The fate of the world rests on the last line of defense, in “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”. Three scouts (Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan), on the eve of their last camp-out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak. Along the way, they meet a badass gun toting stripper (Sarah Dumont), and tackle some outstanding obstacles with the use of some creative inventions for pain. This film surprisingly instills something fresh to a zombie genre that is overcrowded in 2015. With it’s fresh brand of creative zombie deaths, as well as impeccable comedic timing and solid performances from a young cast, “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” gives viewers of comedy and horror a lot to take a bite out of.
The impressive thing about a comedy this silly, is how they try to supply the audience with something new. I compared the feel of this troop to that of “The Lost Boys”, and if that feels strange, I say it because of an array of reasons. The obvious is that they work best when they are together. They are also familiar with zombies and vampires in a setting that feels foreign to the fictional creatures. These scouts (like The Lost Boys) are impressive in the field of battle, but at the end of the day they are simply just teenagers, and that comes out in comedy that never feels overdone, despite characters who could easily fall into the cartoonish trap. Miller in particularly feels at times like he’s trained at the Steve Stiffler school of immaturity, but luckily, there is a heart to these friends that phases out a lot of that unleashed slapstick humor. Sheridan also offers an impressive follow up to last year’s breakout role in “Mud”. He has likability to be a real leading man, and the versatility in roles he accepts will only keep his face relevant for decades to come. David Koechner also makes hilarious sporadic appearance throughout the film that has him attaining the status of unluckiest guy in film, in 2015.
The film doesn’t fail often, but there were a couple of problems that i had with predictability, as well as CGI design. On the latter, there are many creative death scenes that are thought up in this Boy Scout kind of originality, but they are followed up with some laughably bad CGI that casts a cartoonish outline around the brutal violence shown. There are some great practical effects and prop work done, most notably in a scene that stretches more on the male anatomy than just it’s humorous limits. The problem is that CGI is used on most of these effects to save a quick buck on such a short budget (5 million). I also couldn’t deal with the lack of human characters when it comes to the uncertainty of their fates. Anyone who watches this film for ten minutes, will understand who will live and who won’t, so it kind of lacks that kind of adversity for these scouts to offer something more than just a buddy comedy.
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” might not be appearing on many screens next weekend, but it offers enough in brutal creative violence that channels it’s inner “Shaun of the Dead” for a younger generation. With a quick run time of 92 minutes, the movie offers a well paced script that will have you wanting more from this trio of chaotic terror.
6/10