There are some who say that the zombie genre has burnt itself out, with too many iterations, too much of the same, over and over again. Much like vampires, it feels like there is only so much Hollywood can do before the genre begins to eat itself and cease to maintain any kind of effectiveness. Once that happens, we’re stuck with milquetoast variations, teeth-grindingly painful takes on the genre that inevitably will reduce it to getting the Twilight treatment. Zombies are no longer a part of the underground, no more the genre of midnight horror marathons where we winnow away our hours debating the worthiness of Savini’s Night of the Living Dead remake (it is), or the sad state of Romero’s Dead series (they are), or the merits of Fulci’s works(Zombi 2 only). They’re mainstream as hell, with a TV show and everything, and there’s pretty much no tale left to tell.
Enter Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies. Based on the debut novel by Isaac Marion and directed by Levine, Warm Bodies feels at first glance like the zombie version of Twilight, if such an abomination were possible. That said, Warm Bodies may revolve around the living-dead, but the 97 minutes sure show a hell of a lot of heart and intelligence. Granted, the root of the assorted of themes woven in are pulled from cinemas’ past; but the piecing together of them, or reanimation if you will, sure made for a fresh and inspiring viewing. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘Warm Bodies’
