Catholic News Service
Whatever its other defects, and they are legion, the blood-soaked horror spoof “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” does at least boast an accurate and descriptive title.
You can’t say you weren’t warned.
Surely you knew, going in, that what awaited you would be no more than a smirking exercise in sophomoric excess? Could you have doubted the unleashing of a tide of gore, the launch of a parade of merry dismemberment?
Plot, you ask? Well, that’s in the title, too: A trio of teenage Boy Scouts who also are best friends battle their way through the eponymous crisis using the skills that have earned them their badges as well as such improvised but effective weapons as a weed whacker.
Theme, you wonder? Um, well, the lads go on a heroic quest to save the attendees of a school dance who apparently don’t realize they’re liable to have their flesh uncomfortably munched on at any moment.
Oh, and it was wrong of Ben and Carter to ditch Augie so they could go to a cool-kids gathering to which he, poor schlub, had not been invited. Loyalty being, you see, more important than the desire to fit in with life’s winners.
The film contains pervasive gruesome violence, a debased view of human sexuality, upper female and rear nudity, much obscene and some scatological humor, several uses of profanity and frequent crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O, morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R, restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
