The romance genre is known for its central love story between two characters, often ending in an emotionally satisfying, happy conclusion that sees the two lovers together at last. While romantic tales span multiple genres, it is most often found in the romantic-comedy genre made popular through movies likeWhen Harry Met Sally,Notting Hill, andLove Actually.
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However, romance can be found in all sorts of places and told in the most unconventional of ways. While horror is often associated with blood, gore, and an unsettling sense of terror - the genre has often overlapped with romance to tell more nuanced tales of love and life.
‘Bones and All’ (2022)
Set in 1980s Virginia, teenager Maren (Taylor Russell) embarks on a journey across America in search of her estranged mother. Along the way, she meets Lee (Timothée Chalamet), a disenfranchised drifter likewise traveling between states. But the two soon realize they have a lot more in common than both being wayward travelers.
Luca Guadagnino’sBones and Allis a beautiful fusion of genres. Between theanxiety-inducing anticipationof forbidden desire, shocking scenes of bodily gore, and tender interactions between Lee and Maren -Bones and Allgets your heart racing in more ways than one. By seamlessly interweaving the road film with romance and cannibal horror,Bones and Allbalances itself into a poetically moving tale of otherness and finding comfort through love in all its forms.
‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ (2014)
The Iranian ghost-town “Bad City” is populated with bad people; drug dealers, pimps, and abusive men. For the movie’s unnamed protagonist (Sheila Vand), the world ofA Girl Walks Home Alone at Nightpresents a dangerous landscape she is capable of roaming carefree byusing her vampiric powersto put wrong-doing men in their place.
But when The Girl crosses paths with the vulnerable and compassionate boy Arash (Arash Marandi), she is presented with a new challenge; love. The two make for an unlikely pair, as Arash discovers The Girl’s involvement with the mysterious deaths in the town, The Girl is confronted with balancing her vigilante persona with an outsider’s morals.
‘Let the Right One In’ (2008)
At first glance, 12-year-old Eli (Linda Leandersson) looks like any other 12-year-old girl, except she isn’t — she has been 12 for over 200 years. When Eli befriends Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) — a lonely 12-year-old boy constantly subjected to bullying by his peers, Eli takes it upon herself to protect Eli at all costs.
A melancholic horror film directed byTomas Alfredson,Let The Right One Inis a love story for outsiders. Despite the film’s graphic final scene depicting Eli attacking Oskar’s bullies in self-defense, Eli’s vampiric power is never seen as something to be feared. With its charming solace shared through their otherness,Let The Right One Inoffers a happy ending for a demographic that too often has to see themselvessubjected to tragedy.
‘Jennifer’s Body’ (2009)
Needy (Amanda Seyfriend) is an unpopular nerd at Devil’s Kettle High School who has been best friends with the popular cheerleader Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) since childhood. But after a satanic sacrifice goes wrong and Jennifer transforms into a succubus, Needy takes it upon herself to perform some paranormal investigation to help save her best friend.
Only in recent years hasJennifer’s Bodyundergone a cultural reanalysis asLGBTQ+ audiences reclaim the movieand find value in its depiction of a queer romance. As the majority ofJennifer’s Bodyfocuses on Needy and Jennifer, the film echoes Needy’s remark about her relationship with Jennifer, “sandbox love never dies.” With all its high school drama, romantic titillation, and succubus seductions,Jennifer’s Bodyknows how to keep its audience on the edge of their seats.
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‘Thelma’ (2017)
Thelma (Eili Harboe) is a first-year college student who starts experiencing extreme seizures upon meeting Anja (Kaya Wilkins). She soon realizes that the seizures are a symptom of an inexplicable telekinetic power she possesses that materializes whenever she feels desire.
Bringing the theme of religious oppression into a contemporary setting,Joachim Trier’sThelmais a supernatural drama that enables its protagonist to indulge in her power and overcome the controlling forces that have oppressed her throughout her life — her family and her religion — to pursue love.
‘Life After Beth’ (2014)
After the sudden death of his girlfriend Beth (Aubrey Plaza), Zach (Dane DeHaan) starts spending more time with Beth’s family as they grieve together. But Zach begins to grow suspicious when Beth’s family stop reaching out to him, and he soon discovers it’s because they are hiding the fact that Beth has returned from the grave.
From dark comedy directorJeff Baena,Life After Bethis a romantic horror comedy about trying to make the relationship work when your partner is a zombie. Although facing troubles during their relationship before Beth’s death, new problems arise after her return that the young couple battle to overcome. Beyond being a horror film exploring classic zombie tropes,Life After Bethis about second chances both in love and in life.
‘Warm Bodies’ (2013)
R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie who starts to grow romantic feelings for Julie (Teresa Palmer) who he meets during a zombie raid shortly after eating her boyfriend’s brains. As their relationship grows, R slowly transforms back into his human form.
Heralded as a “zom-rom-com,” Jonathan Levine’sWarm Bodiesis a unique retelling of Shakespeare’sRomeo and Julietin a horror setting. While zombies are often depicted as shambling, cannibalistic corpses, by merging the horror genre with romance, zombies now warm hearts just as much as they eat them.
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‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ (2016)
TransportingJane Austen’s classic charactersinto a horror setting,Burr Steers’Pride and Prejudice and Zombiesre-imagines the classic story during a zombie outbreak in 19th century England. With headstrong characters like Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James), she is effortlessly brought into Steers’ film as a feisty heroine and master of martial arts and weaponry against the zombie outbreak.
But amidst the blood-soaked battlefield, lies the chance of romance as Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) enters the picture as a fierce zombie killer yet epitome of upper class prejudice. As he starts developing feelings for the fearless warrior Elizabeth, the two must learn to balance wielding a sword as well as a ring.
‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ (2013)
Starring two of iconicMarveliconic actors -Tom HiddlestonandTilda Swinton-Only Lovers Left Aliveis a quiet musing on the romantic vampire tale. Unlike classic bloodsucking vampires who sink their teeth into their victims, Adam and Eve source their blood from local suppliers for fear of consuming blood contaminated by the 21st-century environment.
As their romance has endured several centuries, the immortal couple is tested by the temptations of the modern world andJim Jarmusch’s film offers a more realistic take on the downsides of immortality and romance in this modern tale.
‘Crimes of the Future’ (2022)
Set in a future where human evolution has accelerated and advancements in biotechnology saw the interfacing of machines with the human body,David Cronenberg’sCrimes of the Futurere-imagines our general conception of the body. Following two performance artists - Caprice (Léa Seydoux) and Saul (Viggo Mortensen) - their unconventional relationship remains a key focus of the film, as they discover new forms of intimacy through their avant-garde surgical performances.
Thebody horror setting inCrimes of the Futurepairs perfectly with its romantic subplot, revealing the ways in which the human body’s innate fragility opens it up to new forms of intimacy. With Cronenberg’s use of practical effects to emphasize the gore brings a unique
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