You have to feel sorry for the zombie of late. They never actually chose to be reanimated and walk the earth endlessly in search of sustenance with bits of flesh sloughing off as they rot. The poor sods have been pitted against everything recently; sharks in ways that would have Fulci spinning in his grave, plants, robots, aliens, cowboys and now they are up against the scouts and we all know how good they are at using their tools (ooh err). With the living dead trending in ways that even the makers of the glorious Italian gore films of the 80’s never saw coming thanks to the popularity of series like The Walking Dead and Z-Nation, ever inventive twists are coming thick and fast and with a newfound hunger fledgling film makers have to stay right on the ball as the inevitable apocalypse draws nearer and fiction becomes ever closer to fact! Christopher Landon has moved from scriptwriter of films such as Disturbia and The Paranormal Activity series to directing the 4th part of that particular franchise and now has gone and made ‘A Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse’ a film whose title leaves little in the way of surprises in just what to expect.
It sets thing up neatly, in fact the first five minutes are a hoot with a janitor in a futuristic lab getting cleaned up himself when he stumbles across an experiment and unleashes a diseased dead thing in a fashion that brings to mind 28 Days Later. I was particularly pleased to see him dispatched as the music he was listening to deserved the vilest of deaths imaginable. The scouts in question are a trio of man-boys Ben, Carter and Augie who are way beyond wearing shorts and collecting badges but have never quite managed to break away from their pack which consists of just them and their Dolly Parton fanatic leader. Whilst a couple of them want to get away from campfire shenanigans and roasting marshmallows and go off to a party and do what normal teenagers do they are stuck out in the woods as the apocalypse breaks out. With their Scout Leader Rogers being attacked and eviscerated and Ben and Carter doing a runner to party on down it’s left to Augie to find out just what is going on as the dead start to rise. Ben and Carter sneak into a strip club where hell breaks loose and they hook up with Denise a sassy cocktail waitress at the club and the race is on to survive the deadly outbreak, find the party and rescue Carter’s sister, Kendall who Ben has a serious crush on.
Yep it’s a pretty damn juvenile film that is clearly aimed at the 15 certificate teen audience who probably have never even heard of George Romero in the first place. Luckily Landon keeps things ticking over at a fair pace and the humorous injections in the plot work well. We get reanimated deer and cats, zombie “penis stretching” and “eating out” gags and plenty of testosterone from the horny scouts. Add to this never before witnessed fights with the living dead to the tune of Dolly’s classic 9-5 and all manner of inventive weaponry being put together by the dib dib dub dub cast and there’s plenty here to enjoy for us older zombie survivors as well. Look out for a signpost in the movie too, it seems like there could be another town of terror just down the road. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is inevitably a film to grab some popcorn for and leave your brain at the door. Whether it will still be there when you go to pick it up on the way out is another matter!
Pete Woods
04/11/2015 at 1:01 pm
I saw the trailer at the cinema and have a feeling I’d seen everything the film had to offer; this looks more like a “night in with drink and DVDs” presentation to me.