44 thoughts on “Pride & Prejudice & Zombies = Sure Why Not!

  1. I love how the costumes in this ridiculous romp are so much better than the legit historical War and Peace currently on.

    1. Yeah, when you put it like that…

      Still, that blue poly satin ball gown is virtually the same dress that every girl was wearing at my prom in 1995. No excuse for that.

  2. Accurate or not, I left wanting almost all of Elizabeth’s coats. We had a merry group all dressed up to watch. There was also another group of Zombie-Regency dressed drag queens. That set it over the top for sure.

  3. I don’t understand how anyone could put a corset on without SOMETHING under it and not complain, unless it’s laced wrong or purely decorative….

    1. Yes, but, in films set during the Regency era, the women almost never do wear proper shifts/chemises:
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/prideandprejudice/1995/5/images/cap0655.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/prideandprejudice/1995/5/images/cap0697.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/senseandsensibility/1995/images/senseandsensibility-1995_1747.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/persuasion/1995/images/persuasion-1995_0673.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/emma/1996/beckinsale/images/emma1996_0964.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/emma/1996/beckinsale/images/emma1996_3070.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/emma/1996/beckinsale/images/emma1996_4989.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/mansfieldpark/1983/1/images/mansfieldpark1983_1083.jpg
      http://www.cap-that.com/austen/mansfieldpark/1983/1/images/mansfieldpark1983_1249.jpg

      This is a pet peeve of mine. Granted, some of these actresses are probably wearing some sort of sleeveless undergarments under their corsets, but sleeveless shifts aren’t accurate for this period. Whenever you see actresses in gowns with sheer sleeves (as in the above screencaps) in these period films, it is extremely obvious that they are not wearing appropriate Regency shifts. Sometimes costume designers will put reasonably correct (i.e., short-sleeved) chemises in during scenes when characters are wearing nothing but their underwear, but this is far from common.

  4. As a lifelong Austenite, I can pretty much recite Pride and Prejudice. I only ready P&P&Z once, but I thought it was hilarious – mostly because I could pinpoint exactly where all the changes were. I think it was the juxtapositions between the original and the new bits that amused me most.

    I can’t decide if I’ll watch the movie, though. I’m really not a zombie fan, and I’m quite squeamish. Maybe I’ll watch in on Netflix – gross things are slightly less gross on a smaller screen.

  5. (also, one year my friend and I went to a Halloween party as P&P&Z – she put on zombie makeup and I chased her around with a plastic cutlass!)

  6. A ‘maggot’ is a novelty, apparently. Somehow, if I find one in something, I’m not likely to regard it as such. If I don’t get snowed in again, maybe I’ll catch this epic soon. BTW, Lady Catherine de Souza appears as a character in a Dr Who episode in the Tennant era.

  7. I LOVED it. So funny. So intentionally camp. I had a stupid grin throughout.

    Elizabeth’s coats are to die for. I would seriously cosplay the hell out of her given half the chance.

    1. If you really want to do her coats, they are based on the McCall patterns for Once Upon A Time. I think they are number 6818 and 6819. Have fun with the Cosplay!

      1. That is a great pattern for that blue one she wears on the battlefield (which is like, 1700’sy and like that first Simplicity steampunk pattern everyone had a few years ago) but what about the plum one? I LOOOOOOOOOVE THAT ONE

  8. How gory is it exactly? Hubby wants to see it and I’ve been dragging my feet, being neither an Austen fan nor a zombie fan. Your review is tempting, but I really don’t want to see exploding heads and buckets of gore and other such nastiness. Very squeamish about that sort of thing, esp on film.

    1. Occasional bits of gore, but not a gore-fest? There’s probably a few shots of brains, lots of stabbing, some creepy flesh-eaten zombies. I’m sure real horror fans would think it’s nothing. You and I can clutch our smelling salts in the back row!

  9. Lady Catherine’s purple coat. I need that. I mean really really need that. Nice to see attractive, almost historically correct Regency costumes. (The tendency to dress the women in evening wear, Ie low neck lines, during day time however continues to irritate me.)

  10. Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot is NOT an authentic Regency dance or dance name. That dance was first printed in 1695 and went out of print in c. 1728. No, dancers in Austen’s day did not retain or revive seventy-five-year-old dances. They would have danced some longways dances (Mr Beveridge’s is a longways)–but not THAT one; not the tune nor the figures. Even more likely? A cotillon (a dance for four couples in a square). And no, it is not all the same. Try to picture a film version of On the Road where the characters suddenly break into the Charleston. It is beyond me why filmmakers go to great lengths to get (some of) the details right, and bork the dances.

