There’s a moment in Little Monsters where Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o) fights through a horde of zombies to get an EpiPen and, when she returns, her once sunshine yellow dress is covered in blood and gore. The students stare at her with a mix of confusion and curiosity that verges on the edge of panic before she smiles and brightly says, “I’m covered in strawberry jam!

“Don’t taste it.”

And this interaction perfectly sums up the delightfully fun and silly zombie feature by writer and director Abe Forsythe. But before we get to the explosive strawberry jam, we’re introduced to perpetual manchild Dave (Alexander England) who is in a continual shouting match with (soon-to-be-ex) girlfriend Sara (Nadia Townsend. They fight as they pick out ingredients. They fight over dinner. While Dave plays a VR game. While smoking a bong. At parties with friends.

It’s cringey humor at its finest. Which transitions to Dave staying with his sister Tess (Kat Stewart) and her adorable (and incredibly coddled) son Felix (Diesel La Torraca). Dave doesn’t want or like kids...probably because he’s pretty much more of a kid than an actual kid. He’s also kind of a dick...and the worst part of the film, if I’m being honest.

But when he takes Felix to school, he discovers Lupita’s Miss Audrey Caroline. She’s a breath of fresh air and Dave is understandably smitten. So smitten, he agrees to go on a field trip with her kindergarten class to Pleasant Valley Farm (...now with mini golf). There they meet globally recognized kid show host Teddy McGiggle, played by a delightfully shitty Josh Gad.

The only problem is that the Farm is right next to a US Army testing facility where they are working on Project Regeneration. And as things are wont to do, their test subjects get out and start their very slow trek to Pleasant Valley Farm. And it’s up to Miss Caroline to keep her kids safe, no matter the cost.

Zombie films have become passe. The US soldiers sent to contain the incident sigh, “Zombies again.” And they drolly ask whether they are the slow kind or the fast kind. Even the kids (cheekily) make comments about how fake the zombies look. In some ways, they are kind of needless, a plot device to force Audrey to do everything in her power to keep everyone calm and collected.

Because unlike some movies, the zombies aren’t the star. No, the star of this movie (and the reason to watch) is Lupita’s delightful performance as the yellow-dressed school teacher, perennially chipper and upbeat, even in the face of constant death. So when she kills her first zombie, she places a hat over his face and then sings “Little Bo Peep” to keep the kids attention on her and not the violence erupting around them.

She knows the kids are just one moment away from total panic. So when they come across a camp of zombies feasting on humans and the petting zoo animals, survival becomes a game of tag as they Conga-line through the dangers. And when morale is down, Miss Caroline, armed with her trusty ukulele, will bust out a rousing sing-along rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”

While the movie wants to be about Dave’s growth from a manchild to a person worthy of being with Audrey, Little Monsters is Lupita’s story. She’s the hero who only has one goal and that’s to mitigate risks and remove danger for the kids. The emotional core of the narrative is actually Miss Caroline trying, in the face of unrelenting adversity, to keep her little monsters safe from the big ones. And if that means jamming a sharp shell into the stomach of a television celebrity and whispering unsubtle threats into his ear, she will happily do it...before putting him in The Naughty Corner.

You will not curse in front of the kids.

Little Monsters doesn’t do anything new with the genre. It’s not a Train to Busan. But it’s a movie that plastered a grin on my face for 90 minutes. From the surprising bouts of musical performances to the cute and adorable kindergarten class to Josh Gad saying, “oh my god...I don’t give a shit”, this is a comedy I full-heartedly recommend.