Everyone and their mothers are trying to devise new, clever ways to employ zombies in mainstream entertainment (look soon for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, for instance).  Zombies are the hottest ticket going, so putting zombies up against Scouts (not Boy Scouts, for the Boy Scouts would never endorse such an immature concept) seems like a neat idea.  The result, however, is a raunchy mess.

Christopher Landon’s film has a heart, as three nerdy teens (Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan) have their friendship, which is based upon their going through Scouts together since they were kids,  severely tested.  As adulthood nears, however, other interests begin to intercede and Scouting seems like a liability to becoming popular.  An overnight camping trip in the woods proves to be the tipping point.

Meanwhile, their town experiences a zombie breakout, and when the trio of Scouts discovers this, it takes all of their preparedness and wherewithal to survive, and to rescue the girls they like.  The mixture of sweet coming of age trials and hideously gory zombie attacks is quite jarring, but that is the desired tone.  Black humor is abundant, especially involving the Scout leader (David Koechner), who succumbs very early in the story, and a nasty neighbor (Cloris Leachman), who seems to be wearing a minimum of makeup when she turns.

This has the makings of a future cult film, particularly if the young leads find stardom in the coming years.  It also helps that Halston Sage and Sarah Dumont pretty up the proceedings, and that Dumont becomes an action heroine for our times, a no-nonsense stripper who shows no mercy to these marauding zombies.  As much as I enjoyed elements of the film, it doesn’t hang together well enough for me to recommend it; but if zombie apocalypses are your thing, you could do a lot worse.  ☆ ☆.  18 November 2015.