Warm Bodies
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: February 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 30, 2013
A well-paced, nicely directed, post-apocalyptic love story with a terrific sense of humor and the, um, guts to be unabashedly romantic and unapologetically optimistic. Read full review
83
Film.comStephanie ZacharekFeb 26, 2013
Levine – whose last picture was the intriguing, if only partly effective, cancer comedy “50/50” — is going for something more here, exploring what makes us human by contrasting it with a character who has lost all the basics and is desperate to get them back. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsFeb 4, 2013
Warm Bodies is the first movie worth paying to see in theaters this year. It’s an inventive charmer that visits all the typical movie scenarios of young love amid chaos and disaster, but with a new dimension: one of the romantic leads is a zombie. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraFeb 4, 2013
Somewhere between the pop-culture deconstruction of "Zombieland" and the skewed romance of "(500) Days Of Summer," this manages to make the apocalypse seem charming. Warm is the right word. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJan 31, 2013
In doing a little genre bending of romantic schmaltz and horror cheese - some fundamental zombie mythology is turned on its head - the film breathes amusing new life into both. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJan 31, 2013
There isn't a cynical bone in this film's achingly sincere body. And it's not really a horror movie, unless the "horror" in question is the all-consuming awkwardness of young love. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 29, 2013
Hoping to do for flesh-eaters what "The Twilight Saga" did for vampires, albeit on a smaller scale, writer-director Jonathan Levine spins Isaac Marion's novel into a broadly appealing date movie about a zombified Romeo and his lively Juliet. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 30, 2013
With "50/50," his last stint in the director's chair, Levine upended convention to make a feel-good cancer movie. He's still defying expectations: In animating the inner workings of the undead, he's made a movie that is both clever and heartfelt. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumFeb 1, 2013
At this point in the actor's career, it is pretty well impossible to tell when Malkovich is camping it up, or just being John Malkovich. Under the end-of-civilization circumstances of Warm Bodies, he's just the right guy for the job. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 31, 2013
An enjoyably clever and cartoonishly gory rom-zom-com. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJan 31, 2013
What Levine does have is a gently gruesome way of amusing us, converting the uneasiness of a wooer from another species into the everyday anxieties of a young man around a girl he likes. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 31, 2013
I don't know if the first zombie date flick is a step forward or backward for civilization as a whole, but I can say that Warm Bodies pulls off a pretty impressive trick: It has its "Twilight" and goofs on it too. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRichard Scott LarsonJan 31, 2013
It flouts convention in a number of ways in service of its genre-mash-up agenda while still contributing something original to the tradition of the zombie film. Read full review
71
Paste MagazineScott WoldApr 3, 2018
Warm Bodies shambles along as inoffensively as its “regular” zombies—with little fright, little gore and an occasional chuckle. But, as a mild diversion that won’t bother either person on a date, one could do far worse. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 31, 2013
Warm Bodies is an improbable romance sweetened with appealing performances and buoyed by one of the better cute meets in recent romantic comedy. Read full review
70
NPRBob MondelloJan 31, 2013
There's not a lot of gore - or even suspense - in Warm Bodies, and the script plays fast and loose with the zombie rules invented by "Night of the Living Dead" creator George Romero. But director Jonathan Levine's area of expertise is confused-young-men comedies like "The Wackness" and "50/50," so he really gets this hero's predicament. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJan 28, 2013
The low gore quotient and emphasis on young love might disappoint genre purists, but for those open to the idea of a gently goofy mash-up, the film is strong on atmosphere and offers likably low-key, if somewhat bland, charms. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellJan 31, 2013
It's got a big heart and high spirits on a low budget and actors who refuse to phone it in. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJan 31, 2013
Warm Bodies is for audiences who prefer stories about mending hearts to munching brains, and ideally, for girls who aren't quite sure yet if they want a slightly scary boyfriend, or a living doll they can dress up. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 31, 2013
