‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ Photos Highlight Zombie Killers in Corsets

Screen Gems is taking Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Hall H next week at Comic-Con, where we’ll likely see the first trailer from the upcoming period horror flick. Ahead of the studio’s appearance at the con next week, they’ve released a batch of new photos from the film, which is based on the Seth Grahame-Smith mashup novel of the same name.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a curious project, mixing the classic Jane Austen romance tale with zombies. Given the preoccupation with class in Austen’s novel, the zombie integration sort of makes sense — it’s like class warfare with muskets. Along with the new photos released in EW, writer and director Burr Steers discussed the tone of the film:

The idea was that it was Pride and Prejudice set in this alternate world and then for everyone to play it straight. The movie’s big wink is that there is no big wink. It’s definitely not camp.

That definitely seems like the best approach to the material. Sometimes playing it straight in satirical films makes for better humor. Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig similarly played it straight in their recent Lifetime movie homage, resulting in a film that was much funnier than it would have been if they hammed it up.

When approaching material with an inherently ridiculous concept like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, there’s no need for the actors to make it even more ridiculous than it already is. Again, this project has me very curious, and with an exceptionally great cast, it might be one of the more surprisingly delightful films of next year.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies stars Lily James, Bella Heathcote, Sam Riley, Jack Huston, Matt Smith, Douglas Booth, Charles Dance and Lena Headey, and hits theaters on February 5, 2016.