Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse: Movie Review

Christopher Landon is probably best known for writing four of the “Paranormal Activity” films. After “The Marked Ones”, he wisely passed on the most recent film in the series to write and direct the zom-com “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”. Although not great, there are enough laughs and gore to make it a pretty fun ride. It’s also nice to see Ty Sheridan let loose and star in a “fun” film. The young actor is great in “Mud”, “Joe”, and “Dark Places” but this is a film that shows he can do comedy as well.

Ben (Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller), and Augie (Joey Morgan) have been best friends since starting in the Scouts together. Although Ben and Carter felt they outgrew it, they kept with it for their friend Augie after the death of his father. When their town gets overrun with zombies the Scouts must not only defend themselves, but also find Carter’s sister, Kendall (Halston Sage). With the help of a cocktail waitress named Denise (Sarah Dumont), they try to locate the party that Kendall is at and hope that they aren’t too late.

” Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” is utterly stupid but in the best way possible. Those waiting for Arnold’s son, Patrick Schwarzenegger to have that breakout role, will have to keep waiting because he doesn’t do much with the whole jerky jock character. Thankfully, it’s a very minor role. David Koechner has a lot of fun with his scout leader turned zombie role and you haven’t lived until you seen a zombie Cloris Leachman try to take a bite out of somebody’s ass without her denchers. One of my favorite scenes however is when Augie is fighting off his zombie scout leader in a shrine to Dolly Parton with the song “9 to 5” playing in the background. I doubt the younger target audience will have the same reaction I did to that scene.

If you are looking for a fun Halloween film to see in theaters this weekend, this is definitely it. There are more laughs than scares but this is just fine by me.

By: Marc Ferman