Life After Beth (2014)

A young man's recently deceased girlfriend mysteriously returns from the dead, but he slowly realizes she is not the way he remembered her.

Director:

Jeff Baena

Writer:

Jeff Baena

Stars:

Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly

6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aubrey Plaza	...	Beth Slocum
Dane DeHaan	...	Zach Orfman
John C. Reilly	...	Maury Slocum
Molly Shannon	...	Geenie Slocum
Cheryl Hines	...	Judy Orfman
Paul Reiser	...	Noah Orfman
Matthew Gray Gubler	...	Kyle Orfman
Anna Kendrick	...	Erica Wexler
Eva La Dare	...	Pearline
Thomas McDonell	...	Dan (scenes deleted)
Alia Shawkat	...	Roz (scenes deleted)
Allan McLeod	...	Supermarket Stocker
Paul Weitz	...	Mr. Levin
Michelle Azar	...	Mrs. Levin
Jim O'Heir	...	Chip the Mailman

Storyline

A hike alone in the woods ends tragically for Beth Slocum with a fatal snake bite. Her death leaves her parents and boyfriend Zach reeling. After the funeral, Zach tries to make friends with Mr. and Mrs. Slocum, but even they reject him, and he's determined to figure out why. Then he sees Beth. Her parents are trying to keep her resurrection a secret, but zombie Beth provides Zach with the opportunity to do everything with her that he didn't get to do while she was still alive. But with Beth's increasingly erratic behavior and even more strange occurrences around town, life with the undead Beth proves to be particularly complicated for her still-living loved ones.

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Plot Keywords:

zombie girlfriend | female zombie | sex with a zombie | zombie apocalypse | kissing a zombie | 

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Taglines:

Some girls just want to watch the world burn.

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive language, some horror violence, sexual content, nudity and brief drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nick Offerman can be heard narrating the documentary on Machu Pichu in the beginning of the film. One of the several ties to Aubrey's role in the series Parks and Recreation (2009-2015).

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Goofs

At around 5 minutes, Zach and Maury are seen playing a game of chess unfortunately the chess board was incorrectly set up, so that the bottom-right square is black.

Unfortunately as a consequence, the black queen and king plus the white queen and king are all on the wrong starting squares. No one ever plays the game of chess with the bottom-right square as black, because then all the kings and queens would then be incorrectly placed on the wrong color starting squares. How to set up the pieces on a chess board: First set up the board so that the bottom-right square is white . . . Place a rook on each of your two corners . . . Place the knights next to the rooks . . . Place the bishops to the inside of the knights . . . Place the queen on the remaining, matching-color square . . .

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Quotes

[first lines]
Supermarket Stocker: Can I help you find something, sir?
Zach Orfman: Yeah, do you have any black napkins. I've been looking all over.
Supermarket Stocker: Black napkins... I don't think so. If you don't like white, this is a beige one
Zach Orfman: They have to be black.
Supermarket Stocker: That's more of a Halloween item. You might want to try a party store.
Zach Orfman: [gives a slow, incredulous look]

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Vin Diesel/Aubrey Plaza/Will.i.am (2014)

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Soundtracks

For Karin
Composed by Philippe Bestion and Michel Gaucher
Courtesy of APM Music

User Reviews

An interesting "horror" comedy with some new spins on the sub-genre

The trailer for Life After Beth had me so excited. The cast alone was a treat. Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Paul Reiser, Matthew Grey Gubler and Aubry Plaza. For any offbeat comedy, that's a can't miss. Even better for me was the film they were all in was a horror comedy. The trailer came off like a rom-zom-com in the vein of Shaun of the Dead. I was all on board. It took me forever to come across the film but it didn't play out like I thought it would be.

DeHaan stars as Zach the ex-boyfriend of the title character Beth (Plaza) who is going through a rough time. Right before Beth's death, she dumped him. He's not taking it well. His whole wardrobe is heaped in black. He's avoiding his parents (Reiser and Cheryl Hines) and alienated by his by the rules brother (Grey Gubler). He finds solace in Beth's parents (Reilly and Shannon) who actually treat him more like a son than his own parents. But when they stop contacting him he goes to some extremes, borderline stalking, to find out why. He comes to find out they have been hiding Beth. She's not dead but not alive either.

What follows is some hilarity but mostly teenage angst and a weird zombie apocalypse. This film is more a teenage drama comedy with lite sprinkles of horror. It's seems that everyone isn't in on the gag. For the most part everyone plays it straight. DeHaan the most, but he, like the audience, is just trying to adjust to this very odd situation. It works well for him as when craziness does ensue his reactions are natural. He's just trying to make the best of a very new situation and he gives off that he truly loves Beth.

The best comedic moments are given to Reilly and Shannon who are overjoyed their daughter has returned from the grave. And they will do anything to keep that from getting out. Reilly has some great one-liners especially when pitted against the straight act of DeHaan. Sadly 20 minutes before the film ends something happens with his character off screen and it just seems like the film loses what comic edge it has. Grey Gubler gets one really funny scene when the zombies start emerging in numbers. I felt like Reiser and Hines were kind of wasted. Their one standout moment is a nice play on the dead returning to where they use to live. Plaza downplays her normal snarky character here. The best moments are when she goes full on zombie. She gets a chance to channel her main character trait into some primal violence.

The film isn't as funny nor as gory as I had expected. Thinking about a zom-rom-com I thought maybe there would be a bit more gore and humor. But it's most played as people just trying to deal with unexplained situation. It felt like a drama more than anything. But there are some nice plays on the been there done that zombie genre. I guess I over hyped myself because the film I wanted wasn't the film I got. For any fan of the genre the tweaks in the zombie myths are cool. DeHaan, Reilly and Shannon hold the film together each getting a good laugh out loud moment.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 July 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Life After Beth

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$15,843, 17 August 2014

Gross USA:

$88,273

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$274,717

Company Credits

Production Co:

Abbolita Productions, American Zoetrope, Destro Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1