Imagine a “Twilight” where the panting, flirting teens were in on the joke, where the gulf between them was more about communication skills than supernatural schisms.

Where one teen had really bad skin.

That’s “Warm Bodies,” a funny teen romance set against the aftermath of the Zombie Apocalypse. Jonathan (“50/50”) Levine has turned Isaac Marion’s teen romance novel into an often amusing tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy — tongue in cheek, and brains in teeth. Chewy, tasty brains.

Nicholas Hoult (“Clash of the Titans,” “X-Men: First Class”) is the perfectly droll zombie narrator who staggers about with the usual teen angst.

“Why can’t I connect with people? Oh, right. I’m dead.”

He can’t remember his name, can’t justify his means of survival — eating the brains, etc., of the few remaining humans. (“At least I’m conflicted about it.”)

And he’s lonely. He holes up in an abandoned business jet and listens to old love songs (“Missing You”) in his battery powered turntable.

And then he spots “her.”

Julie (Palmer) is the daughter of the benevolent dictator (John Malkovich) of the local walled enclave of humans, one of the young people considered wily and nimble enough to be sent out foraging among the walking dead — medical supplies, canned foods, the things that will keep the human race going just a little bit longer.

The zombies get the drop on Julie and her team. Her boyfriend (Dave Franco) is our hero zombie’s latest meal.

Zombie boy rescues, or kidnaps Julie, depending on your point of view. He strains to form a word, to speak. He plays her his vinyl. And since he’s eaten her boyfriend, he’s absorbed their memories together. If he can ever get this speech thing back, if he can ever manage more than a sound, much less a syllable (“Rrrrrrrr”), maybe he’s got a shot.

After all, he’s “R.” And she’s Julie, which is short for something Shakespearean. Maybe they’re fated to be together, no matter that her dad wants to blow his head off on general principle.

The movie is deadly slow. It’s as if Levine was worried teenagers might miss the jokes, the allusions and the “message” if he went too fast. At least Rob Corddry (as a zombie “friend”) makes a funny, wordless impression. Don’t judge a corpse by his cover.