That was an excellent one.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie started off as a promising one. As it progressed, you would already know its base story-line, but that isn't a bad thing itself. It could have become a typical zombie movie with its thrills and all. If done right, still great to see, as always. But you start noticing this is actually a comedy. The 2nd half of the movie completely turns the whole thing upside down to a full-on comedy that was not even funny. That's a big disappointment and you actually don't want to watch anymore but still sit through it anyway. It goes like this throughout the entire 2nd half of the movie. No content at all. Even though the 1st half was promising and set up a great foundation for a good movie. Also because the actors were great and the setting and refinements of the movie by general were all good.

Version: Grimm Up North festival screeningActors: 7/10Plot/script: 7/10Photography/visual style: 7/10Music/score: 7/10Overall: 7/10It'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.

Comedy is a tough cookie and sometimes does not sell as good. And while this movie did not exactly meet my expectations (after all the good things that were written 6 months ago, it seemed to be a real hit), it isn't as bad as it is rated here on IMDb. Maybe people were really disappointed and voted that way, but maybe they just didn't like the way/humor this has.Whatever the case, it is uncomfortable and it is funny at times. It could have done with some tweaks and be better at times (either more funny or more inject more horror to it), but it still works most of the time. It's really an achievement by the actors that this is as good as it got, even though we were all hoping for a bit more. Decent effort

Life After Beth is a completely failed attempt at a new, growing subgenre in the zombie world. I didn't think Warm Bodies was all that great, but this makes that look like the best movie of the year! It seems like the writers had a decent idea about having a kid's girlfriend killed and brought back to life as a zombie, but that's as far as they got and didn't know how to fill the scenes. The relationship is the focal point of the movie but there's no depth there to be found, as I said above, it feels thin. Life After Beth is also billed as a comedy, but there certainly not enough humor in the movie to call it that, this is more of a slow, drama with no substance. The whole time watching the movie, I felt there was something missing, some type of surprise or something to would put the movie in a higher gear, but that never happened. Beth stays in neutral and the characters (who are just as bland as the storytelling) just go from scene to scene offering nothing exciting for us to bite into. There are no high points in the movie, everything just rings average at best and as a whole the movie is completely forgettable. As I said above, if you are interested in a 'zom-rom-com', check out Warm Bodies over this.Full review at simplefilmreviews.com!