Camp Dread (2014)

Dir: B. Harrison Smith

Way back in the 80's, director Julian Barrett (cable favourite Eric Roberts) kicked off Summer Camp which became a successful slasher franchise. The films starred scream queen Rachel Steele (Felissa Rose SLEEPAWAY CAMP) and John Hill (Brian Gallagher ZOMBIE KILLERS) as the killer. Nowadays, Barrett is not doing all that well. Mostly because he's a jerk. After living life as a has been for years, Barrett has a new plan to make some cash and propel himself into the limelight once more. Concocting a way too complicated scheme, he is gong to film a reality TV series called Dead.TV which brings together a group of young troubled adults to act out a fantasy slasher game played at the very same campground where the Summer Camp series was filmed, in order to have his reboot of Summer Camp green lighted. The real is put into reality when the fantasy stops and someone starts killing the pretend campers one by one.

Reality TV tryouts

Barrett brings back Steele, now a counselor, to monitor the mental health of those playing campers. The campers are made up of all the expected stereotypes. There's the hothead who constantly threatens to kill everyone, the horny woman, the emo, the athlete, the joker and so on.

Sheriff Donlyn and Barrett meet over coffee

None of the campers are likeable and are relegated to serving up beefcake and cheesecake and being dispatched by decent practical FX. Viewers that manage to make it through to the end will be treated to an amputee beaten to death with his own prosthetic leg, drain cleaner down the ole gullet, a poisoned sandwich (!), an arrow through the eye, impalement on a machete and death by decapitated head. That's right, one of the campers is killed by a decapitated head hurled at them with great force.

The pacing of the film is glacial. As soon as the montage of the campers playing football, swimming in the lake and doing whatever else one does in a montage started, I was hitting the fast forward button. The editing is often awful, such as the cut to a character who has no lines and is never seen again standing around outside while two people inside a restaurant talk over coffee. Add in inexperienced actors who haven't yet worked out interacting with other actors so a scene flows smoothly and most scenes just drag on.

Fan fave Danielle Harris, despite being prominently featured on the film's artwork and in the credits, is in the film for only a few minutes; not much more than a cameo.

CAMP DREAD is a throwback to the 80's slasher, only the worst of the lot.

* out of ****

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