Author Isaac Marion wrote the novel of the same name that the movie is based off of. The movie is about an hour and 37 minutes, which gives it enough time to show the relationship that blossoms between R, a zombie, and Julie, a human. Lately, zombies have been popular in media with television shows like The Walking Dead, so the story of R’s journey will probably prove to be a success. The story follows a zombie named R, who is played by Nicholas Hoult. R does not remember his full name, much like the other zombies, but he thinks his human name began with the letter “R.” R lives in a decrepit and abandoned airport with his friend M, who is played by Rob Corddry, and they hunt for humans together. Sophomore Abby Cox read the book and thinks that the cast will fill their roles well. “In some movies, you see [the actors]…and [you think]…they’re terrible,” said Cox, “but in this, I think that they did a pretty good job picking characters…I think they’ll do pretty well.”In this world, the zombies eat the humans to fill their hungry bodies, and if the zombies do not eat the brain, their meal will rise up as a zombie. Spoiler Alert: R does not like leaving the brain, since he finds it to be the best part of the meal, and he eats Perry Kelvin’s, who is played by Dave Franco, gaining Perry’s memories. Perry has a girlfriend named Julie Grigio, who is played by Teresa Palmer, whom R soon falls in love with because of the memories Perry had with her. R and Julie become friends after he protects her from the other zombies. Soon, the undead begin to go through changes as an effect of R and Julie’s relationship. However, there are other forces that are trying to keep this new change from happening. Teacher Matt Amberman believes the fresh twist on the zombie movie could make it interesting. “[The creators] take a cliche, which has now become a zombie movie, [and] they put a romantic twist on it with the zombie aiming for humanity because of love,” said Amberman.
According to IMDb, the director and screenplay writer is Jonathan Levine who also directed 50/50. The movie is paced quickly and includes multiple fighting scenes, which easily keeps the audience’s interest. A few of the fighting scenes included the Boneys, the completely unfeeling skeleton zombies, which were created with visual effects. The zombies with flesh appeared very much one would imagine a zombie should, especially with their slow shamble and uncaring expression. In addition to a believable appearance, the zombies moaned and groaned. Sometimes, they said a few words, and as R spends more time with Julie, he begins to talk more often and use larger words. During the beginning, the audience learns a lot through R’s narration. Furthermore, the setting of the movie fit the story just as well as the zombies did because the city was in complete ruins. The dead had taken over the world years before, and the city showed this with the rundown buildings, empty streets, and overgrown weeds.
