SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE Review

How do you make another zombie movie in a market saturated by the like truly stand out? Contemporary audiences are so accustomed to seeing people get their throats ripped out by the undead that they settle in for it every Sunday night. So, the questions remains: if you're set on making a movie featuring zombies, how do you make it feel fresh? Or necessary? Director Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) answers that question by combining the zombie genre with that of a raunchy teen sex comedy and allowing this interesting hybrid of styles to both acknowledge their debt to where they came from while at the same time pushing the boundaries as far as they can go so as to appease that "contemporary" part of the audience. The result of such experimenting? A really fun time. More over, a better time than you'd likely expect after just hearing that pitch. That Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse goes in such the opposite direction of what expectations were, it immediately becomes something of a treasure trove of a movie-making audience members wonder with anticipation about what we might come across next. There is something to be said about the type of film that initially seems to be nothing more than a rejected, cheap satirical comedy that stars David Koechner, but is slowly accepted over time for being judged not purely on it's credentials or the circumstances of the time in which it was made, but rather for the singular type of experience it's viewing brings. I'm not saying the same with will happen with this film as say Hocus Pocus, but the film in and of itself is way too enjoyable and way too appealing (especially to teen audiences) to fall by the wayside forever. At an hour and a half the film breezes by with an effortless ease that sets up it's (mostly) likable characters, presents us with it's conflict and then utilizes it's quirky premise to round things out in a satisfying and largely hilarious manner.

Red-Band Trailer for SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

It's hard to figure out who exactly Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse was made for. While initially seeming like something aimed at the kiddes for the Halloween season it is now abundantly clear that is not the case as we have our first real look at the film (previously titled Scouts vs Zombies) via a very red-band trailer. While this is probably the more financially responsible choice (do live action kids movies make money anymore? Of course, if the budgets are small enough) I still don't know exactly who is going to see this beyond the crowd who enjoy horror/comedies, but how big could that fan base be? Otherwise, this thing is slated on a "holiday" weekend where the weekend before will see five new major releases including a Bradley Cooper movie, a Vin Diesel movie, a Bill Murray movie, another Paranormal Activity flick and Jem and the Holograms. In essence, the previous weekend will hit a wide array of demographics and I imagine most general movie goers will decide to opt out of the theater experience the next weekend given Halloween falls on a Saturday this year and Goosebumps and Crimson Peak will have opened two weeks prior satisfying anyone's urge for horror or horror/comedy. The only way Paramount will get something out of this seems to be through their new distribution plan or if it somehow becomes something of a cult favorite after hitting home video. All of that aside, the trailer has it's moments that at least feel inspired in terms of telling another zombie movie in a familiar way, but I can't say I'm really excited to see if it holds up against all it has going against it. Who knows, maybe it'll surprise. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse stars Halston Sage, Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, David Koechner, Patrick Schwarzegger and opens on October 30th.