Life After Beth

The exhausted zombie subgenre gets a much needed fresh take with this tiny budgeted horror comedy. A zombie epidemic is strictly background material and it begins with Zach played by Dane DeHaan, who does a good job here, grieving over the death of his girlfriend Beth. He bonds with her parents, played by John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon, who make the most of their underwritten parts. It's not before long that Beth returns and she and Zach continue their relationship - which is obviously headed for disaster. Aubrey Plaza does good work with her usual deadpan line readings and there's some hilarious scenes with her spastic rage and violence. Life After Beth is a small, lightweight film, the side characters can occasionally fall into sitcom-ish territory, but it does have some genuine big laughs.

Starts out decent enough, initially I thought that it was a good thing that the movie started straight away with Beth being dead so you wouldn't just sit and wait for her to die so she could finally come back from the dead.

But really in retrospect, had there been any scenes of her life and her relationsship with Zach perhaps that would make the viewer understand exactly what it was that Zach fell for in Beth in the first place.

Cause the "living dead" Beth has zero personality, and she doesn't seem to care much about Zach after her death (nor anything else for that matter) so it's hard to see why Zach would still be so deeply in love with her based on her personality after death, it surely must have differed a bit.

But then again, most characters in this movie are one-tracked one- dimensional beings so maybe not, maybe she always was like that, which would just add more confusion as to why Zach (who is a fairly normal kid) would like her that much.

But then again not much about this movie makes much sense.

I guess it tries to be sort of a dark comedy but it's not dark enough, dark comedy is supposed to shock the viewer or be slightly disturbing at least, this movie just fails at that completely, and the horror aspect of the movie: forget about it.

I don't know why John C Reilly who I like tons would appear in this movie, based on his performance I don't think he did either, hope he got a good paycheck for it at least.

Molly Shannon plays the mother, at least on paper, there was nothing motherly about her character, and she wasn't funny either, just a very flat character.

I dunno what to say more about this movie, it fails at being funny and scary and it also fails at being good and it even fails at being completely terrible, it's just a big soup of mehhh.

The synopsis of this movie is what caught my interest, and the DVD cover also brandished 'the best zom-rom-com since Shaun of the Dead'. So I will say that the playing field for this movie was right there for a home-run.

But the movie turned out to be just another mediocre zombie movie, and I will say that "Warm Bodies" was much, much better than "Life After Beth". So there is a comparison for you right there.

While "Life After Beth" started out alright, then director Jeff Baena set up the scenario for more than he could handle, and t he movie just fell to a heap of disappointing pieces.

There wasn't a single moment throughout the movie that made me laugh, so for a comedy, then the movie failed to deliver. The movie was adequate entertainment, don't get me wrong, but it hardly sustains more than a single viewing.

The cast list was good though, and people were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters.

"Life After Beth" was a mediocre movie that set out to accomplish more than it could handle, and as such it scores a very mediocre five out of ten stars from me.

In my opinion Dane DeHaan is an amazing actor. Even though I have vowed to never see a found footage movie again, I did struggle through the entirety of Chronicle which was to no one's surprise...a found footage quality movie.

But then I saw DeHaan in Amazing Spiderman 2 where he successfully helped the audience understand why he is so angry and why he has reason to be a villain. So similarly, in this movie he conveys realism under surealistic situations.

If zombies were real... this is how it would go down. I am trying to understand why I loved this movie but it all comes down to one fact. Real characters.

I keep mentioning again and again how some movies kill off characters and sad music is playing and you are supposed to feel sad yet...you feel nothing at all. And all the Hans Zimmer in the world wont make you cry.

But then, there are movies whose plot revolves around a robot with scissors for hands, or a kid that grows up after a wish, or a dude who lost his volleyball in the ocean.

And this is a movie with real characters for whom you care. Realistic dialogue, awesome situations. Truly a one of a kind movie. Neither a horror nor a comedy flick...not even a romantic one.

Just a story of how it would go down with a little bit of silliness in it.

Beth's parents are in denial about their daughter which is only natural. Dehaan's reaction after finding out Beth is still alive and how he goes temporarily insane and re falls in love with her. How Beth loses touch with her humanity gradually and how a zombie uprising is about to occur are all awesome elements.

I loved watching this movie. The cast is wonderful and Audrey Plaza earns my respect as someone who is not afraid of destroying her image.

I have reached a point in my life where I am bored as hell of watching clichés and formulas. Every alien movie needs a "bomb" the mothership ending. Every possession movie needs a girl acting silly and talking in voices. Every zombie movie needs people barricading themselves in malls. Every disaster movie needs explosions and footage of the Aiffel tower and the Acropolis getting destroyed.

Not Von Trier's Melancholia that had a different approach to destruction movies.

Nor Jeff Baena's Life After Beth that had a different approach to zombie movies.

If you want the same old sith,a typical zombie movie ...go for Land of the Dead [2005]. If you want a different approach...Life After Beth is excellent.

I wish the audience was a little bit more supportive to movies like this.

I know that a 9 score is reserved for super awesome movies that are classics and that will stand the test of time, with awesome acting, photography, story telling techniques, music and the whole package.

Regardless, I am going to give this movie a 9 because I loved watching it and given the ridiculous material they had to work with (a dude in love with a zombie) they did an excellent job.

Beware: this movie is NOT suited for (die hard) zombie fans, although it is (wrongly) marketed as a zombie movie.The zombie fans didnt get what they expected and they started complaining about it on Imdb. But that doesnt make this movie a bad movie, not at all.

This movie is probably better suited for an arthouse audience who appreciates SERIOUS acting above gross action scenes. Life after Beth is basically a slowburning, quirky romantic comedy about Dane DeHaan, who is dating a girlfriend (Aubrey Plaza, those eyes! ) who has died, although she doesnt realize it yet. The many practical difficulties of dating a girlfriend, who has died and who immediately has come back to life, is what makes this movie quite witty and original.

It is not a full blown comedy though, because acting and story (up to a point) are mostly done seriously. But serious acting performances only enhance the comedy effect, in a tongue in cheek kinda way. Great supporting actor roles as well!

Any bad? The start of this story is great. But later on the movie is lacking a bit in suspense and drama, because it has become more of a predictable action / zombie story, although the dramatic end part of this movie is rather good again. 8 stars for originality of the story and 8 stars for the quirky kind of humour, which is quite delightful!