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, 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

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

Featured in Chelsea Lately: Episode #8.123 (2014)

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Soundtracks

For Angelina
Composed by Philippe Guez and Patrick Maarek
Courtesy of APM Music

User Reviews

Melancholic zomcom

Version: Grimm Up North festival screening

Actors: 7/10

Plot/script: 7/10

Photography/visual style: 7/10

Music/score: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

It's astonishing how broad the range can be even within a sub-genre of films. Life After Beth is best described as a 'horror comedy', and yet it is completely different to other horror comedies I saw on the very same day.

The comedy comes from the situation, not the characters, who are played pretty straight. Beth (Aubrey Plaza) comes back from the dead, forcing her boyfriend Zach (Dane DeHaan) and parents (John C Reilly and Molly Shannon) to confront their grief and the conflicted feelings they have about her and their lives with her. Over the film, her behaviour becomes more abnormal, and other undead appear, causing increasing chaos.

The pacing and balance of the film are remarkably well managed. Plaza does a great job with her performance, slowly showing increasing signs of deterioration from ordinary teenage girl to mindless zombie, and each other character's reaction to the bizarre situation is shown to be ridiculous at one point or another. I note that director Jeff Baena's main other contribution to film is co-writing the script for David O. Russell's surreal comedy 'I Heart Huckabees', and I think he should really be seen as a writer who has taken up directing.

Lots of ideas are explored through Life After Beth, such as grief and the way our memories change as time passes. There is a little bit of action and tension, but mainly this is a melancholic, thoughtful piece which brings humour out of the behaviour of normal people in an abnormal situation. It's a writer's film, and an actor's film, and I found it rather touching as well as entertaining.