With some spare time on our hand, we headed out to the cinema but found not a lot to choose from, so we went for a gamble and headed into Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse. Although we must admit we prefer the original title of Scouts Vs Zombies.
With the success of the likes of TV show The Walking Dead and the film 28 Days Later, Zombies are hugely popular at present, but these titles do share an image of doom and gloom that can be depressing! This is the complete opposite and it was nice to see Zombies now used to bring laughs instead.
This film with its young cast and Zombie outbreak would be best described as Shaun of the Dead meets Superbad.
We follow the adventures of 3 best friends, Ben (Tye Sheridan) Carter (Logan Miller) and Augie (Joey Morgan) who are in the local scout group, run by Dolly Parton loving Scout Leader Rogers (David Koechner, probably best known as Champ Kind from Anchorman)
Ben and Carter are at the time in their lives, where they now find themselves thinking of the next part of their education and girls. They feel that being in Scouts could be holding them back, and we find that maybe they have been staying around for the benefit of their friend Augie, following the death of his father.
With Augie about to get a bit scouting award, they plan to tell him at the award ceremony before sneaking off to attend the biggest party of the year.
The film starts with a cleaner in a laboratory setting off the forthcoming Zombie Apocalypse and doesn’t let up until a rather over the top gorefest, when are scouts finally find the party.
As well as Zombie humans, this film also includes a Zombie Deer and Pepper’s worst nightmare Zombie Cats!
Our 3 scouts, having come together, following their earlier argument air all their issues and join up to defeat the zombies. With the aid of Denise (Sarah Dumont) a barmaid from the local strip club, the 4 of them are now the last line of defence for the town of Deerfield!
They discover that the town is to be bombed by the US Army, to prevent the Zombie outbreak going global and must now get to the party, as being out of town has not been attacked yet and could hold survivors.
It was a change to see a film go for the higher certificate rating and not be toned down for that all-important PG-13 rating! The deaths are incredibly gory, especially as previously mentioned when the scouts reach the party with their made weapons from the local hardware store.
However, it is also funny as well, we see escapes from bedroom windows using a trampoline; communication with a Zombie through the music of Britney Spears; the resilience of Scout Leader Rogers to die; those Zombie cats and even a non-zombie fun sequence at the start of the film which sums up the issues of using a vending machine.
Also much like Superbad, through the scouts we see the issues they have such as having to deal with growing up and fitting in; the difficulty of boys to talk their feeling through with each other; dealing with judgements for being in a scout group; their immaturity when going into a strip club and searching Carter’s sister, Kendall (Halston Sage) underwear draw to find a diary.
Kendall, also fills the role of love interest for Ben, much to the annoyance of Carter, and he is helped how to declare his feelings for her, through his growing friendship with Denise.
This a fun film, better than most horror comedy efforts although not matching the likes of Shaun of the Dead, it’s easy watching and does not outstay its welcome with its 93 minute run time
The special effects are great and over the top, in the way of such films as Piranha 3D and its ending can be likened to Peter Jackson’s early film Braindead and perhaps pushes its UK 15 rating to the edge.
If you are a fan of this genre, we at Barking Mad About Films think this film is worth giving a chance.
BMAF rating: great ZomCom with fun young cast 4/5
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