Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? For a good laugh, yes!
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes.
Secret ending? Mid credits.
Running time: 93 minutes (~1.5 hours)
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” is an action comedy zombie film. Three scouts have to fight their way out of a town full of zombies, while saving the people they love at the same time. It stars Tye Sheridan (Ben), Logan Miller (Carter), Joey Morgan (Augie), Sarah Dumont (Denise) and David Koechner (Scout Leader Rogers). It is rated M-18.
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” may have teenage Scouts as the main protagonists, but don’t be fooled by its ostensibly innocent demeanour. It’s a comedy that’s aimed squarely at adults, with jokes that are mainly dependent on a certain level of life experience (hence the rating). If the main actor, Tye Sheridan, looks familiar, that’s because he’s been slated to play young Cyclops in next year’s “X-Men: Apocalypse!”
Highlights
Good mix of horror and comedy
The film takes stereotypical horror tropes and milks it for all its worth, to the point that it melts into comedy. You’re sure to chuckle at the overly dramatic shots used and the cheesy retro music played in all the scary scenes. The violence and gore is so over the top that you can’t help giggling at the blatant overuse of these techniques, and the protagonists just keep finding themselves in ever more ludicrous but scary situations. It’s this twisting of the horror genre that makes its comedy so much more effective and substantial.
Decent action
Despite the budget the movie was made on, it still affords a fair amount of zombie killing action in a variety of ways. You’d expect them to use the same tactics to mow down their undead foes, but they actually use a variety of methods to beat back the zombies. They also improvise with a number of creative makeshift weapons, which, of course, run out of ammo just when they need it the most. But hey, they tried!
Dark humour
Just to remind you that it’s still a movie for adults, they’ve inserted quite a few chuckles regarding the whole morbidity of the situation. There are many death jokes and laughs at the expense of other characters suffering and dying and rising and dying again, but it doesn’t impact the tone and fits quite nicely with the horror comedy angle that they’ve taken with the film. You might feel a slight twinge of guilt at the dark humour, but that passes pretty soon.
Self-awareness of the protagonists
The heroes gradually realise the absurdity of the situation, though they never break the fourth wall in their revelations. Still, they can’t help but comment on the extreme outlandishness of the events around them. This not only add to the comedy, it also gives them a bit more characterisation and depth.
Letdowns
Off-colour humour goes on for quite a bit
The dirty jokes are appreciated, but they sometimes go on for a bit too long. It comes across as flogging a dead horse at times, when some of it could have been cut for time after the joke has worn out its welcome. The jokes are genuinely funny at first, but the dragginess isn’t.
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” is another fun entry into the horror-comedy genre, with a proper story/moral to boot. Sadly, you won’t be able to join the Scouts by the time you’re old enough to watch this.
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” opens in cinemas 12 November, 2015 (Thursday).
This review was first published on Yahoo.
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