Warm Bodies

Like the star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, so too are Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer in Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies (2013). Paying clear homage to the tragic love story, the leads are known as R and Julie, with the difference being that our Romeo is a zombie and Juliet is part of some army intelligence division. The film gives a different perspective on the traditional zombie narrative and like District 9(Blomkamp 2009) there is the suggestion of the humans as the real evil and the zombies as the misunderstood outsiders. Warm Bodies opens through Hoult’s first person perspective; in his deadpan tone we get a taste of what it’s like to be a zombie, a world where communication is non descript and memories are lost.

Without being a spoiler, Hoult’s un-dead status is in jeopardy and about to be killed by the intelligence team lead by Julie. But, in a somewhat love at first sight moment R sees Julie and captures her. In a not so convincing reaction to being captured by a zombie, note defending herself, Julie is taken to his home at the zombie airport. Through Julie’s eyes we gradually see a different perspective of the un-dead which goes as far as ‘R’ spinning Gun’s and Rose’s Patience on his record player, in an attempt connect with both Julie and his own lost humanity.

Warm Bodies has enough cynical inklings to be better than average and has an innovated way of refreshing the oversaturated zombie genre. Apart from Julie’s hair being down and staying in the same lustrous condition from the moment we meet her (If you know Zombie Survival Guide, I’m pretty sure they mention to wear your hair up to avoid, well, zombies), I had no issues, as Warm Bodies does something new.