Horror and comedy are both such strong reactions they have created genres of their own.
One will fill audiences with so much pleasure it bubbles out of them in unusual sounds; the other leading to audiences viewing the film through a pinhole created by the gripping of hands to their face, letting only a small amount of the horror to come in with the light through their fingers.
The mixing of genres has become much more commonplace in modern cinema, with horror and comedy usually being the strongest of bedfellows. While some films have shown the two mix well, usually they will lean more heavily on one or the other – ‘Drag Me To Hell’ is a horror with some blackly amusing moments, while ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ took the mickey out of horror. ‘Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse’ aims more for laughs, but the strong reaction I came to feel was disappointment.
Tyler (Tye Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller) and Augie (Joey Morgan) are long-time best friends thanks to their being in the same Scout group, led by Scout Leader Rogers (David Koechner, ‘Anchorman’). While Augie loves being a Scout, Tyler and Carter feel like they have outgrown it and want to leave, but are hesitant as they don’t want to abandon Augie.
After trying to sneak off from camp to go to a warehouse party filled with girls and beer, Tyler and Carter are caught by Augie who is disappointed in his friends’ abandonment. Tyler and Carter go to town to get beer only to find the town deserted bar Denise (Sarah Dumont) and a large number of zombies. Tyler and Carter reconcile with Augie, team up with Denise, and try to save the partiers from the incoming zombie hordes with the hope some girls will find their actions heroic and reward them with the kinds of things that would make their wet dreams look dry.
With a beginning that looks promising but with a need for some tightening, the film quickly devolves into cheap and dumb humour with sex gags completely lacking punchlines. The characters are unlikable or pathetic; the dialogue is barely there; and the story is secondary to breasts and explosions. It wouldn’t be a surprise to find the film was the result of the Scouts holding a focus group to find out what appeals to 13-year-old boys in order to make themselves 'cool', with the results including: sex; zombies; violence; selfies; and someone’s dick being ripped off (that last one happens).In their attempt to look cool, the film even attempts to belittle Dolly Parton by labelling her lame in a number of gags as a way of showing its alpha-male dominance, but Dolly comes out looking much cooler. The film just proves how hard it is to make someone with their own theme park look less than cool.
I am not the target audience. ‘Scouts Guide…’, with its exposed breasts and genital mutilation, is more aimed at boys who have just started to find sex funny but still watch the Disney Channel. It’s just very disappointing a film with this title would completely ignore a concept which could have been amazing – young scouts using their training to fend off zombies. There is a quick glimpse of this in a scene where the Scouts try to escape from a jail cell using a mop, a hook and a lot of condoms, but this moment is quickly fleeting and drowned out by boobs.
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There is even potential when the zombies start exhibiting traits of their former selves, leading to an amusing scene involving the heroes and a zombie begin a sing along to a Britney Spears hit, but unfortunately leads to a massive plot hole which is never revisited. The smartest thing about the film may actually be the zombies, as at least they are after something with brains; something no one seems to have in ‘Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse’.
★
One out of five disappointed zombies.
