Life After Beth

Zombie movies are a repulsion genre staple , but the 2014 horror - comedyLife After Beththoughtfully modify the lore and tell itself from the classic . Directed by Jeff Baena and star Dane DeHaan andAubrey Plaza , Life After Bethshows how snake god comedies can be various and how the construct of living after demise does n’t have to be as formulaic as the zep - music genre has been throughout cinema history .

After Zach ( DeHaan ) is storm by his girlfriend Beth ( Plaza ) being mysteriously live after attending her funeral , he starts to question how it ’s possible that she ’s come back from the drained . Her parents , Maury and Geenie Slocum ( John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon ) , are tight - lipped about their girl ’s Resurrection of Christ , and allow Zach to carry on their romanticistic relationship so long as he keeps her dependable and out of sight . At first , Beth is completely normal , which already live against the grain for snake god movies , but throughout the film , Zach starts to notice increasingly alarming changes .

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Life After Beth Movie Poster

Traditionally , zombie movies are more intrinsically steeped in the scary aspects of the horror music genre , go steady back toGeorge A. Romero ’s germinal classic , Night of the Living Dead . Over meter , they have become a jumping off point for comedic and even romantic elements , as reference byLife After Bethand 2013’sWarm Bodies . Even though zombi are still prop up up as a classic hero - genre within the horror space , they ’ve had to undergo significant changes to make them shuddery again to advanced audience , such as the fast - move zombi inWorld War Zor the sheer numbers that threaten the post - revelatory world inThe walk Dead . The ambling , wit - devour creatures just are n’t chilling anymore . Many more recent photographic film , such asShaun of the Deadand 2019 ’s Hulu original movie , Little Monsters , embrace the funny aspects of corpse rising from their grave . Even so , Life After Bethlooked beyond that by cleverly change the overall atmosphere and the scope .

Life After Beth: How Did Beth Actually Die?

To further understand howLife After Bethportrays zombie movies through a unique lens , it ’s important to consider how Beth break down . Traditionally , thezombie outbreak in any give horror moviestarts from a viral infection , some sorting of government experiment gone wrong , or even spores from extinct place . From there , a single zombie can turn hundreds , if not M , and the one becomes many in a short period of time . As reference by28 day Later , topsy-turvyness does n’t take long to open , and mankind is usually put apart in the winking of an eye . After Zach recover out that Beth ’s parent have been hiding her — and are equally disjointed about how she derive back — he questions himself how it ’s potential . First , he point the finger’s breadth at Pearline ( Eva La Dare ) , the Slocum crime syndicate ’s former housekeeper ; she ’s Haitian , perhaps it was a hex . smartly , the film explicate that Zach is wrong to assume that all Haitians practice hoodooism — Pearline was n’t creditworthy .

How Life After Beth Portrays Zombies Differently

While voodoo custom have been an impetus for zombie lore in the past , it ’s not the suit inLife After Beth . genuinely , one of the skilful decisions the movie fix is to lead the reason why she — and others — have come back from the utter a whodunit . Other zombi movies focus on the event that go to zombies initiate to overrun a urban center or even the intact humanity , butLife After Bethfocuses more on the singular family , on one instance of living dead coming back to life , rather than looking at the big picture . It is n’t until nearly the terminal of the movie when it ’s discovered that others — such as Zach ’s grandfather — have come back as well . When it does happen , the " apocalypse " part of the movie , while present , is short - know .

Beyond that , the mode automaton function is unlike . Beth is almost wholly normal at first ; she ’s so normal that Zach does n’t even believe she ’s really idle . From there , there ’s a dim decline that is more mental than physical where Beth starts to exhibit utmost arousal , passion , irritation , and show increasingly temperamental and disturb behavior . Her mental module seem intact , which is not at all common with zombi movie , and beyond that , she ’s coordinated . Beth is strong , sharp , present , and seems to think everything is all normal until Zach informs her that she ’s all in . Over metre , her condition worsens , but it ’s not the same as the intimately contiguous transformation present in the majority of zombie cinema;Life After Beththinks outside the boxful , and it pay off .

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A Couple smiles for the camera as zombies chase them in Life After Beth

Dane Dehaan and Aubrey Plaza In Life After Beth

Life After Beth Aubrey Plaza Zombie Movie

Life After Beth