Sexy zombies?

I have to admit I’m not really into paranormal stories in a big way, but I do enjoy the occasional one and I fully appreciate how sexy a vampire or fallen angel can be ... well, they seem like the ultimate 'bad boy' heroes and I can't resist that!  The same goes for some of the shapeshifters and robots like the lovely blue one in Electra Shepherd's Love Machine, but I'm afraid werewolves don’t really do it for me – way too hairy!

Photo from www.imdb.com

However, one thing I definitely never thought I’d find even remotely attractive was a zombie.  I mean, just looking at them is usually pretty gross – vacant stares, waxy complexions, body parts missing or hanging at strange angles, eating human flesh and brains ... yuck, right?  Plus the whole grunting thing, rather than being articulate, doesn’t really make for scintillating conversation.

Well, I’ve been proved wrong.

My younger daughter and I went to see the film Warm Bodies the other day, and OMG, I totally fell in love with the zombie lead character!  Yes, he had all the defects I listed above, but it didn’t matter at all.  Because whoever wrote the story (and I think it was based on a novel by Isaac Marion) did a very clever thing – he gave us the zombie’s point of view for a change.  Instead of panicking humans, seeing the zombie as something horrible and evil, we had his thoughts, his feelings, his utter frustration with the situation he found himself in.  And best of all, he had a sense of humour!

All that combined to make the viewer empathise with him, rather than those who saw him only as a disgusting “corpse”.

This has had me racking my brain to see if I can come up with any clever angles like that for my own stories.  Because a really simple thing like that – showing the opposite point of view to the one we normally expect – changes everything and gives a much more interesting story.  Brilliant!

Now if only I can think of one, maybe Hollywood will come knocking on my door as well!  Yeah, I can dream ...