It wants to be funny, charming, scary, and dramatic. It ends up being a little of each but not successful as any one. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 31, 2013
Zombie lore doesn't allow for redemption, only head shots, and Levine's film, amusing though it may be, is never gory enough to truly become a classic zombie movie. It also ignores the one basic necessity of monster films, even the funny ones: It really ought to be creepy or scary or gross, at least once or twice. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 31, 2013
Levine has a strong instinct as a packager of moments, ladling on the alt-rock just so before ladling on another ladle's worth. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJan 29, 2013
Jonathan "50/50" Levine has turned Isaac Marion's teen romance novel into an often amusing tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy - tongue in cheek, and brains in teeth. Chewy, tasty brains. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 9, 2013
Zombie-ism in the movies is traditionally inspected for metaphorical qualities. Here it could simply be that we males are emotionally dead … until love revives us. Read full review
60
Total FilmRosie FletcherFeb 9, 2013
A Frankenstein’s monster of comedy, romance and horror that’s less than its parts, Warm Bodies entertains but underwhelms. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsMiriam BaleJan 31, 2013
Hoult's genuinely awkward charm and Palmer's tomboyish wholesomeness disarm an audience overfamiliar with this story. The two ably communicate the primitive and irrational feelings of falling in love. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 1, 2013
Warm Bodies is more a mild-mannered, emo-flavored romcom than a zombie movie. It has some tepid action scenes, a few swatches of genuine humor and a general spirit of cheerfulness, especially considering it depicts a future in which civilization has been destroyed. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 1, 2013
The script is too primly PG-13 to really go for it. Warm Bodies even suggests that true love can help the right zombie grow a new heart. That's a con job that makes Bodies lukewarm at best. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 31, 2013
There's one really good idea at work in Warm Bodies, which is to take "Romeo and Juliet" and mash it up with a zombie movie. Read full review
50
USA TodayScott BowlesJan 31, 2013
Geared for teens who perhaps found the Twilight series too profound, Warm Bodies is an unabashed homage to that wildly successful franchise. One of its stars, Teresa Palmer, is even done up to be a carbon copy of Kristen Stewart, the anchor of the vampire series. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJan 31, 2013
The leads are likeable enough, but the script reanimates "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" tactics - a monster story supposedly made hilarious by being told by a savvy high schooler. These lines aren't even jokes, though, they're just collisions of the brutal and the banal. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensJan 31, 2013
Though it's about a pair of lovers whose passion is strong enough to break down the barriers between life and death, this mildly amusing, sort-of-sweet comedy is strangely sexless and passion-free-these bodies, whether human or zombie, feel room-temperature at best. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonJan 31, 2013
If you're a zombie purist or a fan of "The Walking Dead," Warm Bodies is not for you. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonJan 30, 2013
For a movie about a love so powerful that it brings people back from the dead, it's curiously tepid. In spite of its repeated, overwrought image of grey, dead zombie hearts flushing and throbbing with new life, it lacks a beating heart of its own. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthJan 29, 2013
Playing with genre is fine, but if you're going to create new rules, you have to play by them too, but unfortunately Warm Bodies continually subverts its own internal logic and basic, believable character motivation to keep pushing the movie along. Read full review
40
Time OutA.A. DowdJan 31, 2013
Warm Bodies wants us to believe in the transformative power of love, but what of Julie's poor, devoured boyfriend? There's Stockholm syndrome, and then there's cozying up to the monster who ate your sweetheart. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 31, 2013
Cute without being especially clever, Warm Bodies is almost as pallid and as brain-dead as its zombie antihero. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 4, 2013
For all of R’s allegedly humorous observations about the wasteland of the undead through which he walks, they feel tacked on — like somebody decided to turn this thing into a comedy at the last second. Read full review
30
Village VoiceChris PackhamJan 31, 2013
The film's intentions are way too good for its own good, producing bloodless romance and more shamefully bloodless carnage. Read full review
More From This Movie

60 Critic Reviews

7.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL