Camp Dread Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Idiots, believing they're apart of a reality TV show, get killed at a summer camp that was once the set for a horror franchise.

Review: I think you can probably already guess why I watched this film--for my darling Danielle Harris. Guess who is barely in the movie? That's right! Ms. Harris pops up during the beginning and then predictably in the last scene and that's it. This annoys me greatly, but that's honestly the least of this film's worries. I often discuss the script in a blender concept, whereby there are too many ideas that do not mix together, but this movie wanted to take this concept to a whole new level. Turned this shit into a smoothie or something. But besides the plot being a total mess, you have a multitude of wasted potential and ideas that could have made this movie fun and interesting. It's rare to see such little focus on what should have been a straightforward throwback to '80s slashers which I think it wanted, and failed, to be.

I'll try and sum up the story the best I can while pointing out all the random directions the film wasn't sure it wanted to deal with. The first major plotline wasted involves the former director/creator, Julian, of a wannabe "Friday the 13th" franchise, pathetically called Summer Camp, that was supposed to be popular in the '80s but faded away due to internal issues. Julian has rented the same camp he used in making those films to set up a reality TV show that he claims will indirectly serve to provide footage for a new Summer Camp sequel. Yeah, because that sounds totally plausible. The Julian character could have been cool in theory, but he simply isn't in the movie enough. Connected to this, Julian has recruited the star of the Summer Camp movies, Rachel, played amusingly by Felissa Rose of "Sleepaway Camp" fame, along with one of his main crew workers. Obviously Julian wants revenge on them, seeing these two individuals being responsible for the failure of his career and the Summer Camp franchise. All this revenge and drama should have been more central to the story, but it serves more as a flimsy motive for the events of the film. People do reference the movies, but, believe me, this aspect of the film's story reads better on the back of a DVD than it does playing out in the actual film. This should have been awesome with lots of the events mirroring the Summer Camp movies or the reality TV show integrating aspects of those movies, but they never do any of this. It would have been cool if shenanigans at the camp started to play out like one of the Summer Camp movies and there was ambiguity as to what was real and what was scripted; this could have toyed with the audience as well as the characters. A movie within a movie is always interesting, but they did not execute this concept at all. It's kind of hard to explain, but suffice to say they wasted an opportunity here.

As for the reality TV show plotline, it serves more as a contrivance to set up a situation where people can get killed off and the rest of the characters ignore it. The people brought in for the show are a variety of losers and idiots who you really want to die, but they end up living far longer than you'd like; oh, and there are way too many characters considering the already convoluted plot. Apparently they're spoiled brats who are complete fuck ups bordering on jail time so they join this show as an alternative. They're also all cliched out the ass with heavy emphasis on many being red herrings. For example, they don't tell you what one girl did bad and she's obsessed with the Summer Camp movies--hmm surely, she must be the killer, right? Unfortunately, they totally bumble the red herring aspect by killing off the characters in an order that baffles me; rather than letting the people you will want to suspect as the killer live, they kill them off early. Even Rachel gets killed too early and she made for an excellent candidate to be the killer. Forget trying to guess the killer or the motive, because you're probably trying to think outside the box. In other words, this movie went with making the more obvious person actually be the killer(s) rather than honestly creating a real twist. Hell, I'll spoil it now. Big shock, Julian is masterminding the murders. Oh no, I would neeeever see that coming. Julian's getting help from Ms. Harris who is the town sheriff. Uhh, my dear, sweet and petite Ms. Harris as town sheriff?! Psh...yeah okay. Also, the main ones doing the killing are two of the brats, that really should have gone to jail, that Julian knew would turn into killers under the right pressure. Believe me, these two in particular are glaringly obvious as the killers, but that's why you end up not suspecting them. None of this matters anyway since Julian betrays everyone and is the only one who survives.

So why is all of this really happening? Well, there's yet another plotline not thought out for shit. Apparently these spoiled brats are embarrassments to their family so the parents have paid Julian to kill them. That's a bit far-fetched to say the least. Let me get this straight then...Julian, washed up and angry, happens to come across rich parents that want to get rid of their kids and seek his help of all people? Then, he concocts a scheme that somehow subverts the legal system allowing them to end up in his hands. Julian decides the best way to trick people into going along with the plan is to tell them they're on a reality show where he selectively chose a few ringers, so to speak, that will gladly kill for him. Then, because he's a douche, he tricks the colleagues he feels ruined his career into coming to the camp where he tells them he's using the reality show as footage for a new movie. In fact, it is greatly implied he will use this footage for a new movie which is ridiculous in every regard since the identity of the "actors" would be discovered and he'd be caught in no time; and if he's not using the footage, why did he have storyboards and even bother to record anything to start with since that's huge evidence against him should it ever be discovered! On top of this, Julian has gained the assistance of the town sheriff who is willing to go along with this plan for money...to the point of killing her own brother? Umm, yeah, I think I'm going to call bullshit on everything.

Like I said, the story is a fucking mess. I didn't even mention how things are more confounded by the multiple character storylines that get brushed over and are seemingly added for the sake of weakly confusing the audience as to the killer's identity. You've got one character missing a leg and do nothing with that whatsoever? Why? That's the kind of pointlessness I'm talking about. They wasted ample chances to do something creative, original, or at least fun, at every turn. They should have kept the plot simple or fuck, make the twist be that Julian was killing everyone to actually recreate a sequel to the Summer Camp movies rather than explaining that aspect from the onset. Imagine the story is this: Julian buys the camp from his movies seemingly out of nostalgia. He gets rejects that nobody will miss to work there while inviting former stars from the movies to visit as a way to gain publicity. When people start to get killed, Julian brushes it off as they were fired, left, or whatever. At one point, a twist could be someone discovering the cameras and realizing Julian's filming them. Then he reveals he's killing them out for revenge for ruining his career and that's when you explain everything rather than upfront.

Overall, what could have been a decent homage to the likes of F13 and "Sleepaway Camp" turns into typical and forgettable direct to DVD fare. It's not to say everything sucked though. The kills were decent enough, you are left guessing quite a bit (albeit for the wrong reasons), Ms. Harris and Ms. Rose are good to see even if for a short period, and there was a certain degree of entertainment to the experience. I just feel like this movie could have been salvaged at many times, but there was a willful decision to keep things stupid and nonsensical. Oh well. As it stands, I would say give this a pass unless you really want to watch every film from Ms. Harris or want to see Ms. Rose perpetually in movies involving camps.

Notable Moment: The awkward sex scene as it was both gross and disturbing; it definitely felt out of place.

Final Rating: 4.5/10