Director Jeff Baena’s zombie romance comedy is one part “Death Dream,” one part “Zombie Honeymoon,” and two part indie romance. It’s an eerie and gross allegory about breaking up, and being able to let go, no matter how horrifying it is. Though “Life After Beth” is grating at times with a self awareness that can be on the nose sometimes, Baen definitely captures the spirit of a tragic romance, and a brutal zombie film in a disgusting hybrid. Dane DeHaan plays Zach, a lovelorn young man whose girlfriend Beth dies after being bitten by a snake while taking a hike. After mourning, and displaying an unusual bond with Beth’s parents, Zach discovers by accident that Beth is actually alive.
As played by the lovely Aubrey Plaza, Beth is left mostly an ambiguous character whose own persona is defined mostly by her death. All we really know about her is that Zach really never wanted to take part in activities she enjoyed, thus adding to her reasoning for wanting to break up with him. Plaza is given carte blanche to play Beth as an erratic character whose personality is off from the moment she comes back form the dead. One of the worst aspects of the narrative though is that her revival is mostly glossed over, with Zach seeing Beth lurking in her parents’ house. I think the revival was grounds for a fun moment of awe and terror, but that’s more of a nitpick. In either case, “Life After Beth” really focuses on the pains of letting go, and how Beth really deal with being undead and the transformation she endures over time.
This stems from rotting, to a hunger she can’t really ease, and a need for soothing Jazz that somehow tames the beast. That said, while Plaza’s performance is great, there’s not a lot of room for explanation of much of the zombie elements. Why does she and every zombie have to sleep in an attic? And what is it about the soothing Jazz that keeps the zombies docile? And did Zach hold the key to the zombie apocalypse, or did it just stop once Beth died? I was also put off by the change of tone in the finale where the rise of the dead suddenly became less creepy and more whimsical. Soon enough it stopped being a zombie apocalypse and became more of a metaphor for the dead refusing to let go of their world as the living had. In either case, “Life After Beth” is an entertaining and well acted zombie romance that works in the vein of “My Boyfriend’s Back.”
Plaza is gorgeous and yet grotesque as a hideous and rotting corpse incapable of understanding why she is alive and changing in different ways. DeHaan is also very good in the role of the wormy Zach, whose own selfish desires spell doom for others. I also loved the supporting performances by John C. Reilly, Cheryl Hines, and Paul Reiser. And Anna Kendrick’s small supporting role really gives the film some heart. Director Baena injects a considerable menace to the eventual zombie apocalypse, setting up doom and gloom as window dressing to the yuppy characters dealing with their own needs and baser urges. Though it stumbles in some cases, “Life After Beth” is a solid zombie romance with some real teeth to it.