Review: Life After Beth (2014)

Life After Beth is the little black horror comedy that could. It’s a story about reanimation or what the actual zombie gestation period really is. A morbid, delightful twist on the walking corpses from zombie films past. Dane DeHaan (star of Metallica’s “Through the Never”) is the boyfriend in mourning Zach, who recently suffered the devastating loss of his girlfriend Beth (the aptly cast master of deadpan Aubrey Plaza) due to an unfortunate encounter with a snake.

Grief draws him back to Beth’s home, where he bonds with her equally devastated parents (John C. Reilly & Molly Shannon). At the same time, his own family (which includes Matthew Gray Gubler as Zach’s gun enthusiast, alpha male elder sibling) make lukewarm attempts at understanding his despair. Typically, the undead emerges from beneath their intended final resting place in standard brain-eating zombie fashion, mindless and lumbering. So why does Zach see Beth casually walking around her house during an unannounced visit?

Somehow our previously dead hiker has unexpectedly returned, and her parents (convinced her reemergence is a miracle) intend to keep their daughter secretly hidden away from anyone who might notice that she no longer resides at the local cemetery. Beth is back! Well…kinda. She’s mostly Beth. She talks and acts like Beth but isn’t quite who she was, you know, before the funeral. Completely unaware that she died, Beth happily resumes life as “normal”: making out with an ecstatic Zach and worrying about some impending test. However, this is only “mostly Beth,” so there are a few differences like her aggressive super strength, an appreciation for the soothing tones of smooth jazz, and what appears to the onset of decomposition.

This highly amusing, clever subgenre offering is reminiscent of fellow undead films like Warm Bodies, Pet Sematary, and my personal favorite Shaun of the Dead, with hints of literary classic The Monkey’s Paw. It’s a humorous nightmare about the ghoulish post burial reality of our dearly departed returning from the dead. The superb ensemble cast includes Anna Kendrick, Paul Reiser, and the legendary Garry Marshall in his final film appearance. Written and directed by Jeff Baena, the 90-minute running time and unpredictable nature result in an evenly paced, entertaining plot that maintains an air of the absurd. This movie has reinvigorated my appreciation for living dead cinema.