Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 27, 2016

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Jane Austen is almost certainly rolling over in her grave, but if she were alive today she's also be rolling in some extra dough. The beloved 19th century author's works continue to sell and inspire new generations of readers and writers alike, with many of her novels finding successful cinematic adaptations throughout the years. But Austen's works, whether the original writings on the page or their turns on the screen, have always drawn a predominantly female audience. But with the zany reworking of her hallmark novel Pride & Prejudice to include zombies, the story's audience broadened. Author Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies became a surprise hit, injecting Austen's classic novel with a...bite it lacked before. It's so nutty it worked. The novel eventually became the film, which competes with the like of Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter as one of the most absurd historical mash-ups of all time. But does the book's success translate to quality on the screen?

19th century England resembles a medieval war zone. Aristocratic gatherings and high culture are still a staple, but London has been cut off from the rest of the world, surrounded by a vast moat meant to keep the hordes of the living dead at bay. Some still sneak through, particularly since the transformation is slow and a bite only begins the process; eating a brain finishes it. Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley) uses flies -- drawn to rotting flesh -- to pick a zombie from a high class card game, symbolizing the tense world and the dirty work necessary to keep Britons safe. But life goes on, as well as can be expected. The Bennet sisters are of marrying age, and their mother (Sally Phillips) is desperate to see them married to a wealthy suitor. Any wealthy suitor. But more than beautiful brides-to-be, they're all highly skilled in the art of war, trained in China and more than capable of holding their own against the undead, either by blade or by firearm. The girls' latest suitor is the wealthy Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth). He's immediately drawn to Jane Bennet (Bella Heathcote) while Bingley's friend Mr. Darcy finds himself drawn to the reluctant-to-marry Elizabeth (Lily James). Can love conquer all, including zombies?

In a word, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is best described as a "novelty," and one that wears out rather fast after an admittedly campy enthusiasm for its daring blend of two completely disparate genres. To the movie's credit, it plays things rather straight, refusing to go full-on Comedy, which would have certainly been the easier route to take. No, Director Burr Steers (17 Again) walks that tightrope between staying true to the story's period roots and its over-the-top The Walking Dead-ish action scenes very well. The movie's levity stays tucked underneath, not at all missable but clearly taking a backseat to the film's more serious front as it maneuvers to work in romantic angles and core Austen narrative pieces while spiking it with a zombie infestation. The film further dabbles in lore, though much of it crude: London has been sealed off by a large moat, for instance. That background helps solidify the world and give the characters something to play against. But it always feels like the movie is right on the verge of bringing up the lights with the cast collectively laughing and pointing at the audience, saying "the joke's on you!" but it holds together just well enough to keep up appearances and sell the mishmash material about as well as can be expected as stuffy costume drama maneuverings meet slick modern day action movement and effects.

The problem is that the material isn't good enough to sustain the movie for the long haul. It's enticing at first. Scrumptious, even. Creativity. Glorious creativity! There's something different out there. But the film really can't get past its name and its first few kills. There's a serious sense of repetition to the film and, as it begins to drag, a palpable desperation to sustain it by any means necessary emerges. The answer is only to further convolute the plot, mix up too many characters with too much drama with too much try-hard slick sword- and gunplay. The movie is, at one moment, Austen through-and-through. Then it wants to take a moment to transform into some over-stylized knockoff of Underworld or Kill Bill or something along those lines, and then go back to the ballrooms and courtships. And it's there that another problem arises. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies gets the Austen stuff dead-on right. The cast is terrific, the film boasts top-notch costuming and set design, all working to create a detailed and authentic Austen world. Unfortunately, the other side can't match. The film's PG-13 rating stymies the zombie side's ability to keep up, to really stretch and show the contrasts and bring the movie full circle. There's some decent zombie gore, a little bit of rotting flesh and some (literal and figurative) teeth to the walking dead, but not enough real mushy, disgusting terrors to put the movie over the top (and there are several instances where blades clearly miss their targets, and by a wide margin, but the zombie reacts as if it's been struck, anyway). That's almost certainly a decision carefully planned and implemented by the filmmakers to lure in Austen and Costume Drama fans with a more audience-friendly rating, fans who might otherwise be turned off to zombies, but it's to the overall detriment of the movie's nifty mashup.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies arrives on UHD Blu-ray with a 2160p transfer that's an honest, though not overwhelming, improvement on an already stellar 1080p presentation (also included with purchase). The uptick in quality results in finer, more appreciably dense and detailed textures. Darcy's leather jacket seen at film's start, for instance, manages finer crease and fabric textures that aren't quite so well defined on the 1080p transfer. Much the same can be said for most any surface in the movie, whether other examples of period attire, facial textures, natural elements, or stone and brick surfaces. The digitally sourced image doesn't quite pass for film quality, but the 4K (upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate by all accounts) UHD transfer boasts a triumphant cinematic grandeur, particularly in parts of the movie where scope supersedes intimacy. Everything is crisp and sharp, but naturally so. Viewers will find the period set pieces and costumes a treasure trove of visual robustness. Colors are noticeably more dense; even before conducting A-B comparisons and watching the UHD/HDR version hours after screening the film's standard 1080p release, the palette's enhancements are clear. While clothing stands tops amongst the most noticeable changes -- red is particularly more saturated -- earthy tones, from natural exterior elements to blonde hair shades, showcase greater depth in every scene. Black levels, as they were in the 1080p version, hold deep and accurate. Flesh tones push a fair bit warmer during a candlelight dance early in the film than they do in 1080p but otherwise retain a similar neutral shading. Light noise also remains, but never to the image's detriment. Overall, this is a very nice UHD presentation, not worlds better than the excellent 1080p outing but certainly one worth a look and worth choosing, assuming UHD and HDR capability.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Again it's the added surround-back channels, not the height channels, that are the unsung heroes in an Atmos soundtrack upgrading from a 5.1 lossless presentation. Sony's UHD Blu-ray release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies offers an upgraded sound experience, replacing the 1080p Blu-ray's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack with a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core) soundtrack. The Atmos track, sampled through an 11.1 setup with four "overhead" channels added to the more traditional 7.1 setup, offers a marked increase in aggression and raw volume over the 5.1 track, in addition to an increased sense of space about the track. The added back channels help create a fuller, more involved, more natural sound field, particularly when it comes to musical delivery. Music remains firm up front, but its surround footprint clearly benefits from the opportunity to extend through more channels and more precisely saturate the listener in Composer Fernando Velázquez's score. More prominent than that, however, is the track's extra aggression. Bass hits substantially harder. The first zombie kill at the card game drops the hammer and sets the tone for some serious bone-cracking bass to come. The track never relents in its action scenes, and it doesn't sneak up on the listener, either. It's full-on dynamite, often epitomizing that grand, big, and effortless cinematic flair for the extra-dramatic.

