SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE
APOCALYPSE Director: Christopher Landon
Writers: Carrie Lee Wilson, Emi Mochizuki, Christopher Landon
Stars: Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan
I
love zombie films. The George A Romero zombie films are the best of zombie
cinema, especially his original three. Edgar Wrights Shaun of the Dead is the greatest zom-com ever, and Italian gore
master Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters
contains some of the most iconic zombie scenes ever, providing scenes that no
other film would think of: zombies fighting sharks. Zombie’s are everywhere in
pop culture nowadays, with The Walking
Dead TV show and comic book series remaining very popular, plus it seems we
cannot go a year without at least one new film coming out (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is the next upcoming flesh
eating romp). The director of Paranormal
Activity: The Marked Ones takes a stab at the zombie genre with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, which
follows three scouts who end up being the ones to save the day when a zombie
outbreak occurs in their small town.
The film definitely does not live up to the standards of Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, but it really does not deserve the wave of extreme negativity either. It has to be said that Scouts Guide is a guilty pleasure film, that will most likely work best when all you want to see is gore and crude jokes when drinking a few beers with friends. The film feels like Superbad with zombies, and there are plenty of crude sex jokes throughout that match that films tone. There are plenty of riffs from other films that are mimicked throughout, and those who are familiar with films like Braindead, John Carpenters The Thing, Re-Animator and even so-so comedy 21 & Over, you will spot the riffs and then start to think that the film is a pretty empty one with very little ideas in its head. The zombies are the most confusing zombies I’ve ever seen in a zombie flick before, as one minute they are slow and staggering about like those from Dawn of the Dead, and the next minute they are running, jumping through windows and acting like the zombies from Zombieland, but on acid. It’s almost like the director couldn’t quite decide what kind of zombie films he was taking influence from, so decided to take several elements and throw them all together at once, which, in the end, doesn’t work as well as he probably thought it would.
The jokes in the film don’t always work, and some fall flat and are unoriginal, but in saying this, there are moments of genuine hilarity, and I had fun with the film in a guilty pleasure kind of way, similar to how I can enjoy those so-bad-they’re-good Sharknado films. It won’t be remembered as one of the best zombie films ever, but there is plenty of gore and fun to be had if you don’t take it too seriously. Don’t put a bullet in its head just yet…
The film definitely does not live up to the standards of Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, but it really does not deserve the wave of extreme negativity either. It has to be said that Scouts Guide is a guilty pleasure film, that will most likely work best when all you want to see is gore and crude jokes when drinking a few beers with friends. The film feels like Superbad with zombies, and there are plenty of crude sex jokes throughout that match that films tone. There are plenty of riffs from other films that are mimicked throughout, and those who are familiar with films like Braindead, John Carpenters The Thing, Re-Animator and even so-so comedy 21 & Over, you will spot the riffs and then start to think that the film is a pretty empty one with very little ideas in its head. The zombies are the most confusing zombies I’ve ever seen in a zombie flick before, as one minute they are slow and staggering about like those from Dawn of the Dead, and the next minute they are running, jumping through windows and acting like the zombies from Zombieland, but on acid. It’s almost like the director couldn’t quite decide what kind of zombie films he was taking influence from, so decided to take several elements and throw them all together at once, which, in the end, doesn’t work as well as he probably thought it would.
The jokes in the film don’t always work, and some fall flat and are unoriginal, but in saying this, there are moments of genuine hilarity, and I had fun with the film in a guilty pleasure kind of way, similar to how I can enjoy those so-bad-they’re-good Sharknado films. It won’t be remembered as one of the best zombie films ever, but there is plenty of gore and fun to be had if you don’t take it too seriously. Don’t put a bullet in its head just yet…
3/5
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