Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

If there's one horror movie you need to see in theaters this Halloween weekend, make it Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Sure, the film won't win any awards for a great screenplay or nuanced performances, but sometimes you need to watch a movie that you can just sit down and enjoy. In that regard, Scouts delivers. It's totally over-the-top and ridiculously entertaining and the closest version of an American Shaun of the Dead there will ever be. I mean, if the zombie cats in the trailer didn't pull you in, then you're probably not the intended audience for this film. While there are some adolescent gags that don't quite work, most of the jokes are quite funny, some even inspired. There are things in this film that you've never seen in a zombie flick before, and considering the lack of originality in recent zombie fare in film and TV, that's quite an accomplishment. There's also an endearing quality to this film through the three boy scouts relationship that ground the film emotionally. Underneath all the gore and gross out gags, Scouts is a coming-of-age comedy with heart, and while it might not work for everyone, this viewer had a blast.

This is a typical boy's comedy-horror romp. Expect nob gags, cheesy sound tracks, high-fives, innuendos and tall women in tight tops.

I have seen a few of these in my time so I am a little fatigued and jaded with the genre. But as they go this is a pretty good one.

There is a period of build up where the characters are given a bit of depth. The production, acting and effects are all pretty good. The plot is OK but pretty much irrelevant.

There is no real horror, no real nudity (except a few jiggling zombie boobs), and no real violence. This is all pretty tame, good natured fun.

It makes me very sad to admit perhaps I have just grown out of this type of thing (I am outside the target demographic for sure)

This could be a pretty solid watch for a younger audience who is new to the genre.

Simply put, this is a future cult film for a new generation. The zombie sub-genre is one that is so incredibly saturated that it can be hard to find a decent new film as we have to wade through tons of sewage to find anything with some value. Thankfully, after a fair bit of digging, we have one with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. It's a film that will appeal to the new generations of horror fans who were born into this nutty zombie infested pop culture, and it should also resonate with the well travelled horror fans who grew up on a diet of Evil Dead and Re-Animator. It's not going to be a mainstream success, and it's not going to appeal to everybody but Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is a blast of fun from start to finish.

It's clear from the opening scene of the film that aims to be a bucket of bloody fun. As a foolish janitor messes around with some laboratory equipment and comes across a strange looking comatose patient, he accidentally causes the them to flat-line and awkwardly tries provide CPR. His efforts are clearly in vain as he pushes his hands through the patients chest and wakes up the living dead, thus causing the zombie outbreak.

The comedy in the film ranges from hilarious mutilation of corpses, wacky animal zombies to plain stupidity, but it is none the less entertaining every step of the way. Highlights include a scene involving a trampoline, which had my body cringing in disgust and almost laughing hysterically at the same time, and a surreal rendition of a classic Britney Spears song. The climax owes a lot to the gaming franchise Dead Rising as the boys use the scout skills to craft hand- built weapons from a hardware store for maximum zombie killing impact.

Despite the zombies being a primary part of the proceedings, it would have been a shell of a film had it not had the central friendship between the characters of Ben, Carter, and Augie. We can all relate to a group of friends on an adventure, and their dynamic has shades of 80s classics like The Goonies and Stand By Me. It isn't drawing on anything new but it doesn't pretend to either as it feels like a hokey sentimental tribute to cult favourites such as The Monster Squad. The 80s are very much beating in the lively heart of this horror.

I'm a horror fan through and through, and the genre needs feel good films like this, equal parts gore and laughs with a splat of gratuitous nudity for good measure. At the end of the day isn't that what fun horrors are all about?

"Yep, zombie." Ben (Sheridan) and Carter (Miller) are about to graduate high school and are ready to leave the scouts. When they decide to skip their final camp out and go to a senior party instead they think they are in for the night of their lives. What they find when they head back to town is something neither of them could have imagined. It is now up to them to save the town from zombies. This movie is just a ridiculous and fun as it sounds. The movie is mindless but entertaining. That is what makes this one so fun to watch. Gory, comedy, a pretty funny idea and great timing make this one of the better horror comedies to come out in a while. There really isn't a whole lot to say about this movie other than if you are renting this for your teenager I would preview it first. Overall, if you like movies like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and Cooties you will love this one as well. A movie you can easily watch over and over. I give this a B+.

A reckless janitor accidentally releases a zombie from a laboratory of research. Meanwhile, the teenagers scouts Ben Goudy (Tye Sheridan) and Carter Grant (Logan Miller) decide to camp for the last time since they are too old to be scouts. The problem is that they do not want to harm the feelings of their friend Augie Foster (Joey Morgan) and the Scout Leader Rogers (David Koechner). They have a flat tire after hitting a deer on the road and Carter's sister Kendall Grant (Halston Sage), her boyfriend and her friend Chloe (Niki Koss) stop their Jeep to see whether they need a ride. They invite Ben and Carter to go to a party in the night. The two scouts leave the camping during the night to go to the party. When they drive through the town, they do not see a living soul and they decide to visit a night-club since the bouncer is not at the door. They discover that people have turned into zombies and they team-up with Ben's recent acquaintance Denise Russo (Sarah Dumont), who is bartender in the nightclub, and Augie that was left alone at the camp and came to the town. Soon they discover that the non-infected inhabitants have been evacuated and the town will be bombed by the government. They decide to rescue Kendall but they find that the address her boyfriend gave to them is wrong. What can they do to save Kendall?

"Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" is a silly and funny combination of comedy and horror that entertains and make laugh. There are scenes of the annoying Carter that should have been deleted during the edition, but the film in general works. The scene with Ben hanging on the window is hilarious preparing to jump on the trampoline. If the viewer is not an intellectual, he or she will certainly laugh a lot with the stupidities and adventures of this scout group. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Como Sobreviver a Um Ataque Zumbi" ("How to Survive to a Zombie Attack")

Note: On 17 March 2017, I saw this film again.