Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The title is the pitch. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. If that sentence doesn't already tell you whether you're in, I'm not sure what else I can do for you.

And it delivers exactly what's on the tin. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are doing the whole barbed back-and-forth thing, all that clipped nineteenth-century sniping, and while they're at it they're putting down the undead. The dialogue doesn't stop for the zombies. The zombies don't stop for the dialogue. They just happen at the same time, and it works.

The dialogue doesn't stop for the zombies.

What I keep coming back to is that Lily James and Sam Riley genuinely pull off both halves of the job. Killing zombies is one skill. Reciting Austen is another. Doing both in the same scene without either one looking silly is a hell of a thing, and they nail it.

As for what didn't work: nothing. It's Pride and Prejudice with zombies. There's nothing to dislike here. I knew what I was getting and I got it, and I'd happily sit down and watch the whole thing again.

It stuck with me too, which I didn't necessarily plan on. Some movies earn their goofy premise. This one just leans all the way into it and grins.