Manuel de survie à l'apocalypse zombie

Simply put, this is a future cult film for a new generation. The zombie sub-genre is one that is so incredibly saturated that it can be hard to find a decent new film as we have to wade through tons of sewage to find anything with some value. Thankfully, after a fair bit of digging, we have one with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. It's a film that will appeal to the new generations of horror fans who were born into this nutty zombie infested pop culture, and it should also resonate with the well travelled horror fans who grew up on a diet of Evil Dead and Re-Animator. It's not going to be a mainstream success, and it's not going to appeal to everybody but Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is a blast of fun from start to finish.

It's clear from the opening scene of the film that aims to be a bucket of bloody fun. As a foolish janitor messes around with some laboratory equipment and comes across a strange looking comatose patient, he accidentally causes the them to flat-line and awkwardly tries provide CPR. His efforts are clearly in vain as he pushes his hands through the patients chest and wakes up the living dead, thus causing the zombie outbreak.

The comedy in the film ranges from hilarious mutilation of corpses, wacky animal zombies to plain stupidity, but it is none the less entertaining every step of the way. Highlights include a scene involving a trampoline, which had my body cringing in disgust and almost laughing hysterically at the same time, and a surreal rendition of a classic Britney Spears song. The climax owes a lot to the gaming franchise Dead Rising as the boys use the scout skills to craft hand- built weapons from a hardware store for maximum zombie killing impact.

Despite the zombies being a primary part of the proceedings, it would have been a shell of a film had it not had the central friendship between the characters of Ben, Carter, and Augie. We can all relate to a group of friends on an adventure, and their dynamic has shades of 80s classics like The Goonies and Stand By Me. It isn't drawing on anything new but it doesn't pretend to either as it feels like a hokey sentimental tribute to cult favourites such as The Monster Squad. The 80s are very much beating in the lively heart of this horror.

I'm a horror fan through and through, and the genre needs feel good films like this, equal parts gore and laughs with a splat of gratuitous nudity for good measure. At the end of the day isn't that what fun horrors are all about?

Horror films in recent years tend to be in the found footage vein, and Zombie films have been in decline since filmmakers could knock them out on low budgets with large amounts of CGI hordes of the undead for the straight to disc market.

Scouts Guide is a modestly budgeted comedy horror with lashings of gore with plenty of raucous laugh aloud.

The film does open up with a truly cringe worthy two minutes of inept nonsense with a janitor doing his job, but quickly changes its pace with the introduction of D.O.D. Christopher Landon (son of Highway to Heaven actor/director Michael London) has the guts to run with the laughs and some decent splatter for the next 90s minutes.

The cast of unknowns are capable and do have the charm and skill to carry the film over its 90 minutes running time. The film does not lag or waste any time introducing parental relationships and defining the social structure of high school culture it exists within its own universe of undead, scouts, strippers, boobs and pussies of all sorts. It's well edited, the script is tight,the photography is bright and clean and is definitely worth a viewing.

I just hope the producers don't plan a long series of low budget pointless sequels and just let the film find its own appreciative audience over the coming years.

'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse' is a fun little movie that has sadly been marketed rather poorly and was probably doomed to fail from the get go. It's been a box office flop but it isn't a fault in the quality of the film. It's a case of the main characters being scouts (most movies about scouts would generally be aimed at a younger audience) and yet the movie being R rated and alienating the people the title would suggest are going to enjoy it.

If they were going to go with the R rating then they needed to take full advantage of it, which they do in certain scenes but certainly not in an overall sense. This had the potential to be a 'Superbad' type movie with lots of clever and yet vulgar dialogue that would keep the audience (an adult audience) entertained throughout. Yet throughout the dialogue constantly feels like it's making its jokes for a younger demographic. The only time they really make use of the R rating is in the violence and the odd bit of graphic nudity. The dialogue was the key let down in this sense and the only way they could have pulled off the R rating to make this a box office success, and even then it would have been far from a sure thing.

Box office failure aside though it's actually a rather enjoyable film for the most part. While most of the humour might be a little bit tame in nature, it is still often funny enough to keep you chuckling if you buy into it. It never really works as a genuine horror movie (I don't think it was ever meant to either) as there never really feels like a genuine threat to any of the characters. Plus I think most people accept slow moving zombies are rarely scary to anyone in this day and age. There's nothing "must see" about it but if you do find yourself in a position to watch it I think you'll be pleased enough with what you see.

A reckless janitor accidentally releases a zombie from a laboratory of research. Meanwhile, the teenagers scouts Ben Goudy (Tye Sheridan) and Carter Grant (Logan Miller) decide to camp for the last time since they are too old to be scouts. The problem is that they do not want to harm the feelings of their friend Augie Foster (Joey Morgan) and the Scout Leader Rogers (David Koechner). They have a flat tire after hitting a deer on the road and Carter's sister Kendall Grant (Halston Sage), her boyfriend and her friend Chloe (Niki Koss) stop their Jeep to see whether they need a ride. They invite Ben and Carter to go to a party in the night. The two scouts leave the camping during the night to go to the party. When they drive through the town, they do not see a living soul and they decide to visit a night-club since the bouncer is not at the door. They discover that people have turned into zombies and they team-up with Ben's recent acquaintance Denise Russo (Sarah Dumont), who is bartender in the nightclub, and Augie that was left alone at the camp and came to the town. Soon they discover that the non-infected inhabitants have been evacuated and the town will be bombed by the government. They decide to rescue Kendall but they find that the address her boyfriend gave to them is wrong. What can they do to save Kendall?

"Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" is a silly and funny combination of comedy and horror that entertains and make laugh. There are scenes of the annoying Carter that should have been deleted during the edition, but the film in general works. The scene with Ben hanging on the window is hilarious preparing to jump on the trampoline. If the viewer is not an intellectual, he or she will certainly laugh a lot with the stupidities and adventures of this scout group. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Como Sobreviver a Um Ataque Zumbi" ("How to Survive to a Zombie Attack")

Note: On 17 March 2017, I saw this film again.

This is a typical boy's comedy-horror romp. Expect nob gags, cheesy sound tracks, high-fives, innuendos and tall women in tight tops.

I have seen a few of these in my time so I am a little fatigued and jaded with the genre. But as they go this is a pretty good one.

There is a period of build up where the characters are given a bit of depth. The production, acting and effects are all pretty good. The plot is OK but pretty much irrelevant.

There is no real horror, no real nudity (except a few jiggling zombie boobs), and no real violence. This is all pretty tame, good natured fun.

It makes me very sad to admit perhaps I have just grown out of this type of thing (I am outside the target demographic for sure)

This could be a pretty solid watch for a younger audience who is new to the genre.