Shaun of the Dead may have marked the genesis of the rom-zom-com subgenre, but it would be a decade before another movie came along that offered the same winningly acclaimed blend of heart, humor, blood, and guts. Warm Bodies was an instant critical and commercial success upon releasing in in early 2013, and it remains a firm cult classic among horror and romance fans alike.
That enduring popularity has now extended to Netflix, too, with FlixPatrol revealing that Jonathan Levine’s heartfelt and often hilarious unlikely love story has scored a spot on the platform’s global charts. Thanks to the filmmaker’s unique approach to the material and some excellent performances from the cast, Warm Bodies is fully deserving of its renewed stint in the streaming spotlight.
Nicholas Hoult’s shuffling undead R instantly establishes himself as a different kind of zombie when he rescues Teresa Palmer’s Julie from being eaten, which instantly creates a bond between them. As R grows increasingly human (without sacrificing his lust for brains, of course), the intrepid pair get caught up in a sequence of spiraling circumstances that could change the world as they know it, for the second time in quick succession no less given the whole plague thing.
A Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 82 percent hints that Warm Bodies is a cut above the standard zombie fare, and even if it wasn’t rooted so deeply in horror, Warm Bodies would still be one of the better romantic comedies to come out of Hollywood in the last 10 years or so.