Watch the first 4 minutes of the zombie comedy Warm Bodies

I am a big fan of zombie movies when they are done well. That means I prefer THE WALKING DEAD or SHAUN OF THE DEAD variety over RESIDENT EVIL’s version of the undead. Give me slow zombies any day. But, if you are going to go fast, make sure you have a good script and not just headshots. I prefer my zombie movies with some brains.

Jonathan Levine‘s WARM BODIES looks to be a nice take on the zombie genre by infusing it with elements of romance and comedies without fully becoming a romantic comedy. This may be the best rom-zom-com since SHAUN OF THE DEAD!

Now, thanks to Fandango, we can enjoy the first four minutes of the movie ahead of it opening in theaters on February 1, 2013.

Plot: A funny new twist on a classic love story, “Warm Bodies” is a poignant tale about the power of human connection. After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world.

Big studio zombie movies have stayed away from showing the world from the perspective of one of the undead, something that has popped up often in books and indie films. Judging from these first minutes of footage, the movie looks well made and has a heart at it’s center. At least, for now it does.

Starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corrdry, and John Malkovich, WARM BODIES looks like it could be a nice new trend for a type of movie that may be hitting maximum saturation.