Warm Bodies

When it comes to mashing up romance and horror, some monsters seem better suited to the task than others. Vampires, for instance – they've long symbolised sexual desire. And werewolves tend to be a pretty solid metaphor for the raging beast within, if you know what I mean. But zombies? Not so much. They kind of represent the inevitability of death more than anything else, and quite frankly a shambling corpse is not really the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of a love story. So it's a very pleasant surprise that Warm Bodies manages to make its central relationship – between a spirited young woman and a shy young man who just happens to be one of the walking dead – not only plausible, but downright sweet and moving. While Warm Bodies' zombies are the type that will take a bite out of you if you're not careful or quick, the voiceover narration by one of them – he calls himself R, and he's played by Nicholas Hoult – indicates there may still be some spark of life within. And when he meets the living, breathing Julie (Teresa Palmer) he starts feeling things he can't understand. He doesn't want to devour her; he wants to protect her from his fellow zombies. And play her some music. And, you know, just hang out. As it turns out, a little bit of human connection may be just what the walking dead need to rejoin the land of the living, because the more time R and Julie spend together, the more human he becomes.

Director Jonathan Levine occasionally lets the story meander a little but when the focus stays upon R and Julie, touchingly played by the talented Hoult and Palmer, Warm Bodies' message rings loud and clear: even if you feel cold and dead inside, there's always a chance love can bring you back to life.

In cinemas now.