3 stars (out of 5)
Dismissed by some as Superbad meets The Walking Dead, co-writer/director Christopher Landon’s gross-out-gore/character comedy is goofily juvenile but good grisly fun, with an amiable cast, some seriously messy splatter and a few surprisingly off-colour zombie-sex giggles.
Teens Ben (Tye Sheridan) and Carter (Logan Miller) are longtime scouts but the uncoolness of it all is wearing them down and they’re only sticking with it for the sake of their sweetly gormless buddy Augie (Joey Morgan), who’s going for his Condor Outdoor badge, which means that the three will be spending the night in the woods. And this is a good thing, because when Ben and Carter ditch Augie and hit town late at night on their way to a party, they find the place overrun with zombies (the results of the usual scientific-experiments-gone-awry) and must join forces with a stripper, oops, ‘cocktail waitress’ named Denise (Sarah Dumont), who really knows how to use a shotgun (and wear shorts too).
Despite the familiarity here, Landon and his co-writers find much undead business for our heroes to get up to, as they go head-to-head with zombified former bullies, nasty neighbours (one of whom is the irrepressible Cloris Leachman who’s 89 this year) and ravers, as we’re offered all sorts of flesh-eater shenanigans. There are zombies on roller skates, trampolines and mobility scooters, as well as zombie Britney Spears fans, zombies with guns, zombie cops, zombie cats, zombie boobs and even a little unexpected zombie foreplay which you probably don’t want to read about here.
Anyway, it’s all very silly but highly enthusiastic (like Landon’s previous pic, the fifth Paranormal Activity) and gruesomely entertaining if you’re in the right mood – and if you’re not then why the Hell are you paying to see a movie called Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse anyway???
And dib dib dib? Dob dob dAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!
I Wake Up Screening 