Zombie movies seem to always be hit or miss. “Warm Bodies” although it includes the classical apocalyptic zombie world where there are a few human survivors and numerous “corpses,” is one of the most unique movies ever. Analogies to Romeo and Juliet abound between “R” and “Julie” and their forbidden love.
The movie looks at the world from R’s (Nicholas Hoult) viewpoint, a young zombie whose outside slack-jawed appearance is at odds with his chatty inner monologue. He is a corpse that does not remember his own name and spends his days grunting and staring at things. He is bored with his life as a corpse that involves shuffling around an abandoned airport, occasionally experiencing a human’s memories by eating their brains, and having grunting conversations with his best friend M (Rob Corddry). It is a sad place they live in with no genuine experience, no sleeping, no dreaming, and no feeling. Zombies eat humans to live and the closest they come to experiencing life again is when they eat a human’s brain because it lets them experience the human’s memories.
That is how the story starts—R and a few of his zombie buddies living at the airport get hungry and decide to go to the city. There they find a pack of humans which they devour. The pack of humans includes Nora (Analeigh Tipton), Julie (Teresa Palmer), and her boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco). R soon unexpectedly falls for Julie, saves her and keeps her as a pet.
The story moves on and one of the most interesting love scenarios develops. It borrows a bit from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but apart from one balcony scene does not do so excessively. R is a hoarder and appreciates some small things as he tries to emulate humans. With it’s social commentary the movie reminds us to live our ecperiences and and not squander our life as zombies that experience nothing. It also has lots of funny observations such as one about technology turning us into zombies and gives us an interesting insight into zombie’s lives with R’s inner dialogue.It balances horror, love, and comedy perfectly to create an atmosphere that one doesn’t know what to expect from. It makes a great date night perfect and deserves a nine out of ten as one of the best romantic comedies ever made.