Life After Beth (2014)

 

Genre: Horror/ Comedy

Time: 1h 31mins

Director: Jeff Baena

Quick Summary: A young man's recently deceased girlfriend mysteriously returns from the dead, but he slowly realizes she is not the way he remembered her.

Can we just forget about the first half and enjoy the second half?

Okay, so the premise for this is fun, shame it is just so slow for most of this. I get this is quirky and wants to build up more between the two leads for our enjoyment, but the pacing could have been improved. There is only so much set-up for a Zombie film you need before it gets painful. I wouldn't even say much in the first half was actually funny either, just a lot of teen angst behaviour that really dates itself to 2014.

The best comedic moments are given to Reilly and Shannon who are overjoyed their daughter has returned from the grave. And they will do anything to keep that from getting out. Reilly has some great one-liners whilst Shannon plays straight like her daughter never died, even though her skin is peeling off and she's eating people. Aubrey Plaza I enjoyed much more when she was actually a full zombie, as before she had essentially zero personality. Once she became a full zombie, she was just absolutely feral and petty, and full-blown sarcastic to anything which made me enjoy this film a bit more. A quick side note of a running joke I did actually enjoy too was that the zombies in this can only be calmed down by smooth jazz.

This is classed as a horror comedy, but in my opinion, it is more of a romantic drama that revolves around two young lovers, one who happens to be a walking corpse. While the premise of the film may seem scary or even gory, there is nothing particularly horrific or terrifying about it. Instead, it focuses more on the relationship between the two lead characters, exploring the complexities of their unconventional love story, grief, and moving on. 

I did like how this attempted to bring something new and unique to the zombie genre. However, it fails massively. Once the basic premise is introduced, the plot fails to offer anything that is interesting or engaging, and I was pretty bored for most of this film. Honestly, I think my main enjoyment was from the last 20 minutes of this.

Overall, while the film explores a fresh and different take on the zombie genre, it fails big time. The romantic aspect is small, but it's there and the horror side is barely there. This is pretty disappointing, It may be worth one watch to see for yourself, but I find it hard to recommend this.

4/10