The Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (15)

Zoë Godden enters the world of zombies, will it deliver, or will she be left groaning?

NUSU
16th November 2015

Three boy scouts defend their honour (and their town) from an undead outbreak in this rowdy zom-com. Think a teenage Shaun of The Dead, but with less of a gory punch than Zombieland.

The reanimated corpses trudge along as slowly as the film takes to get started, and the writers don’t seem to know how to properly articulate to an adolescent audience. It’s a flick that wouldn’t feel out of place in the early 2000s, following the tropes of the underdog teen movie so closely that you’ll be groaning just as much as the undead townsfolk. Dripping in both over-the-top gore and rampant hormones, Scouts Guide fails to live up to its unique premise, instead falling victim to a misogynistic script, Hollywood clichés, and scenes of zombie genitalia that are too cringe-inducing to stomach.

"it folls the tropes of the underdog teen movie so closely that you’ll be groaning just as much as the undead townsfolk" 

That’s not to say it’s totally devoid of life; there are some killer visual gags, such as a showdown in a trove of Dolly Parton memorabilia to the tune of 9 to 5, and a plethora of gut-busting one-liners (“You just hoodfucked Bambi!”). Sarah Dumont also plays a likeable gun-wielding waitress who refuses to have our heroes Left for Dead – which the film gleefully pays homage to, alongside Die Hard and the aforementioned Cornetto Trilogy. Ultimately though, director/writer Christopher Landon’s horror comedy seems less interested in earning its Creativity Badge, and more so in sticking to Screenplay 101; if in one scene we’re having an emotionally charged speech, how can we take it seriously when in the next we have a ten second shot of exposed zombie boobs? Then again, you can’t expect Hitchcock horror quality from the guy who penned the previous four Paranormal Activity sequels.

Though it’s not completely lifeless, Scouts Guide lacks the bbbrrraaaaiiinnnnsss to make it worth more than a Netflix viewing.

More like thisRise of the Guardians (2012)

Rating: 4/10

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