Life after Beth: Movie Review

There have been only a handful of truly awesome zombie performances. Billy Connolly in “Fido”, Sherman Howard as Bub in the original “Day of the Dead”, and Nicholas Hault in “Warm Bodies” are all great stand-out zombies. The wait is finally over for a stand-out female zombie, thanks to Aubrey Plaza. The comedic actress makes “Life after Beth” worth checking out.

Zach (Dane DeHaan) has been having relationship troubles with his girlfriend Beth (Plaza). The relationship becomes even more complicated after Beth dies from a snake bite during a hike. Beth has come back from dead as a zombie and her parents Maury (John C. Reilly) and Geenie (Molly Shannon) have been trying to keep their daughter’s return a secret. It doesn’t take long for Zach to find out that his deceased girlfriend is still moving about.

Zach wants his relationship with Beth to go back to normal, but her parents don’t want their undead-daughter leaving the house, especially during the day where the daylight does not do any favors to her decomposing flesh. There is also a matter of Beth’s mood swings where the zombie in her begins to take over and the flesh eating begins.

I wouldn’t call “Life after Beth” the best zom-rom-com, as I am quite partial to “Warm Bodies”. I will say that Plaza is truly fantastic here and goes all in with her take on being a zombie. Plaza alone is worth the ticket price. DeHaan is perfectly cast as the boyfriend plus I love Reilly and Shannon as the parents. To top things off, we get Anna Kendrick in a minor but enjoyable role as a potential new love for Zach. Make sure to check this one out if you are a fan of the genre.

By: Marc Ferman