Warm Bodies

 At first glance Warm Bodies doesn’t look too appealing – another paranormal romance, but from the perspective of a zombie? A zom-rom-com? It looks like the kind of thing small teenage boys will take their girlfriends to see come Valentine’s Day, but no, it’s actually a lot better than it sounds – adapted from the novel by Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies is a film that realises how ridiculous it appears and just goes with it. It doesn’t try to be a full-blown zombie thriller like 28 Days Later (though there is a brilliant reference to Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters - see picture) and it surprisingly doesn’t attempt to shove an unrealistic message of enduring love at its audience, as you’d think it would.

 It’s set after (or during) the zombie apocalypse and R is a zombie who lives in an airport with the rest of the un-dead population. Something of a hipster, he lives alone in an aeroplane listening to old vinyl records and only emerges to eat the living or to groan at his good friend M at the baggage reclaim desk. Then, when out on a hunting trip, R saves the life of Julie (whose dad is John Malkovich – if that doesn’t make a film worth watching, then what does?) and feels the need to protect her. As their relationship develops, he slowly recovers his humanity and they attempt to establish a bond between the human race and the un-dead.
 Even with names like R and Julie, it’s not immediately obvious that Warm Bodies has Shakespeare at its heart – not until the balcony scene half way through do the audience eventually realise that this is an un-dead version of Romeo and Juliet. Humans and zombies = Montagues and Capulets. It’s quite clever really, structuring the film around the original love story, and it doesn’t becoming overpowering at all; it’s simply there in the background for the audience to pick up on. 

 It’s hard, though, to applaud Nicholas Holt for his performance. He’s obviously having fun in the role, but to be honest, if most people stumbled down the street groaning like a zombie they’d probably be doing a pretty good job. Holt’s shown he can act well in films like X-Men First Class, A Single Man and the TV series Skins, but he seems to have been chosen for Warm Bodies simply because of his dashing-zombie good looks. Still charming though.
 The best thing about Warm Bodies is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously; it’s more a light-hearted comedy than a miserable tale of forbidden love and the bleak reality of death. No doubt there are people out there who’ll take one look at the poster and pass it off as a piece Twilight-inspired rubbish, like many of the other teen-orientated soft horror films that are circulating the cinemas these days (just to be clear: Twilight has its moments, but anything that tries to imitate it is usually not worth watching). R’s internal narration is what makes it such an enjoyable watch; endearing, observant and most importantly, self-aware – his mind seems to be completely human. ‘Don’t say anything creepy’, he repeats to himself as he sits down next to Julie. His insightful monologues and passing comments, coupled with Jonathon Levine’s sharp direction, is what makes Warm Bodies stand out in this stiff corpse of a genre. There is hope for us yet.