Love in the Time of Zombies

How is that possible? Even thinkable? One could experience horror, disgust or at best pity for these wretched creatures all while either running away from them like hell or hacking at them- the head, you have to destroy the head, isn’t it?- lest their bite would turn you into one of them.

Terror, yes, but love for a zombie?

Well, I guess it is possible if he’s Nicholas Hoult’s R. in “Warm Bodies.”

  

Because R. is a Corpse (that’s what they’re called in the movie) who hangs hard onto the flicker of humanity that’s somehow left in him. His interior monologue is humorous, mostly of the self-ironic kind. He is a keen observer of his new world and, while he does obey the primary impulse of hunger, he also tries to transcend it. (I suppose in this he also represents the teenager trying to surpass awkward bodily and emotional limits.) And how does he do it?

By trying very hard to stay connected with what it means to be human. Companionship, music, dreams and memories (even if they are not his and the way he acquires them is… well, yuck!).

And love.

Love. Love can thaw a frozen heart. Love can save you. (Love does conquer all, I guess.) And that simple gesture of holding someone’s hand suddenly shows its very complex significance.

 I loved, loved, loved the movie! (It’s been filmed in Montreal!) It is a wonderful mix of romance, comedy and suspense, and all the actors are doing a very fine job to convey them. Besides Nicholas Hoult (R.) there are Teresa Palmer (Julie), John Malkovich (General Griggio, Julie’s father), Rob Corddry (M., R.’s friend) and Analeigh Tipton (Julie’s friend, Nora). Jonathan Levine, as director and writer, has also done a great job.

Watch here the first four minutes of the film.

I went to see “Warm Bodies” on Saturday afternoon with my oldest daughter (not yet a teenager) –the youngest stayed home with my husband- and while I was not at all surprised that females made up for the vast majority of the audience I also found it amusing. I guess the few guys present were boyfriends or husbands dragged in there by their YA loving (better) halves. LOL

This makes me think of how most of the YA literature is directed at girls. Which reminds me of another zombie one can fall in love with…

Bram from Dearly, Departed: A Zombie Novel by Lia Habel.

I got this book from the library but halfway through it I decided I liked it so much that I wanted to buy it. (Long live Amazon!) Steampunk, romance and zombies in the same story might seem like a strange mix, but Lia Habel succeeds in a fascinating way. It is 2195 and the world as we know it has been destroyed. What remains of it has rearranged itself into a high-tech society with Victorian manners. But this world is conflicted and Nora, the high-society girl more interested by military history than debutante balls, finds herself right in the middle of it. That’s how she meets Bram, the young soldier, brave, handsome, noble… and dead. He has retained his humanity even better than R, with the help of medicine, yet theirs is a star-crossed romance for he is… dead and his decay inevitable…

You can read an excerpt here.

Finally, it’s funny that after all these thoughts on romance, I can’t help also thinking of Minheer Vanderhausen. What about him, you say? If you don’t know who he is or if you’ve forgotten, I invite you to (re)discover him in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story, Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter. You can read it here or here. Let me know what you think…

P.S. I just realized that I haven't mentioned at all the book upon which the movie is based, "Warm Bodies" by Isaac Marion. I cannot comment on it since I haven't read it yet...but I will... soon... :-)

The Monolith Monsters

I wasn’t expecting, when I sat down in front of the TV, on Friday night a week and a half ago, to watch a black and white movie with such a title, that I was going to like it this much. But I did!

For a 1957 science-fiction B-movie, The Monolith Monsters, directed by John Sherwood and starring Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne and Trevor Bardette, is (almost) surprisingly good.

After an ominous voiceover introduction on rocks hurling at our planet from the cold, unknown reaches of space, a meteorite is shown crashing in the desert, outside of a small California town. With the impact, it explodes into hundreds of black fragments. The next day, a federal geologist driving through the desert stops his car right where many of the smaller fragments are scattered on the road. (Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Don’t pick it up!) But despite my mental pleadings, he picks up one of these rocks and takes it to his office.

You know what will happen, right? He keeps touching it, cutting it, studying it… but nothing good can come out of this, right?

Right. The next day, his colleague, Dave (Grant Williams), who had been absent from the office, returns to find him dead, in a strangely petrified state, while the lab is filled with an overgrown black rock. He might’ve dropped some water on the original piece, but Dave doesn’t know that.

The same day, Cathy the schoolteacher (Lola Albright), who is also Dave’s girlfriend, takes the children on a field trip… guess where? To the desert… There, a smart, inquisitive young girl (Linda Scheley) notices a black rock. (Don’t pick it up! Don’t pick it up! Go away!) She doesn’t listen to me, of course, and takes it home. Her mother would not allow her to bring a dirty rock inside the house, so she leaves it outside in a basin filled with water to get it clean. Oh, no! Oh, no!

Well, I’ll let you watch the movie to find out the rest…

The characters are interesting and varied; besides the ones already mentioned, we have the journalist (Les Tremayne), Dave’s old college professor (Trevor Bardette), the local physician (Richard H. Cutting), the chief of Police (William Flaherty), the doctor in Los Angeles (Harry Jackson). They all add depth to the story, making it even more likeable, and raising the quality of the movie above its B status.

The plot is not perfect and I admit having some (big...gish) question marks at the end, but this didn’t make it at all less enjoyable. The special effects are great. They were created by Clifford Stine whose career has started with King Kong in 1933, and that means something.

All in all, this movie is a little gem. I watched it with my young daughters and they were glued to the screen and even a bit nervous at times, but still glued to the screen.

The trailer might give away a bit too much of the story, but the movie is still very enjoyable to watch.