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| Directed by Christopher Landon Written by Christopher Landon, Emi Mochizuki and Carrie Lee Wilson |
Alo Party Peoples.
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse will likely become one of those movies that's just weird enough in just the right way to do okay-ish in theaters, but once it hits DVD it gets this huge cult following mostly made up of kids that weren't able to see it in theaters. See also, the first Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim, and probably Chappie in a few years. In this case, it's like someone took a Disney Channel pitch, with the attendant production design and character types and basic plot structure, and decided that its final form should be an incredibly sleazy, insanely bloody, gleefully hard-R gore fest less like Halloweentown and more like The Toxic Avenger.
Three high school sophomores and long-time scouts are having trouble trying to recruit new members because nobody their age seriously cares about scouts. Ben and Carter are both considering leaving, since sixteen is the age that they should start thinking about college and girls and all that stuff, but they can't bring themselves to do it because Augie, the only one that still takes scouting seriously, is about to get the highest possible badge. While they're on a campout to earn that badge, and Ben and Carter try to sneak off to the secret senior party, they discover that a zombie plague has broken out and they've been left behind by the evacuation crews. It's a race against time as they put their scouting skills to use to survive and find the party to get them out of the town before the Army bombs it to contain the outbreak.
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse is a movie in the veins of the drive-ins of the Fifties and the midnight movies of the Seventies and the direct-to-video schlock of the Eighties. It's a very Millennial take on the form, down to the bluntly memetic title, the pounding EDM and nostalgic turn-of-the-millennium pop blasting out of the soundtrack, and that it takes a parody premise that should just be a "grown up" Nickelodeon TV movie and plays it mostly straight while still having the most ridiculous grin on its face. It's the YouTube Generation's take on Troma, and the results are deliriously devilish and earnestly entertaining.
If there's one thing a movie like this has to do well, it's the genre-mimicry/fusion stuff, and Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse absolutely nails it. The costumes and the set design and the gore effects and the delightfully hammy performances all make the production feel like an SNL sketch about Sam Rami making a Disney Channel movie, but unlike most attempts to turn an short parody sketch into a feature, it has enough energy and enough earnest enthusiasm from everyone involved that you can't help but get a contact high from the experience.
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse is a vile, nasty little thing, and it revels in it. If you're old enough to go see it without a parent, you're also probably too old to really fall in love it, but as a less horror-oriented Halloween distraction, it's some of the best fun you'll have in a theater this year.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
FINAL RATING: 4/5
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