One might argue that the track is over-pumped and too big for its britches, but there's no mistaking its authority and dominance around the stage. And it doesn't sacrifice clarity, either. Action scenes are precise, whether considering stabs, swords swooshing, zombies moaning in small groups or large and overwhelming hordes, heavy gunfire, or explosions. An explosion near film's end, for instance, is ridiculously potent, with a debris field extending through -- and above (thanks Atmos) the listener. Sound maneuverability is fantastic, demonstrated by a ricocheting bullet, again heard in the final act. Dialogue remains clear and detailed with excellent prioritization and center placement. Atmos-enabled fans should definitely choose this version over the 1080p Blu-ray's excellent, but comparatively limited, 5.1 presentation.

Note the additional subtitle and soundtrack options available on the UHD, further adding to its "premium" stature over the 1080p Blu-ray.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While Pride and Prejudice and Zombies contains no new "supplements" on the UHD disc, it does offer a slick new menu system (and presumably the early standard for Sony UHD releases) in which different pages are selected by scrolling up and down and side-to-side. Beyond the usual scene selection and language tabs, there's also an option to watch character-specific highlights, dubbed "Moments," for Elizabeth Bennet (9:27), The Bennet Sisters (8:02), Zombies (11:23), and Elizabeth and Darcy (21:31), all of which are presented in 2160p video and Dolby Atmos sound. There's also a Cast & Crew tab that only offers a still image accompanied by character and actor name. All of the 1080p-only edition's supplements carry over on the included 1080p Blu-ray disc. Below is a list of what's included:

• Gag Reel (1080p, 1:38).
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Girls Get Ready (0:47), The Netherfield Dance (2:05), Caroline Bingley Showdown (1:35), Corinthians (0:28), Collins Gets Ready (1:00), Mr. Darcy's Letter (0:29), Pemberley (2:55), and Liz and Darcy Meet (1:21).
• The Badass Bennet Sisters (1080p, 3:59): The actresses who play the Bennet girls combine dramatic acting and action skills into their roles.
• Courtship, Class and Carnage: Meet the Cast (1080p, 6:54): Cast and crew talk up the performances and the actors who give them.
• From Austen to Zombies: Adapting a Classic (1080p, 6:00): A look at Burr Steers' work on the film, maintaining the integrity of the original story, the ways the zombies amplify the core themes, and more.
• Creating the Unmentionables (1080p, 3:31): A rapid-fire look at zombie makeup and what the filmmakers wanted to get from the creatures' look.
• Mr. Collins Line-O-Rama (1080p, 2:39): Extra bits of humorous dialogue.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an odd duck that doesn't really seem to have an audience beyond the curiously inclined. Costume Drama and Jane Austen fans will probably be turned off by the (even moderately tame) gore, violence, and comically absurd plot reworking. Zombie fans will quickly tire of the Costume Drama pot lines that are integral to the movie. The film works as a sometimes humorous curiosity, but it never translates into a must-see movie for either core audience. The movie may not be particularly great, but Sony's UHD Blu-ray package is spectacular. The 2160 video is excellent and the Atmos soundtrack is pure dynamite; get ready to apologize to the neighbors. Recommended.