Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) Reviews

• Scouting for an audience

  Braindead092015-11-12

  Horror films in recent years tend to be in the found footage vein, and Zombie films have been in decline since filmmakers could knock them out on low budgets with large amounts of CGI hordes of the undead for the straight to disc market. Scouts Guide is a modestly budgeted comedy horror with lashings of gore with plenty of raucous laugh aloud. The film does open up with a truly cringe worthy two minutes of inept nonsense with a janitor doing his job, but quickly changes its pace with the introduction of D.O.D. Christopher Landon (son of Highway to Heaven actor/director Michael London) has the guts to run with the laughs and some decent splatter for the next 90s minutes. The cast of unknowns are capable and do have the charm and skill to carry the film over its 90 minutes running time. The film does not lag or waste any time introducing parental relationships and defining the social structure of high school culture it exists within its own universe of undead, scouts, strippers, boobs and pussies of all sorts. It's well edited, the script is tight,the photography is bright and clean and is definitely worth a viewing. I just hope the producers don't plan a long series of low budget pointless sequels and just let the film find its own appreciative audience over the coming years.

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• Poorly marketed film that has its moments

  jtindahouse2016-01-19

  'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse' is a fun little movie that has sadly been marketed rather poorly and was probably doomed to fail from the get go. It's been a box office flop but it isn't a fault in the quality of the film. It's a case of the main characters being scouts (most movies about scouts would generally be aimed at a younger audience) and yet the movie being R rated and alienating the people the title would suggest are going to enjoy it. If they were going to go with the R rating then they needed to take full advantage of it, which they do in certain scenes but certainly not in an overall sense. This had the potential to be a 'Superbad' type movie with lots of clever and yet vulgar dialogue that would keep the audience (an adult audience) entertained throughout. Yet throughout the dialogue constantly feels like it's making its jokes for a younger demographic. The only time they really make use of the R rating is in the violence and the odd bit of graphic nudity. The dialogue was the key let down in this sense and the only way they could have pulled off the R rating to make this a box office success, and even then it would have been far from a sure thing. Box office failure aside though it's actually a rather enjoyable film for the most part. While most of the humour might be a little bit tame in nature, it is still often funny enough to keep you chuckling if you buy into it. It never really works as a genuine horror movie (I don't think it was ever meant to either) as there never really feels like a genuine threat to any of the characters. Plus I think most people accept slow moving zombies are rarely scary to anyone in this day and age. There's nothing "must see" about it but if you do find yourself in a position to watch it I think you'll be pleased enough with what you see.

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• A Cult Classic for a New Generation

  snootyushers2015-10-28

  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?

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• Surprisingly Good

  issachar2015-12-11

  With no expectation at all for this film. Turned out it's so much better that just another silly class B zombie clone. And it's not just particular part, but for overall writing, directing, shooting, lighting, acting, music, etc. The opening gives me the tense and the acting of Janitor (Blake Anderson) is really great. Other male casts are alright, but could be better. I know they need to look "scouts" but come on, these are the guys saving the world :) The acting of Sarah Dumont is so cool and tough, very nice. And I wish to see more Halston Sage (who wouldn't?) :p Highly recommended if you haven't watch it yet.

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• L m a o !

  cekadah2015-12-31

  I laughed my ass off while watching this movie. I had no expectations to what I was about to experience and I'm so glad because I did enjoy it. The last crazy zombie movie I watched was 'Cooties' which is truly an off-the-wall delight and 'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse' is right up there with it. Good show! The synopsis states three scouts attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak. But that's really not the plot. Their motive is to save their fellow classmates and one of the scouts sister at a rave party to which the three scouts were not invited. The scouts were given an erroneous address and they must find the real address before the zombie get to the rave first. What they go through to get the address is a laugh riot of grotesque zombie horror that is funny and goofy and perfectly timed. Casting, acting, dialog are spot on with the spirit of the movie! Light hearted crazy zombie fun done to perfection!

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