  11. Hooray! I saw PPZ opening night and really enjoyed it! I was even pleased to see that they went for bouncy dancing (which even though not completely accurate is still a large step up from the slow/stately business in some P&P adaptations). It’s quite something when an action movie has better costumes than a BBC period drama… (looking at you, War and Peace!)

  12. There’s a can of worms, Graham! Most of the balletic dancing in those Biblical epics is highly unlikely, and I have never understood why Middle Eastern dancers were so seldom hired for Arabian Nights films.

  13. I tried to read the book, but honestly, it didn’t diverge enough from the original for me. You could take a copy of P&P and write in “but there were also zombies” or “and then ninjas ran in” or “Elizabeth slaughtered an assassin” periodically and get the same effect. I wanted it to have more of an original plot, but no- it’s exactly what the title says. Which is fine, I guess, but at that point I’d rather just read the original.

    1. They have changed the plot quite significantly in the film. I actually liked the plot from the book more, since here I was definately more in Wickham’s camp (at least up until Lydia’s thing, but even then I agreed with his points, so…) about the whole zombies who still think. The book has Lady Catherine firmly in the delusional camp with her tea that slows infection, but here Wickham is in the right that zombies can in fact think, and do so too. I appriciate the change in plot, but they made me agree with the person they considered the bad guy. So bad writing I guess. In the end I would’ve preferred the plot from the book.

  14. All right, so I went to see this with some Jane Austen Society friends yesterday, and I was very impressed by the story, the action, the funny aspects, and I was very happy the costumes weren’t bad–aside from Darcy’s squeaky leather great coat. I had NOT read the book, and still won’t. The movie was very entertaining and they did some pretty cool things with the characters. Everyone in the group with me was happy with the decision to see it and thought it was pretty awesome. And yes, my Matt Smith made an excellent awkward, floppy Parson Collins (not sure why the character insisted on being addressed as Parson, though). I really liked the part where the girls were training in the basement, and I loved Lydia’s “Moo” line.

    1. I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that he thinks he is civilized by not being a soldier? Something like that?

  15. I want all of Lena Headey’s costumes and I don’t even do Regency. That black military uniform at the end shall be mine!

    This post is the closest I will ever get to the film – zombies give me nightmares in a way that nothing else does :(

  16. I know I’m coming to this thread a little late, but please, please, please, can anyone help me find material that would match (or even closely approximate) the material of Elizabeth’s fighting corset? I have clear pics of the outfit and a close-up of the corset material here: http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww23/EvilEmpryss/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies_12.jpg
    and here: http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww23/EvilEmpryss/corset%20material.jpg

    I’m working on movie-accurate recreations of Elizabeth’s outfit and a historically-accurate recreation for my zombie to wear. I would desperately like to get the look of that stunning brown corset!

      1. Oh, I found LOTS of diamond-patterned material, but nothing that grabbed me as being enough like the movie fabric to work for a good reproduction. I think the one you showed me is actually fuzzy on the light brown parts, which would be the wrong texture.

        I did find this one: http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww23/EvilEmpryss/diamond%20brocade.jpg It was really good for the design, and I knew I could dye it darker, but the guy wanted almost $40 a yard plus over $10 shipping for it. I don’t have tons of money to throw at a costume, so I kept looking. Then I found this one, that had the right size diamonds: http://www.ebay.com/itm/231897059080?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

        I bought a yard of it and dyed it brown. http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww23/EvilEmpryss/fc5c8d3c-8e64-4f62-a6da-61ae44292b2a.jpg It’s not too bad so far, but I need to hit it with another batch of dye to darken it some more. If I could find something closer to the original, with the little squiggle in the center of the diamond, for less than $25 a yard, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

  17. It’s funny–I’ve always had the feeling that Lizzy had been attracted to Darcy when she first met him, and that’s why her reaction to being put down by him was so strong. I can’t believe of all the P&P adaptations that I saw, *this* is the only one that approached the matter from that angle. (To clarify, I understand that Darcy’s “aloof and snarky” shtick wouldn’t have been very popular with the ladies back in the day, but I think it would intrigue someone like Elizabeth who also has a tendency to snark –only less loudly–.)

  18. Speaking of costume modifications that make sense, several of the Bennet girls are seen wearing tall combat boots when they’re dressing for the ball. That’s entirely logical, in view of the fact that these are young women who’ve been trained in the art of war since childhood and need to be prepared at all times for whatever might happen, even if they’re going to a fancy-dress occasion.

  19. Combat boots beat the shit out of the destructive crap women wear on their feet these days. How is it that women will fight against sexual harassment but then submit to pedal torture? 6-7″ heels force a woman to walk off balance, which puts strain on the knees, throws the pelvis out which hurts the hips, and misaligns the spine.

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