4/5 stars

Warm Bodies takes our pop culture fetishization of supernatural creatures to a place it has never gone before… zombies. Why not? It’s the natural progression from vampires and werewolves. But if the idea of a cold corpse grunting sweet nothings into your ear doesn’t get your gears turning, maybe the fact that said corpse is played by smoldering Skins hottie Nicholas Hoult will?

Hoult and his piercing blue eyes play R, a zombie wandering the post-apocalyptic world in search of somebody to connect with. Then he meets Julie, and after eating her boyfriend’s brains, he becomes determined to woo her. However, his limited verbal ability and the fact that Julie’s dad is a ruthless zombie hunter – played by the always-entertaining John Malkovitch – makes this a rather challenging feat. It’s the classic story of star-crossed lovers with a side of zombie horror.

The film is based on Isaac Marion’s novel of the same name, which is in turn based on a short story by the author that had gone viral. But this isn’t Twilight – director Jonathan Levine, who is also responsible for the recent sentimental indie 50/50, mixes Warm Bodies’ shit-lit roots with his own quirky filmmaking sensibility to crowd-pleasing results. R’s narration of the story allows us access to the monster’s surprisingly profound inner thoughts, and it’s impossible not to sympathize with the zombie who just wants to feel. His quest towards true love ends up reading like an awkward teenage courting – in one scene, amidst the inevitable silence between zombie and girl, R’s voiceover anxiously notes, “This date is not going well.” While the script is not always as witty as it thinks it is, there are some real poignant moments amongst all the lightheartedness. Plus, the soundtrack is killer.

Jessica Prupas