I’ll admit that I’d never heard of this movie until it popped up on Amazon Prime Video a few weeks back. In all honesty, I’m not sure if it even got a UK cinema release and if it did, it must have been limited.
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse does pretty much what it says on the tin. Three lifelong friends – who also happen to be scouts – are out in the wilderness when they realise they are in the midst of an oncoming zombie apocalypse. The boys team up with a cocktail waitress who also happens to be handy with a few weapons, and they become the world’s least likely heroes.
I did tell you it did what it said on the tin.
First, everyone should love Dolly Parton as much as Scout Leader Rogers. This isn’t a comment on the film itself, just a stray observation.
What I do have to comment on is the soundtrack. This movie has possibly the best use of music I’ve ever seen in a zombie film. The sequences with 9 to 5 and …Baby One More Time were golden, adding to the humour and the campy, fun nature of it all. Of course, I expected some comedy here, but that? That is not what I expected when coming in to this movie.
Other than that, it’s a pretty bog standard teen zombie horror comedy, but I’m sure that for fourteen year old boys this is the coolest movie ever. There are a lot of boobs, dicks, swearing, crass jokes and honestly, I was pretty surprised that two of the writers were women because the script appeals so much to young guys. But you know what? There are some laugh out loud funny moments within this and the young actors do terrifically well with their timing and jokes.
There were one or two times I lost interest a little, but that was minimal. It’s not like this movie will be fondly remembered for all the awards it won (none), however it’s really entertaining most of the time. I really appreciated the fact that it jumped straight into the story, there were none of those overdone high school scenes that are always a slog to get through, and it was only circa 90 minutes long. Nailed it!
Though nothing special, the young actors give decent enough performances with Tye Sheridan in the lead, the jokes are generally humorous, and – as we’ve established – there is an excellent use of music here.
In terms of filmmaking it’s pretty average across the board, but fun for sure. If you’re looking for an easy watch that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I’d say this was a pretty steady bet.
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the UK.
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