Warm Bodies

Zombie is the in thing at the moment it seems. Its been the in thing for a while though, but it just doesn't seem to stop. For some its no bad thing, for others they have a real issue with the over saturation. Another worrying trend in films at the moment was kick started by Twilight, and now we have Beautiful creatures. The idea of supernatural teens, and some romance, with a touch of action. Its the in thing at the moment. And here we have Warm Bodies, which on the surface appears to fit this ideal.

Warm Bodies has been advertised as a Zom-Rom-Com. It focuses around a zombie called R, who is played pretty well id say by Nicolas Holt. He seems to be in a lot of things at the moment, but I remember him from Skins the most. He shuffles around on his everyday zombie business until he eats the boyfriend of some girl, and subsequently takes her away to be safe. The two of them develop sort of a bond, which kick starts the other zombies back to life. We see all this in the trailer pretty much, so there's no spoiler here.

The question on your lips, is does Warm Bodies go Twilight on us? Or does it go George Romero?

The answer is, a bit of both. if you look beneath the surface, then you have way more depth than you'd expect. If you just watch it blindly, missing the little bits here or there then you see exactly what the trailer advertises.

Firstly I will say, if you go into this film expecting a normal violent zombie film, then you are going be sorely disappointed. The film is a 12A, which pretty much says all you need to know about the audience it is targeting. It will disappoint horror fans straight away, and its very premise will make the average film buff weep. The idea of a romantic comedy based on a zombie, shown from a zombies perspective is a unique one however, and personally I feel by missing out on this film you are missing the point.

There is a moment in this film which to me explains what its really about, and actually made me punch the sky in the cinema. The zombie R collects things that he finds in the airport he lives in. One of things he collects is Vinyl. I personally have a special place in my heart for vinyl, being a huge fan of music in general and the analog sound. We have a dialogue exchange between the zombie, and the girl Julie, and it may be completely correct but I remember it as:

Julie: Whats all this vinyl? are you scared of mp3s or something?
Zombie: It sounds....better......More....Alive.

The vinyl thing harks back to a simpler time, where music was back to basics and analog. Before mp3s, we had CDs, before CDs, we had vinyl, and you know, I think if there was a zombie Apocalypse and the internet went down, then Vinyl would endure assuming anybody survived. (on a side note, the music in this film is old school, and pretty much fantastic throughout)

But it does go a lot deeper than that, maybe not necessarily in the film, but my interpretation of what bits here or there say within the film. Its about how we have all people lost the will to communicate...because we communicate too much. In the 90's we would pick up the land-line, and meet up, rather than discuss things over Facebook etc. The theme of technology, and what the world would be like without it is very prominent. A character even at one point says " If the internet was working, I would look up whats wrong with you".

The concept of a world where there is no technology and we have to start again from scratch is to me an appealing one..people talking to other people just because. The zombie in the film has to learn how be a human again, without all the technology we take for granted. And for that, I feel that this film really had its heart in the right place. Other people will pick faults in this because its not really a typical zombie movie, but to be honest, thats not really the point. The movie makes you feel good, and almost makes you long for a simpler time. And I cant recommend it any more than that.