This movie starts with a janitor lip-syncing to Iggy Azalea while mopping in a secret government lab, who, big surprise, causes the zombie virus to be released. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to watch a movie called Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, a low-budget, slightly raunchy zombie comedy with teenagers, scouts, and a lot of fake blood.

From there, we get introduced to our trio of scouts, Ben (Tye Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller), and Augie (Joey Morgan), trying to prove they’re not losers, plus the badass cocktail waitress Denise (Sarah Dumont), who steals every scene she’s in. There’s no attempt to pretend this is high art. It’s just going for gross-out laughs, gore, and a story of friendship, and it actually works.

Of course, they have to crank up the tropes: a variety of zombie kills, over-the-top splatter gags, and pop-music needle drops. But the movie knows it’s a cliché and leans into it, and that makes it worth watching.

I don’t want to give it away, but there is a scene where Ben almost falls out of a window and is saved by a zombie, in a way, which makes the whole film worth watching. Assuming you are into a certain level of immature humor.

The bad guys here aren’t really villains, just hordes of zombies, including zombie cats and a zombie stripper, but it’s all so gleefully overdone it’s hard not to laugh.

The movie does have a few redeeming qualities beyond the gore. Tye Sheridan gives Ben a likable, grounded core, Logan Miller nails Carter’s obnoxious but loyal best friend vibe, and Sarah Dumont’s Denise might be the best “unexpected action hero” of the decade. Together, they elevate what could have been a throwaway spoof into something with real energy.

The movie ends with, big surprise, our heroes saving the day and cementing their status as former scout nerds turned heroes.

Christopher Landon’s directing works here because he doesn’t try to make it anything more than it is. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse knows it’s a bloody, juvenile, zombie-splatter comedy, and it delivers exactly that. If The Walking Dead is a grim, slow death march, this is the neon carnival ride version. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, this is not, and thank goodness for that.

  • Directed by: Christopher Landon
  • Written by: Carrie Lee Wilson, Emi Mochizuki, and Christopher Landon
  • Starring: Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, and Sarah Dumont
  • Runtime: 1hr 33min
  • Rating: R
  • Released:  October 30th, 2015
  • Budget: $15,000,000 (est.)

Review by Alex Ryce author of Classic Cocktails for the Cocktail Lovers

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse Trailer

 

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