Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), PG-13, ★★

Yum...flesh!

Ummm...for starters, this has got to be one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen or one of the weirdest projects ever conceived. The concept for twisting the beloved Jane Austen tale into a romantic zombie flick is nearly difficult to achieve. A lot of studios are reaching that demographic/audience of loving the zombie-fest and gore that they consider being delighted to watch. It's a costume-filled Walking Dead movie. So, as the main characters join forces to stop the zombie apocalypse, we are in for the ride. It's a good idea of for a fan-made YouTube video but not for a movie in theatrical release.

Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley) travels to a wealthy family's home for a zombie emergency. He arrives at the home and uncorks a vial, releasing a particular set of flies detecting the undead. The flies land on the house's patriarch and gets his throat slashed. It frightens one of the girls upstairs and she retreats. But, she is discovered to become one of the zombies. The Black Plague has hit London and causes a problem for them to build a wall between the infected and the rest.

Meanwhile, the Bennet sisters - Elizabeth (Lily James), Jane (Bella Heathcoate), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), and Mary (Millie Brady) - have all been trained to fight with weaponry and martial arts. Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) wants them to be married to wealth suitors. When a ball starts, the Bennets attend and Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) set an eye on Jane but makes a snide comment on her appearance in which she runs way with displeasure. When Elizabeth sets eye on a woman, the woman is turned into a zombie and gets killed by Darcy. A horde of zombies attack and all of the sisters spring into action. Then, the fight to the death begins.

The Five Zombie Samurai. 

This is a fun premise on paper, however, when you spin-off the idea with the executives. The executives could get greedy and think of the money because of how the Jane Austen genre and zombie genre can appeal to the sole demographic - which, in my opinion, are teenage girls and a tad older women. But, this mashup of both genres executes well but does not conclude well because it becomes a self-serious joke that stretches far beyond our imaginations and leaves our minds fatigued. But, also the story gets gimmicky as when the characters go somewhere every time and something out of left field is brought up. 

The casting is quite exceptional and there's a nice romance in there somewhere between Lily James and Sam Riley but the style overtakes the whole movie. It is what it is: a zombie B-movie. But, also another problem was that it is rated PG-13. If more gore was involved, maybe, then I would have enjoyed this flick as a guilty pleasure. This movie is fun absurdity to the extreme appealing to the teen demographic, but its self-indulgence and gimmicks interfere with the cheesy experience and gets tiresome. Read the Jane Austen novel. Plus, it is not as bad as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

**