'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies': A fun film that lacks bite

Jane Austen probably didn't intend for her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice to serve as a vehicle for the zombie craze. But here we are. Austen's novel is the source material for Seth Grahame-Smith's novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (published by Philadelphia's own Quirk Books) and adapted for the screen, with director Burr Steers at the helm. The film shows that that type of undead, off-the-wall mash-up can work - but only about as well as the balance of pride, prejudice, and zombies it employs.

Billed as a combination action-horror-romance-comedy, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies throws Austen's novel into a world where a zombie plague has infiltrated London, subsequently sending much of the area's aristocracy into less-populated areas of England for safety. The city is walled off and surrounded by the dead, leaving the residents inside to fend for themselves when the occasional zombie flare-up occurs.

Instead of sending their children to learn sewing and homemaking, families like the Bennets send their daughters away to learn how to defend themselves from undead hoards. Wealthy families send their children to Japan, while "wise" folks - like Charles Dance's Mr. Bennet - ship them off to China for Shaolin training.

Despite their training, the Bennet sisters - Elizabeth (Lily James), Jane (Bella Heathcote), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse), Mary (Millie Brady), and Lydia (Ellie Bamber) - are also in need of husbands. In that way, much of Pride and Prejudice's plot remains intact. The zombie aspect is almost shoehorned in for effect.

Ultimately, that throws off the mash-up's all-important balance. Unlike most other films in the zombie genre, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies does little to explain how and why the zombie outbreak occurred, all while writing its own rules for zombie behavior. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' undead, unlike, say, The Walking Dead, can talk and run.

Combine those components with the film's PG-13 rating and copious digital effects, and the outcome is a relatively goreless, unfocused love letter to one of the most popular film genres of all time. Sadly, that leaves Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' undead largely uninteresting, serving almost exclusively as a required feature of the film's plot. Similar films like Shaun of the Dead, meanwhile, put their undead front and center alongside the romance, and make them an integral part of the story.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' talented cast, fortunately, is able to carry the film despite this unbalance. A particular treat is Doctor Who's Matt Smith, whose hilariously astonished Parson Collins often steals the show - even if his presence does have you waiting for a TARDIS to show up. Other standouts include James' Lizzy, who uses a clever, modernized take on Austen's quintessential protagonist. Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy, for his part, provides an excellent "so-sincere-it's-funny" foil to James' intensity.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is fun and funny, if lacking the zombie element that garnered its source novel so much attention. While its not-so-scary zombies may disappoint horror buffs, the film maintains enough tenets of the zombie genre to keep casual fans interested.