Camp Dread: DVD Review
The Movie:
The “Summer Camp” horror trilogy was one of the most popular franchises of the 1980s. However, the decade ended and so did director Julian Barrett’s career. Now Barrett plans to resurrect his gory series via a modern reboot patterned after reality filmmaking. With his former leading lady and an eclectic group of 10 young “contestants,” Barrett returns to the same locale where his old splatter-fests were filmed. When one of the campers is found savagely murdered, they realize there’s more at stake than just fame and fortune. Each of them is in a fight for their lives as they realize summer is over – forever.
Horror films are really my absolute favorite genre ever and seeing that this film has part of its story inspired by one of my favorite movies, Sleepaway Camp, makes me pretty happy. I mean they even had Felissa Rose as a part of the cast! I’m going to start off by just stating the obvious. You won’t get the greatest performances from Camp Dread but the one thing that you will get something that is actually pretty fun for an indie horror film. The main thing that this film prides itself on is the kill scenes. The effects aren’t super detailed but they way they make their way around it is by utilizing quick cuts and close ups which is a clever way of working with what you have. The story is an interesting one. With modern technology and the way everyone is a fan of reality television they utilize that aspect to make the usual summer camp storyline a bit more interesting. The main thing that you usually want to see horror films for are the kills and this one had some interesting ones especially the final one that involved a severed head and big slingshot. Camp Dread is not as bad as you may think. You just can’t go into it expecting the next revolution in horror.
