My initial reaction upon viewing the indie short film Camp Death was: “What the hell did I just watch?” No, this movie wasn’t a Cronenberg mindfucker or a Lynchian enigma…it was just barely visible.
The viewing experience that Camp Death offers is pretty much exactly like watching streaming video with a 56k modem on a monitor that has a busted button that is supposed to activate the “screen brightness” function. The movement throughout the entire film is choppy and reminiscent of a really bad webcam, and the lighting in the film…well, seemingly doesn’t exist. Everything is so dark that it’s incredibly hard to tell what’s going on.
Camp Death does sport a kind of cool concept, however. A film crew is working on a new Friday the 13th rip-off in a cabin in the woods, but when the actor playing the movie-in-the-movie’s killer gets fired from working on the set, he goes berserk and starts killing for real. It’s a pretty nice concept for a short film that could be a great way to showcase some groovy low-budget slaying and gore, and actually, I think it did. The gore scenes that I somewhat saw looked pretty damn good, but poor lighting, choppy movement, cardboard “I’m cool ‘cuz I cuss” acting, and a couple completely inexcusable, out of place, added-in-post-production computer “effects” (that look like they were created in Photoshop) just mauled any bit of good that I saw…and pissed on that chunk of good…and beat into a pile of mush.
The dialogue, like the technical aspects of the film, blows. If you like the word “fuck” and always imagined what those cheap Target shirts that have some sort of “wise-ass” remark on them would sound like if they were more profane, you’ll love Camp Death. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not an angry mom trying to ban swear words, but when dialogue in a film goes a little like this (throughout the ENTIRE course of the film):
“Go over there, they start fuckin’, you go fuck ‘em up. You two, you start fuckin’.”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
“Fuck you, dick.”
“What are you kind of…some fuckin’ idiot.”
…twenty minutes suddenly turn into twenty hours, and really, that’s just not my bag.
I can’t recommend Camp Death to anyone, but I can say that I’d like to see the crew behind it give concept of the film a second try, using a retooled script, some actually competent equipment and none of those goddamn HORRIBLE Windows Movie Maker “special” effects (and I mean “special” in the “that girl has autism, she is special” way).
-Spooky Steve
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
