The film stars Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, Sarah Dumont and David Koechner.

Ben, Carter, and Denise go to the police station to discover that the town has been evacuated before a zombie horde chases them into a locked holding cell.

Prior to this film, Christopher Landon had worked on three movies in the Paranormal Activity series, and he relished the chance to do something more lighthearted.

He stated, "When I read the first script, I was like, 'Wow, I can actually make a gory R-rated version of The Goonies and Gremlins or even Monster Squad.

[8][9] In July 2015, Paramount announced that it had struck a deal with AMC Entertainment and Cineplex Entertainment to make Scouts Guide and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension available digitally, 17 days after they dropped below 300 theaters, as part of a larger experiment, and asked other theaters to join in.

[10] Per industry sources, Paramount gave participating exhibitors an estimated 2 to 4 percent share of the studio's digital revenue made between the time the film dropped below 300 theaters and 90 days after its opening date.

[11] Participants in Paramount's formula include AMC, Canada's Cineplex, National Amusements, and Alamo Drafthouse.

But many circuits, including Regal Cinema, Cinemark, and Carmike, rejected Paramount's offer to release in VOD.

[10] The impetus for Paramount's experimentation with this approach, with these two-younger demographic genre movies—which many have deemed box office failures—is the theatrical failure of MGM's Hot Tub Time Machine 2.

This is about the long-term health of the business, so there is not this long period of time when a consumer can't watch a movie.

[12] Critic Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com savaged the film as "disposable junk", calling it "loud, repellent, badly written, indifferently directed and almost completely devoid of any genuine laughs".

Club gave the film a C− grade, commenting: "If Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is the future, maybe the world should end.

"[14] Tim Janson from the SciFi Movie Page rated the film 41% out of 100%, saying: "This zombie comedy is short on laughs.

"[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".