Well, impeccable etiquette and swordsmanship, that is. Back in 2009, author Seth Grahame-Smith pioneered mash-up era literature by injecting zombie subplots into Jane Austin’s vulnerably public domain classic. And since Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fed off both Austin and zombie fervor — and also piqued the interest of people who never knew they were interested in either — it became an immediate hit. Thus, we find ourselves here, in 2015, with a trailer for a fully-realized film based on a zombified classic, which begins with a poised Elizabeth Bennet proclaiming, “To succeed in polite society, a young woman must be many things: kind, well-read and accomplished” before she and her sisters inevitably begin slashing at zombies.
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are still the main players of the slightly-more-putrid reinvention, and are played by Lily James and Sam Riley, respectively. The film is directed by Burr Steers — whose career is as much of a puzzling mash-up as this film. He very competently wrote and directed Igby Goes Down… then phased into a period of Zac Efron collaborations — 17 Again and the supernatural/super-sentimental Charlie St. Cloud. But his ability to direct the latter with a straight face may be a good thing for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; at Comic Con, Grahame-Smith emphasized that their angle was to approach Zombies with utter seriousness, saying, “Burr totally understands the tone of this absolutely ridiculous, stupid film, and that the only way to go at it is without ever once winking at the audience.”
Watch the trailer:
And here’s the poster for the film, which opens on February 5:
Via /Film.