Zombies roam the Earth. Humans fear them and hunt them down. What is worse are the “Bonies.” These are zombies who have ripped off their skin. This apparently makes them faster and more vicious. The remaining humans see no difference between the two, and kill both on sight.

One insight we get is the reason zombies are so intent on eating brains. They get the memories contained in the brains they eat. Also, the zombies can form a sort of bond with each other.

R (Nicholas Hoult), is a zombie who can only remember that his real name started with an R. While being hunted by a group of young zombie killers, R kills Perry (Dave Franco) and eats his brain. R then becomes almost obsessed with Perry’s girlfriend, Julie (Teresa Palmer).

After R saves Julie from the other zombies, the two form a bond that continues to grow as they spend time together. Julie is conflicted, however. Her father, Grigio (John Malkovich) is one of the heads of the army that spends every moment hunting down the zombies.

What Grigio doesn’t realize, and Julie must convince him, is that things are different now. The zombies are changing. Evolving, if you will. But can she change her father’s mind before he hunts down her zombie friend?

Warm Bodies takes the best of two worlds, the zombie apocalypse and romcoms, and smashes them into one film. It’s a nice twist on both. You don’t get the gory, overdone “BRAAAINS!” monotony of zombies (although, there are several movies that can do this well, i.e. Zombieland). And you don’t get the been there, done that romantic comedy formula. (Well, you do get some of that. But the zombie angle is a nice change of pace.)

The best part of this horror/teen comedy is that it doesn’t reach Twilight levels of monotonous, flat-lined (pun intended) romance. Instead, they keep things light. The limited chemistry between the leads, Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer in intentional. He’s a zombie. But it works. Especially, if you compare it to movies aimed at the same demographic (i.e. the aforementioned Twilight).

Throw in Rob Corddry, even with his sparse dialogue, and you take the funny up a bit. He classes up almost every movie he’s in. When you pair Rob’s humor with John Malkovich’s straight man, you end up with, well, John Malkovich in the same movie as Rob Corddry. I don’t know what that gets you. A decent film, I guess.

It’s not the best film out there. But it’s good enough for what it is. Especially considering I’m not in the target audience. If your tween/teen daughter wants to have a movie night with you with a movie she wants to watch, this isn’t a bad choice.