Make way for a teenage zombie that is sure to be the best surprise to kick off the new year.

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2013)

Here's something you don't see every day: A romantic comedy involving zombies. Thus, "Warm Bodies", a fresh, fast-paced, sensational and truly original delight that is sure to knock your socks off from beginning to end. Start with the premise: After an plague has caused people to turn into zombies, the real humans including General Grigio (John Malkovich) separate themselves from the brain-eating zombies by building up a wall in order to keep them away. Along the way, we get to meet one of those zombies. Meet R (the charming British heartthrob Nicholas Hoult). He doesn't quite like this life, knowing that he has to eat brains in order to survive and to live off the memories of the humans he's killed. He's looking for someone to connect to, which is really explained through his facial expressions and inner monologues. Then it's love at first bite, when he's finally connecting to Julie (Australian beauty Teresa Palmer), daughter of General Grigio. When he sees her after she shoots most of his friends, he decides to protect her and to "keep her safe". Yes, this zombie is in love. Protecting her in his abandoned airplane filled with vinyl records, a record player, and other resourceful things, R finally gets to realize that something was missing in him all along, leaving his heart beating to realize that he loves her. That's when R, his friend M (a wonderful Rob Corddry) and the other zombies are starting to change. That's all good, until the CG skeletal creatures known as Bonies will do anything to prevent that from happening, which leads off into the film's fantastical climax. "Warm Bodies", directed by Jonathan Levine (of the delightful comedy-drama "50/50" and the incredibly wicked "The Wackness"), who also adapted the film from Isaac Marion's bestselling book for young adults, combines a mixture of 5 different genres (comedy, horror, romance, drama, even a little bit of sci-fi) that makes the film more smarter and even more better than "The Twilight Saga". (Take that, Jacob Black.) What also makes it work is the inspired casting of Nicholas Hoult from "About a Boy", "X-men: First Class" and the upcoming "Jack the Giant Slayer". As R, he literally dives deep into the emotions as well as having terrific comic timing through his expressions and his inner monologues by using a spot-on American accent. He also develops great chemistry with Teresa Palmer, known as the butt-kicking alien Six in "I Am Number Four", who, as Julie, has a tough and fearless personality as well as a emotional side to her. The supporting cast is also incredible, including Analeigh Tipton, who is hilarious as Julie's friend, Nora, Dave Franco (James's little brother from last year's "21 Jump Street") who gets a brief amount of screen time, but really sticks it out as Julie's ex-boyfriend, Perry, who (in order not to spoil this) gets called for a dinner date that includes brains on the menu and the great John Malkovich excels as a man who believes that the zombies are nothing more than just flesh-eating corpses looking forward to get shot in the head, but doesn't believe that his only daughter is in love with one. I know what you're thinking, this is just another zombie movie. But "Warm Bodies" is certainly different than that. It revives the zombie genre by bringing something original to the screen. For those who love the TV series "The Walking Dead" and the other zombie comedies "Zombieland" and "Shaun of the Dead", not to mention George A. Romero "...of the Dead" series, you actually will get a taste of what the zombie world is like through the eyes of one. And maybe like R's, your heart will warm up too. This is the best surprise so far this year. Note: "Warm Bodies" is pretty tame, but pushing the envelope for a PG-13 film involving zombies who eats brains and Bonies who consumes hearts. Those are hardly seen, but there are people who shoot zombies in the head with guns. That works in order to keep it very organic.