I have recently been extremely invested in horror-comedies, thanks to Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead. So when I came across another of that genre about zombies starring a hilarious actress from my favorite TV show (Parks and Recreation), I knew this had to be an indie film to win over my heart. However, Life After Beth greatly disappointed me in all kinds of ways. While the performances were mediocre and the story could not decide on a direction, I really just feel that there was a lot of talent wasted on this movie.
Of all the independent and obscure films of Aubrey Plaza's that I have seen, this might take the cake as the most unsatisfying. It was obvious that Plaza was only cast in this because of her dry, slightly sadistic personality, but it did not fit this character of Beth at all. I'm a huge fan of her work, but this might have been her worst performance, all because of the awful writing. The other characters that shaped the story of Beth were all poorly written as well. Zach (Dane DeHaan) was Beth's boyfriend before she was bitten by a snake and passed away, and DeHaan's performance was so bland. He really has mastered the art of appearing either stoned or sad all the time and because of that, he was not able to convey any kind of interesting exposition for his character in the beginning.
My other biggest issue with the character of Zach was that his decisions made no sense throughout the film. He did not have any motivations or reasons for wanting to be back in Beth's life after she was resurrected, given that they were in a bad stretch of their relationship. Unless this character had an underlying fetish for zombies, I do not understand why he put himself through the things that he did. And the very last scene of the film was Zach realizing he wanted to be with Erica (Anna Kendrick) all along. This scene made absolutely no sense because he had worked this entire film to be with Beth and went against the wishes of his parents, but once he had put Beth out of her suffering, he went for sloppy seconds with Erica. Maybe this was a part of the message the movie was attempting to convey, but I could not make sense of it whatsoever.
The pacing and directing were not great, either. Both of these elements had the spacey, interpretational tone going, which is typical of an indie film like this one. I am not sure what I was expecting, but I quickly got bored with it. For the amazing cast of performers in this film, they all felt very underutilized. John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jim O'Heir (little bit of a Parks reunion), and more all accompanied Plaza and DeHaan in this film, but they were so out of character. It is refreshing when a comedy actor can play a serious role (and vice versa), but the campy writing did not fit any of their characters. This also has to do with this film being indecisive about its tone. I honestly feel that it would work better as an off-the-wall comedy or a serious relationship drama, but not both, as this film sadly tried to do.
Life After Beth is an underwhelming zombie comedy that I will most likely forget about soon. This film did nothing to subvert expectations of the genre like I expected it to. While the cast and crew were vastly talented, none of it was seen and I feel they could have used their time more wisely. I would not recommend this movie unless you really need something playing in the background to help you fall asleep.
My Rating: ★★½
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