March 18th, 2019
Written by: Jeff Baena
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly
Budget: $2,400,000
Quote: "No. No. How could I be... how could I be dead if I'm alive? You can't be both things Zach. You can either be dead or alive, and I'm alive."
Trivia: Nick Offerman can be heard narrating the documentary on Machu Pichu in the beginning of the film. One of the several ties to Aubrey's role in Parks and Recreation.
Oh man, remember My Boyfriend's Back? That movie from the early nineties? The one where the guy stages a fake bank robbery to impress the hot chick at school but it backfires and he is actually killed but returns from the dead nonetheless to take her to prom, and hilarity ensures as he tries to manage his sexual attraction with his cannibalistic urges. Life After Beth is like that movie, except without the funny moments, likable characters, or narrative arc. The movie is not a complete waste, it offers great performances by Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly. It also adds its own touches to zombie mythology and has a couple of good gory moments. It just seems very unfocused which left me feeling, "what's the point?" With so many zombie movies out there, this one is not necessary viewing.
The movie begins with high school student Zach (Dane DeHaan) grieving for his girlfriend Beth (Aubrey Plaza) who was killed by a snakebite while hiking. Inexplicably, Beth returns to life and with help from her parents who are trying to protect her, she has no idea that she died. Despite Beth's parent's warnings, Zach takes her out of the house and into the world where she quickly begins to deteriorate. Her behavior also becomes more erratic, living in the attic, covering the walls with dirt and smooth jazz having both a relaxing and sexual affect on her. We also quickly learn that Beth was not the only one to come back from the dead, apparently all the recently deceased are coming back to life. As Beth slips deeper and deeper into being a zombie, difficult decisions need to be made.
What made My Boyfriend's Back such a timeless movie was that the characters are well developed and really likeable which causes the viewer to genuinely care what happens to him, be it funny or sad. Unfortunately, we never get to meet Beth prior to death so we have no connection with her and Zach, as a character, as moody and whiny and just generally unpleasant. I had more of a connection to his idiot cop brother than to him. There are also moments like when he dry humps on Beth in front of her parents and the forced love triangle angle they shove into the film with Anna Kendrick that makes me like him even less. When everything is said and done, I don't care if Beth eats him, doesn't eat him, or they get married.
The movie also seemed to be tonally off. It really seemed like it was written to be a dark comedy, but unfortunately the funny parts just didn't come through. Instead it came across as just another zombie movie in a genre that is already over-saturated.
It was fun seeing Aubrey Plaza's character's gradual decent into madness and zombification. This process culminates in her eating her father and her mother feeding her her own fingers. Brutal. The filmmakers also through in a couple cool plot elements, such as the red herring Haitian maid that turns out has nothing to do with the Zombie uprising. Also, I liked the small additions the filmmakers make to Zombie mythology, particularly the zombie fascination with attics and dirt. Finally, the combination of cannibalistic and sexual urges added a new element that I hadn't seen in a zombie film before. A deadly combo that creates a few interesting moments in the film.
When all is said and done, the movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that memorable either. If you want a zom-rom-com, stick with 1993's My Boyfriend's Back.
...what's your thoughts?
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