Romantic comedies are usually a fine stand-by for making a box office win. The more recent uptick of zombie flick success has demonstrated a similar success rate to the rom-coms. In a genius marketing move, the two types of movies have been combined to create a marvelous zomb-rom-com in “Warm Bodies.”

The film itself is much more than a smart bit of money-generation, in that the story has some substance and a few meaningful, though funny, messages to keep the plot from turning into a mindless zombie-killing event.

The big message to the movie is the old adage courtesy The Beatles: All you need is love. The main zombie/love interest, Nicholas Hoult, of goes by the handle “R”; an apt name considering the usual zombie vocabulary and given the Shakespearean references. The human love interest is Julie, Teresa Palmer, the daughter of the leader of the resistance against the zombie outbreak.

See the beginning of the Shakespeare yet? A tale of star-crossed lovers? Yeah, now you’re getting the use of the names. There is even a balcony scene that follows the same camera angles as does many of the movies about Shakespeare’s most popular play.

Alongside the fun references comes the racial messages. “Warm Bodies” has regular dialogues about how the remaining humans would shoot R without a second thought, just because of what they think he is. Later, other zombies begin to discover humanity again by coming to remember what love and acceptance was.

OK, OK, enough of the meaningfulness, I’ll get to the funny.

Rob Corddry has a supporting zombie role much like the typical comic-relief sidekick roles. His zombie makes some jokes and grunts out a few well-timed expletives to assist anyone with laughing that wasn’t giggling at the slowed speech and interior monologues from the prettiest zombie ever, R. Also, Corddry’s zombie goes by the name “M,” which lines up yet again with Romeo’s Mercutio.

The soundtrack used for the movie works amazingly with the film to give it the appeal “Juno” or any of Wes Anderson’s films have. And the soundtrack isn’t just for background, as R is apparently a music aficionado and “purest,” based on his preference of records even as a zombie during the apocalypse.

Rounding out the comedy comes a more subtle bit you, the audience member, gets to ponder: Does making out with a zombie fall under a type of necrophilia? It is a nice funny yet sick question you get to chuckle about while enjoying the pronounced desires of R through his actions and humorous insights into life made with his interior monologues. Julie’s developing desires for R also make you think icky thoughts that are strangely comfortable given the rom-com part of the plot.

All in all, “Warm Bodies” is a funny film with some meaningfulness, but not too much of anything to make it serious or too silly. Well worth the time to see in theaters, and an excellent date movie. It isn’t a must-see movie for the theaters, but don’t feel bad about dropping the cash for a return-viewing with friends.