Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) Directed by Christopher Landon. Starring: Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan. IMDB says: “Three scouts, on the eve of their last camp-out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.”

Okay so before we dive headfirst into this review lets first take a look at the director behind the film. I decided to look Christopher Landon up after the movie to see what else he had worked on in the past. To my surprise I found the answer to be quite a few things which I enjoy. First off let’s take into account that Christopher is the son of the late Michael Landon, best known for his roles in classic shows like Highway to Heaven and Little House on the Prairie. Even before all that his father was also in a little genre film some might recall by the name of I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). I grew up watching Christopher’s father on television so this caught me by surprise.

When looking over Christopher’s resume the earliest work that he wrote that I’ve seen and quite enjoyed was 2007’s Disturbia, a clear tribute to films such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Then starting in 2010 Christopher latched himself onto one of the most profitable horror franchises in recent history, Paranormal Activity. He wrote Paranormal Activity 2,3,4 and wrote and directed The Marked Ones. Now it’s 2015 and Christopher has directed his 3rd film Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, originally titled Scouts vs. Zombies.

I went into this movie really just hoping to have a fun time, and at the very least thats exactly what I had. The story follows a trio of friends who happen to be the only scouts in their troop. You have Ben (Tye Sheridan), your typical sensitive nerdy type who is in love his best friend’s sister but can’t work up the nerve to ask her out or tell his best friend. Then you have Carter (Logan Miller), the asshole of the group if you have to label his contribution to the trio. And finally we have Augie (Joey Morgan), the “fat kid” and most devoted scout of the group. The only other character who shares a lot of screentime is the slightly older bombshell cocktail waitress from the local stripjoint, Denise (Sarah Dumont). Through the film we watch as the group battles the undead in an effort to find and save a group of teens at a secret highschool party in the midst of the zombie apocalypse.

The biggest problem I had with the movie is the humor and some of the gross-out gags. The movie for sure had some great lines and scenes that had me laughing out loud, but a lot of the time the jokes didn’t hit for me personally. Also some of the scenes with gore didn’t work either because they just felt like they were thrown in to try and gross out the audience, including a scene of cunnilingus involving the undead which was so predictable that it had no effect. One more thing that was a downfall was the pacing of the film. It felt like the director sort of treaded lightly throughout most of the film and just saved everything for the final act where things come to a head at the party.

It’s clear that Christopher is a fan of horror and really wanted to make a great movie, but something just went wrong in the execution unfortunately. I must say it was cool seeing little easter eggs he put into the movie including a sign for nearby towns, one of which was Haddonfield. Overall I think this movie was pretty fun but if I had my choice it would be an at home Netflix or VOD watch with a group of friends. But if you wanna support the box office scene then for sure find yourself a cheap matinee screening and just relax and have fun for 93 minutes.