Warm Bodies Trailer: Hollywood's Next Hit is a Zombie Love Story

Culture

I've been promised (by round the clock advertising) that Warm Bodies, opening Friday, is the first movie we really need to pay attention to in 2013. The new film, directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50), is horror movie meets rom-com, with our dashing romantic lead being a member of the undead.

The film is based on the Isaac Marion's novel of the name, and revolves around a zombie protagonist (Nicholas Hoult, the boy from About a Boy all grown up) in a future where the world is being overrun with zombies. When our zombie-hunk Hoult meets a young human (Teresa Palmer), he makes the confusing decision to protect her rather than to eat her. This sets in motion a world-saving plan. 

One of the film's unique zombie selling points is that it seeks to really understand and uncover why zombies fancy brains. Marion explained his choice to go there in an interview saying, "in mainstream stories it had never been explained why zombies like eating brains. Going into the perspective of the creature, imagining why I'd be doing the things I'm doing, it just seemed like the obvious answer to me that a creature with no memories and no identity would enjoy eating the brains of a living person. It would give them the things they lacked, memories and the experience of being alive." 

The film opens nationwide on February 1. So far, its Rotten Tomatoes rating is skirting around 82%. This zombie love story might very well be worth a screening.