Review of Warm Bodies (2013) by Secretasianmann — 21 Dec 2013

Zombie Type: Both slow-walking and fast-running undead.

Outbreak/Apocalypse Phase: Post-outbreak apocalypse (outbreak has already occurred, characters are living through the zombie apocalypse).

Sub-Genre: Romantic Comedy (rom-zom-com).

This is the kind of movie that really freshens up an entire genre. I wish I could talk more about the story, but I try to either leave these posts fairly spoiler-free or at least warn readers when I’m about to spill some of the beans (brains?).

Warm Bodies is based on the Isaac Marion novel of the same name and centers around the relationship between R (a male zombie) and Julie (a female living human). Seeing as how I’ve already classified this as a romantic comedy, I think you can tell roughly where the story goes. I enjoyed the relationship between the odd pairing, and the awkwardness that ensues when a girl catches a zombie’s fancy unsurprisingly leads to some funny moments.

What truly makes the story unique by zombie standards is MILD SPOILERS it is basically a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. R is Romeo, J is Juliet, M is Mercutio, Perry is Paris, Julie’s dad hates all of zombie-kind, etc. There are several scenes that reference Shakespeare’s classic, but I’ll leave that for you guys to discover yourselves. END SPOILERS.

This movie was a huge pleasant surprise. I expected it to be cheesy but decent enough to watch. Instead, I found myself regarding this as probably one of my top ten favorite zombie films of all time. The uniqueness of the story is only half of what makes it good; the other half is simply the fact that this is a solid, enjoyable movie.

Isaac Marion announced in 2012 that he is writing a sequel to the novel Warm Bodies. Whether it is also adapted to the cinema screen remains to be seen, but I eagerly await the chance to watch the further evolution of his story.

Final Verdict: highly recommended not only for zombie fans, but also for anyone else looking for a good movie that’s different than the usual undead fare.