By Megan Bianco
Just when people thought zombies were about to be as overexposed as vampires, Summit Entertainment and Jonathan Levine go and put a spin on the trend with Warm Bodies. We’ve seen horror with zombies in 28 Days Later…(2002) and Dawn of the Dead (2004), comedy in Shaun of the Dead (2004), and even Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012). Now, here comes a new romantic comedy about beauty and a different kind of beast.
In a post-apocalyptic world, zombies outnumber humans and if there’s anything worse than zombies, it’s a “boney” (flesh eating skeleton). One zombie called “R” (Nicholas Hoult) sees a young girl named Julie (Teresa Palmer) and becomes strangely attached to her. When Julie accepts R despite his lack of speech and skin, and befriends him, he slowly starts feeling more human by the day. But not everyone is as accepting of a “nice” zombie, especially Julie’s zombie-killing leader father (John Malkovich).
Dave Franco, Rob Corddry and Analeigh Tipton co-star. The Australian Palmer and English Hoult are not only good at their put-on American accents, but also give life to what could have easily been stiff characters emotionally. Though a love story involving a zombie sounds unbelievable in theory, Levine adapts Isaac Marion’s popular book with wit and fun from beginning to end. Warm Bodies is a kind of bloody valentine for young viewers.
