Life After Beth

The movie did not reach my expectation, but still I enjoyed watching it. A story like this I never thought would do fairly, a better movie from the average section. I think not without the Aubrey Plaza, she as a Beth was excellent. Not a career defining performance, but funny enough. The story looks only faintly different from other similar films, but a few good scenes saved it. If it had a couple more good jokes and maybe a twist, surely would have been done greatly at the box office.

There's no surprise material in it, I thinks that's negative about it. Easy to read the situation and predict the story within the first 15 minutes, but the second half was drastically changed its pace as well as the atmosphere in the story. If you've not seen many zombie films, especially comedy ones, then you may find it better than average.

Definitely a decent direction for a first timer, got a good support from the cast. For a small budget, this is a wonderful production quality. It surely upset you if you expect like 'Warm Bodies' or 'Shaun of the Dead', but if you know all about it before giving a try, the disappointment will be lessened and you may have a decent time pass with it.

6/10

Aubrey Plaza just nailed the role. Never realized she is so tallented

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.

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!

Ah, the zombie genre...Is there still anything we haven't seen before? Life after Beth takes a swing at the RomZomCom sub-genre but it biggest problem is that it isn't really anything. I suppose it's meant to be funny but there's nothing really funny about it. It isn't dramatic either or dark or creepy or anything. The trailer didn't seem to bad (and looked rather funny, reminded me a bit of Fido) but the writers don't seem to know what to do with the idea (a girl dies and returns as a zombie but doesn't know it and everyone's trying to keep it a secret). It won't be a big success because it doesn't appeal to anyone in particular and won't be remembered as a classic or even a great addition to the zombie genre.