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:

reunion | death of girlfriend | loss of girlfriend | male male hug | name in title | 

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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

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 July 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Amor zombie (Life after Beth)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$15,843, 15 August 2014, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$80,315, 5 September 2014

Company Credits

Production Co:

Abbolita Productions,American Zoetrope,Destro Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The mailman played by Jim O'Heir appears on Parks and Recreation with Aubrey Plaza

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Goofs

(at around 5 mins) When Zach and Maury are playing a game of chess, the black square is in the bottom right corner when it should be the white 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 Late Night with Seth Meyers: Aubrey Plaza/Samira Wiley/Neil Gaiman/Ray Luzier (2016)

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Soundtracks

Night Passion
Written by Emanuel Kallins and Chieli Minucci
Published by First Digital Music and ZFC Music
Courtesy of FirstCom Music

User Reviews

A confused and unfunny zombie comedy

Life After Beth is a movie as confused as its main protagonist Zach Orfman, a movie that can't decide whether it's a laugh out loud comedy, a gross out dramedy or satirical runoff of the ever saturated zombie filled marketplace and as a result of its genre confusion, Life After Beth is a basket case of a film that at times becomes so bad you feel sorry for all the talented members of the cast who obviously saw some potential in this tale.

Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Aubrey Plaza, Molly Shannon and Anna Kendrick, it's a competent cast, Reilly alone is always a fine big screen presence and DeHaan has over a few short years shown himself to be one of the finest up and coming actors in the business, but no one here comes out on top. DeHaan is annoying as grieving boyfriend Zach, Reilly and Shannon get short changed with one note characters and the toughest gig of all in the form of Beth played by Plaza couldn't have been saved by any amount of great acting. Beth is such a strange and unfulfilling character you begin to pity Plaza's plight and it's safe to say she gives it her all in a committed performance that deserved a better movie.

A huge chunk of Life After Beth's failings can be attributed to director/writer Jeff Baena's failings to control the films tonal shifts. At any one moment we will be asked to feel sympathy for lost loves then the next moment something crazy will happen that either feels totally out of place or just downright lame. The script fails to zing, the pacing feels off and the overall product that has been placed into completion feels far too close to a student movie than one would care to see. It's a real shame that there are so many failings in this picture as you do get the feeling that there is a good film here, somewhere deep down amongst all the wannabe funnies or the romantic sentiments that don't resonate.

Life After Beth is a strange event, from the outset you get the feeling something just isn't right and as you get further and further into this murky love story your vision becomes clear that this is just a lost film that didn't have a solid enough identity to make it succeed. There are some fine actors in here but they're lost in a short running time that feels much longer than it is due to a lack of any sort of audience engagement. A real non-event, Life After Beth is an out and out misfire.

1 oven out of 5

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