The cinema has been a breeding ground for zombies for quite some time, from the genre-defining “White Zombie” in the ’30s to George Romero’s consumerist satire “Dawn of the Dead” in the ’70s to slightly less accomplished “Zombie Strippers!” of the ’00s.

Zombie comedy has become quite the thriving sub-genre lately, and really, why not? What’s funnier than hordes of brain-dead creatures who simply want to feast upon your flesh?

“Zombieland,” helmed by music video director Ruben Fleischer and starring the ingenious odd couple pairing of Jesse Eisenberg (“Adventureland”) and Woody Harrelson (“No Country for Old Men”), is a total riot. It’s got style, heart and plenty of zombie brain-bashing packed around its road-trip comedy sensibility. Oh, and possibly the greatest cameo of any film, ever.

Fleischer kicks things off with a super slow-motion recap of the zombie apocalypse set to Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and it’s just one of the many sequences that deserves, full-price admission alone.

Eisenberg enters the picture as our guide to remaining alive when the world has become overrun with the undead. Played with his usual genial awkwardness, he credits his heretofore survival on following a strict set of rules — cardio, cautiousness toward bathrooms and wearing your seatbelt all top the list — that often show up superimposed on the screen in some clever effects bits.

He’s headed to Columbus to see if by some chance, his family is alive when he encounters a roughneck (Harrelson) driving an Escalade with a Dale Earnhardt number 3 painted on the side. He lives for killing zombies.

They refer to each other simply by their destination (Columbus and Tallahassee, respectively) and soon meet up with a pair of sisters (Emma Stone, “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and Abigail Breslin, “My Sister’s Keeper”) known as Wichita and Little Rock.

Together, they decide to venture to a theme park outside Los Angeles, where it’s rumored to be a zombie-free zone.

“Zombieland” contains its fair share of gore and zombie slayings, which Fleischer shoots with giddy visual flair, but it’s the character interaction that provides much of the humor, with Eisenberg getting a chance to show off some physical comedy in a nice contrast with the badass redneck that Harrelson was born to play.

The characters learn to find joy in the simple pleasures that life has left to offer, and the film explores these in a way missing from a lot of films that take place in an exaggerated world. If you were one of the last humans on earth, why wouldn’t you trash a tourist trap gift shop filled with cheesy souvenirs? And why wouldn’t you take refuge in a celebrity’s lavish home?

The group does just that, and when they hole up in the home of a prominent actor — at the top of the A-list, Tallahassee says — the film hits true comic gold. The ensuing sequence is far too good to spoil, and merits seeing the film soon before you inevitably hear all about it.

“Zombieland’s” epic battle finish seems like the expected route for the film to take, but it subverts expectations enough as to not result in any sort of a letdown. The film’s a brisk one, clocking in at just over 80 minutes, but that just makes it all the more feasible to watch it twice in a row.