Day 14: Warm Bodies

Day 14 of Calloween Movie Month

Content warnings: cannibalism (?), gore

Recommended?: Yes

Spoilers and discussion of many of the mentioned topics below. You have been warned.

Sometimes the real cure was the friends we made along the way.



Warm Bodies follows R, a zombie, as he falls in love with a human girl named Julie after he eats her boyfriend. With the differences between them and the danger they both face in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, can things really work out between them?

Warm Bodies is a simple film, but it's a damn effective one. It's essentially just a morbid Romeo and Juliet story. Starcrossed lovers with the world against them. It's a simple story told well and it just works. It's extremely charming and fun.

As a fat, mentally ill, autistic queer in the current social climate I really connected with R. Not only because I believe he has some accidental autistic coding (the way he talks so clearly in his head but can barely communicate his thoughts out loud, the way he misses a bunch of social cues and constantly needs to remind himself to try and act "human", the way he longs to feel human as his humanity was stripped from him by forces outside of his control). But also because I think this is just a movie for the outcasts. Anyone who feels like they live on the edges of social acceptability. From being disabled to just feeling like you're a little weirder than your peers.

This film talks a lot about humanity. The zombies (corpses, as they're called derogatorily) are not seen as human because they can't do everything a human can. At least not to the same extent or with the same ease. They even create propaganda against them, saying while they may look human, they aren't. And you need to be cautious when approaching them, and that they should be eliminated on sight.

This really spoke to me. From politicians to media to people in my own life, I am constantly being made to feel as though I am a lesser human than the people around me. I don't deserve the same rights and respect as other humans because there's something wrong or different about me.

How my brain works, the way I act, the way I speak, the things I like, the shape of my body, the gender of my lovers, my own gender, all of that is working against me. To live as myself, I am expected to fight for my right to be seen as a person. And maybe sometimes I don't want to. Maybe sometimes I just want to feel alive and let myself exist. I found myself rooting heavily for R to be able to do the same, and to be accepted the way he is.

I also think that the post-apocalypse setting really works here. In my opinion, falling in love at the end of the world is the perfect encapsulation of the experiences of millennials and gen z.

What feels more real and understandable to someone right now in the world we share than loving and being loved as the world falls apart around you? What better represents what it's like to be alive right now than being willing to take a step forward when you know the ground crumbling behind you will make sure you can't go back?

R and Julie are willing to embrace each other, even if they're the last thing either of them will ever embrace. Even if it's this very embrace itself that ends them. And I think that's beautiful.