Working from Isaac Marion’s young-adult novel, writer-director Jonathan Levine has created the film, which is a saga* of an undead sensitive* guy who falls for a human girl.

    Nicholas Hoult plays R — he can’t remember his full name, or anything else about his previous life — and Teresa Palmer plays Julie, whose meet-cute* involves a shoot-’em-up* that ends badly for Julie’s boyfriend (Dave Franco).

    It’s been eight years since a plague* hit humankind. Corpses, R’s kind, eat what’s left of the living. A more extreme* kind called Boneys — skeletal creatures — will eat anything, including corpses.

    Julie helps defend the humans’ walled-off Green Zone as a member of the militia* organized by her father (John Malkovich). She ends up on the other side of the wall after a smitten* R saves her from his fellow corpses and spirits* her back to his home, an abandoned airport.

    In the jet that R has turned into a collector’s paradise of retro* stuff, the two look at each other and try to talk. R quickly remembers how to talk in human language. Before long they are enjoying old songs together.

    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 change the other zombies and even the whole lifeless world.

    Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe uses wide screen, long shots and a blue-gray palette* to create the wasteland atmosphere. Flavorful song choices aside, the music score is sentimental*. (SD-Agencies)