Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies – ‘R’ is a very unusual zombie, he craves humanity as well as human flesh. When he and a group of (zombie) friends attack a small group of human survivors, he meets the pretty but disillusioned Julie and takes her back to his home so that he can get to know her better. Although scared of him at first, she soon realises that there is more to this zombie than meets the eye.

Warm Bodies (2013) – Director: Jonathan Levine

Rating: 12A

Running Length: 98 mins

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Horror

REVIEW: ‘WARM BODIES’

For those coming in expecting some well worn zombie nonsense (as we did) ‘Warm Bodies’ quickly establishes itself as a well written movie that adds a new twist: we get to see everything from the zombie’s point of view. ‘R’ is very articulate, in his own mind (which plays over as narration) – but he is a slave to his impulses and is unable to communicate the apologies he feels to the people he kills. The plot is catalysed once he feels compelled to save a pretty girl and ‘take her home’, and she begins to see the other side to ‘R’. Adapted from the  novel of the same name (which we subsequently read and can also recommend as excellent), by taking the zombie tropes and spinning them on their decomposing heads, ‘Warm Bodies’ breathes fresh, youthful, life into an otherwise simple ‘boy meets girl’ narrative.

Hoult’s narration as ‘R’ injects some wonderfully charming comedy to a character who would otherwise be doing nothing but shuffling around and groaning at his ‘friends’. It is a relatively simple idea that doesn’t get old or tired and all the characters have enough depth to be relatable without getting bogged down in too much detail. It is the performances that make this film, novel approach or no, by ensuring we engage with a relatively small cast the scope of the movie moves beyond ‘apocalyptic future’ and instead lurches pleasingly into small story character growth.

Please be aware that although it is tame by the standards of other zombie movies, it is still dealing with the same concept of zombification and therefore there are aspects which will most likely be too strong for young children.

CONTENT: IS ‘WARM BODIES’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Oddly enough for a zombie film, the main ‘monster’ in ‘Warm Bodies’ isn’t the atypical shuffling undead. The anatagonistic creatures are the ‘Bonies’. These are described as zombies that are so far gone that they strip their own flesh off and become terrifying and aggressive fast-moving skeletons. Indeed, when the Bonies are first introduced, there is a zombie standing next to them who graphically pulls off and eats part of his own cheek. The Bonies are by far the most frightening characters in the movie. They are expressionless, threatening, and the screaming noises they make are likely to scare a lot of children.

Although they are less frightening than the Bonies, the zombies themselves are, by their nature, rather scary. When attacking humans, they are initially shown to be very aggressive and enjoy eating brains. The scene where R and his friends attack the humans isn’t overly sustained but the humans are terrified and the attack is very violent, including a directly seen bite on a forearm and a hand digging motion whereby brains are removed (off camera).

With reference to the brain eating, this is mostly shown as being done by R who pockets some brain to consume later. Brain eating is described in narration as the ‘best part to eat’ as it causes flashes of memory to shoot through the consuming zombie’s mind. Aside from the gore of eating brain, this could be seen as a rather oblique drug reference. Eating brain induces a blissful, zoned out sensation in the zombies as they get to re-live what it feels like to be human. However, we feel a child would be unlikely to make this connection and we mention it purely for adult discretion.

There is some moderate language in ‘Warm Bodies’ and one use of a strong word. Although use of such language is not present throughout, the words are used in a comedic manner and are said in an unexpectedly pointed way. In fact, it is a little surprising that the bad language is present at all in the relevant scenes as there is virtually none in the rest of the movie.

Lastly, there is one scene of mild nudity in terms of Julie undressing in front of R. She tells him to look away, turns her back to him and strips down to her underwear. You only see her remove her top then the camera cuts back to R. When the camera returns to Julie she is seen in bed with the covers over her. R is fascinated and doesn’t look away, however this is as far as it goes as R is lying on the floor. As R is a zombie his fascination towards Julie is shown to be a rather innocent attraction. He yearns for a connection to humanity and is never shown to lust or leer over her.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘WARM BODIES’ FOR KIDS?

We would recommend caution in allowing under 12s to watch this movie. Although there is only one particularly violent scene, people are shown to be bitten, hurt and killed. As many children won’t necessarily understand what a zombie is, they are unlikely to understand about them being hard to stop, and being driven to eat human brains. Conversely, we also feel that children will probably be distressed by people wanting to shoot certain zombie characters in the head when the audience has been empathising with them, especially as some are shown to be really quite amiable.

• Violence: 4/5 (there are only a few violent scenes but they show people being aggressively attacked and fighting for their lives)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5
• Fear Factor: 4/5 (the Bonies are particularly frightening and are seen several times attacking both humans and zombies)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (mild semi-nudity)
• Bad Language: 3/5 (only a few examples, however these are quite strong and unexpected)
• Dialogue: 1/5
• Other notes: Deals with themes of love, empathy and a desire to better oneself despite physical and social limitations.

Words by Laura Record

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