickham she is saved from him after being held captive in a zombie church. Lady Catherine is the deadliest swordswoman in Britian who eventually safeguards the Bennet's in the final act. Even the changes in violence and physicality are made because a zombie apocalypse should be a good enough reason to let even the women violate the rules of proper conduct to not fight in public.

Darcy VS. Wickham & Lady Catherine De Bourgh 

    The gender rules and roles in this adaptation are a strange mix of modern, and conservative. The women are still expected to be the accomplished and poised girls that were valued in the regency era. This is still a patriarchal society that follows those norms. However, the women are much more outspoken in this adaptation than the original leaning into more modern views of women speaking their minds. The alternate history of the zombie apocalypse allows for another modern view to come up, allowing the women to fight. Regency women would not have been allowed to learn martial arts to fight even in a state of emergency. Not to mention the racism that would have prevented them from learning traditional Chinese and Japanese fighting styles. Instead, these women are not just taught to fight and excel at it but fight alongside the men. The Bennet sisters prove to be better warriors than even some of the male characters like Mr. Collins and Mr. Bingley who are quite useless in a fight, which is a bad thing to be in a zombie apocalypse.