We’re only about four weeks into 2013, and the mere idea of Warm Bodies has me tempted to complain that the horror genre’s been overrun with zombies lately. Hell, even zom-coms have been done (ahem) to death at this point. That I’m (mostly) sparing you that spiel says a lot about Warm Bodies; appropriately enough, it’s an undead film about revitalization, and it pulls off a pretty tall task by pumping some new blood into a moribund genre. It does so not only with laughs but with real, genuine heart—this is a genuinely sweet film, whereas most zombie films only feature sweet eviscerations and disembowelments.
Warm Bodies has a little bit of those, too, but it’s centered on a protagonist who’d rather you look away when he’s forced to do it. See, R (Nicholas Hoult) has been shuffling around for a zombie for as long as he can remember (which isn’t very long). Along with his fellow undead, he shuffles around the airport and occasionally has fleeting memories of his previous life. His inner monologues reveal a normal guy who just happens to be trapped in an undead body; he doesn’t really want to feed on people, but he has to. One day, he descends upon one of the last outposts of humanity, where he bumps into Julie (Teresa Palmer), and he immediately falls in love with her—but not before devouring her boyfriend (Dave Franco). Smitten with her, he can’t bring himself to do the same to Julia, so he abducts her to his little abode, and he proceeds to do awkward, dorky stuff, like play his record collection. That he’s dead just seems to make it extra awkward.
At first, this seems to be the movie’s one-note joke, which would be fine because it’s a pretty good one. Hoult and Palmer have great chemistry (considering the circumstances, it’s sort of amazing they have any chemistry), and the two make for an endearing couple. R is particularly compelling as a protagonist; while there have been some low-budget, indie attempts at delivering a zombie movie from this perspective, this is the first mainstream one that I can really recall here lately, and it pulls it off admirably. His inner musings are witty and observant, and he’s kind of affably disaffected; at times, Warm Bodies is another angsty, young-adult ennui movie, which is usually ripe for bullshit (but also something I’m kind of drawn to, so go figure). There’s not a lot of that to be found here—perhaps it’s a little twee and cute, but it also seems pretty pure, especially since it takes the kernel of its conflict and blows it up to something meaningful and maybe even a little allegorical.
While it seems like there isn’t a whole lot of room for this premise to go, it heads into some rather unexpected directions. R and Julie’s relationship is obviously forbidden (and their names serve as an obvious reference to reinforce that fact), but the wrinkle here is maybe it doesn’t have to be. Upon meeting Julie, something is awakened in R—suddenly, there’s a little bit of a glimmer in his eye and a little more spring in his shuffle. We’re used to seeing the dead return to life in zombie films, but not quite like this. Before long, R’s undead status is sort of incidental, as Julie really warms up to him, and the big conflict arises in the form of her hard-ass dad (John Malkovich), who posits himself as a savior of humanity and shoots any walking corpse on sight. On the other hand, it turns out that zombies aren’t really the worst thing in this apocalyptic wasteland, as even they have to flee from “bonies,” their fellow undead creatures who have been stripped of all flesh and moral conflict and will chow down on anything with meat on its bones.
Watching these various conflicts play out is pretty triumphant; so many zombie movies are content to just recycle the Romero mantra that dictates zombies aren’t truly evil, but Warm Bodies really explores and plays with that notion. Not only are they not evil—they’re pretty swell, and are, in fact, just like us (only a little deader). And maybe if we weren’t such assholes, the world would be a better place—even during a zombie apocalypse. Simplistic, obvious stuff? Maybe, but Warm Bodies admirably wears its heart on its sleeve, which allows it to get away with its on-the-nose sappiness and obvious sentiment. This is probably the last thing you expect to hear about a zombie movie, where the goal is often centered around gore porn as filmmakers attempt to devise various new and inventive methods of dispatching both humans and zombies.
Instead, this film accomplishes the exact opposite by crafting a bunch of people—and zombies—that you want to see survive. In addition to the fine lead characters, you also have Rob Corddry as M, R’s buddy that he occasionally attempts to converse with. Even deadened as a zombie, Corddry proves to be one of the funniest people on the planet, and he’s even playing a genuinely likeable undead guy here (whereas you have to begrudgingly like him as Lou, the cretin with a heart of gold in Hot Tub Time Machine). Between Corddry and Hoult, the film offers something a little bit different in that their performances require them to slowly come to life, which is the opposite of how it usually goes. The two pull it off quite well, and the film really starts to click once R especially becomes more human and you realize just what the movie is up to. The other big zombie movie wrinkle involves R’s ability to live vicariously through his victims’ memories by eating their brains; this allows Franco’s character to appear throughout the film as the various flashbacks flesh out the human characters and their backstories.
For a movie centered around the undead, Warm Bodies is pretty life-affirming. A welcome antithesis to the drudgery and gloom found in The Walking Dead and its ilk, it’s quaint and sweet; maybe it’s a little slight and fluffy, but it’s actually affecting, which is a rare thing for this type of material. Director Jonathan Levine (who recently directed the similarly warm-hearted 50/50*) treats an absurd premise with just the right amount of reverence—this is a silly story, but its heart is definitely in the right place (which in this case means it’s perfectly intact rather than splattered all over the screen). Just making a zombie movie that feels fresh is tough enough, so kudos to everyone involved for doing that and pulling it off. I know it’s only February, but I’d be surprised if there’s a more delightful genre offering this year. Buy it!
*Maybe this will also spur someone to finally pick up Levine’s All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered all the way back in 2006 but hasn’t been released in the United States.
