Strictly average movie

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

At first I thought this was interesting, then strange, then really funny, then finally heart warming.

Taking a look at a thread on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles of 2015,I spotted a fellow IMDber mention a zombie Romantic Comedy.With a friend being a fan of the Zom-Rom-Com Shaun of the Dead,I decided that it was time to meet Beth.The plot:A week after his girlfriend Beth Slocum has died from a snakebite, Zach Orfman helps Beth's parents Maury & Geenie to put her items away.Walking back home,Zach spots a strange object walking round the Slocum household.Knocking on the door,Zach is shocked to discover that Beth has come back from the dead! Whilst Beth's parents celebrate her "resurrection",Zach begins to fear that his girlfriend's return will cause the world to end.View on the film:Chewing the zombie scenery around them, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Paul Reiser & Cheryl Hines each give wonderful performances as the parents of Zach and Beth,with their improv backgrounds giving the parents a jazzy edge as they search after logic for Beth's zombie return.Going from mourning to dating the dead, Dane DeHaan gives a very good performance as Zach,who DeHaan shows to be more anxious over knocking on the Slocum door than he is taking his zombie girlfriend out for a date. Caked in flaky zombie make up,the cute Aubrey Plaza gives a great performance as Beth,thanks to Plaza giving Beth a dead-pan comedic bite,which is joined by a zombie rage that Plaza puts an explosive amount of energy in.Inspired by the TV Comedy show that some of the cast have starred in,writer/director Jeff Baena gives the title a slick mock-doc appearance.Largely keeping away from "shaky-cam" Baena uses the fake doc look to give the film a frantic atmosphere,as punch lines dart across the screen whilst the dead walk the earth.For the screenplay,Baena gives the romance between Beth & Zach a sweet sincerity,with the comedic one-liners being wrapped in a breezy atmosphere which folds out in the films surprisingly melancholy final notes,as Zach begins to wonder if he has to get set (again!) for life after Beth.

Version: Grimm Up North festival screeningActors: 7/10Plot/script: 7/10Photography/visual style: 7/10Music/score: 7/10Overall: 7/10It's astonishing how broad the range can be even within a sub-genre of films. Life After Beth is best described as a 'horror comedy', and yet it is completely different to other horror comedies I saw on the very same day.The comedy comes from the situation, not the characters, who are played pretty straight. Beth (Aubrey Plaza) comes back from the dead, forcing her boyfriend Zach (Dane DeHaan) and parents (John C Reilly and Molly Shannon) to confront their grief and the conflicted feelings they have about her and their lives with her. Over the film, her behaviour becomes more abnormal, and other undead appear, causing increasing chaos.The pacing and balance of the film are remarkably well managed. Plaza does a great job with her performance, slowly showing increasing signs of deterioration from ordinary teenage girl to mindless zombie, and each other character's reaction to the bizarre situation is shown to be ridiculous at one point or another. I note that director Jeff Baena's main other contribution to film is co-writing the script for David O. Russell's surreal comedy 'I Heart Huckabees', and I think he should really be seen as a writer who has taken up directing.Lots of ideas are explored through Life After Beth, such as grief and the way our memories change as time passes. There is a little bit of action and tension, but mainly this is a melancholic, thoughtful piece which brings humour out of the behaviour of normal people in an abnormal situation. It's a writer's film, and an actor's film, and I found it rather touching as well as entertaining.

What a waste of time. The acting is robotic and labored and the story has too many holes. It is never explained why things are happening and sub plots are left in limbo. Like the argument with the previous home owners whom are now zombies too. It also begs belief that her parents would not want to have the reasons for her return investigated by medical or even religious authority. If this is the only thing you have got to watch then I would suggest you just go for a walk instead. It would be a better way to spend the time. And through the whole movie, no one seems to discover the empty grave(s) which one would assume has a dirty great hole in the ground where she (and others) must have climbed out. It could have been a better movie, but I got the impression that it was made under some fairly tight time and budget constraints. It is barely a comedy and there certainly is no romance. 'Mystery' is a more appropriate genre.