Movie Review: Camp Killer (2016)
Camp Killer is a horror film written and directed by Shawn Jones, and Starring Melissa LaMartina (Call Girl of Cthulhu), April Monique Burril (Chainsaw Sally), JimmyO Burril (Chainsaw Sally), Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th, First Jason), and James Watkins as David Lightfoot.
The film starts off with some people sitting around a campfire smoking weed and roasting hot dogs over the campfire, and Norman starts telling the story about a killer named David Lightfoot who haunts the campground they happen to be at. People have been disappearing for decades, and the FBI has been of no help. Apparently, David Lightfoot has been shot, but was buried alive and keeps coming back to kill. It takes about the first 14 minutes of the film telling the backstory, which seems a bit long to set up, but while he’s telling the story, Lightfoot is out there picking apart his other friends who have wandered off. It feels like this into storytelling could have been cut down a bit as well, as the intro doesn’t kick in until about the 20-minute mark, but there were a couple of kills in there to help pass this time. The story picks back up at the police station where the surviving girl of the group is being questioned by the sheriff (who at first glance looks a bit like Tom Savini). It also focuses on a bar where the sheriff is hanging out.
Unfortunately, it’s too hard to say too much about the plot without spoiling it, so we’re going to have to be vague here, but the writing and plot are fairly original. It starts off like every other typical camp slasher film but then takes a nice turn into a thoughtful and really fun storyline. They could have been better with time and execution, though. The acting is campy but makes sense for the film, and having Ari (who played Jason Voorhees in the original Friday the 13th) was a nice touch. What we can say is that there is a pact with the devil involved. The film does take another turn towards the end, but we’re not sure how we feel about it. The “hierarchy” of the people and killers starts to get a little muddled. This is something that may make perfect sense to the writer, and director, but could come across differently to a first-time viewer. In this case, it did.
In conclusion, we loved the classic throwback part of this film, but feel it wasn’t necessary. It should have started off owning the story it told later on. And only because it took so long to get to it. The first 14 minutes of setup could have been trimmed down. That being said, we love the approach to what seemingly was just another camp killer film. The approach to this film was definitely unique and impressive. Also, much appreciation for the practical effects. Even though they were cheesy, always preferred over CGI, and a lot of the effects were done well. We definitely hope to see a sequel to this one.
If you would like to watch with commentary, head over to http://thundergrunt.com/e/bonus-disc-camp-killer-the-commentary/ for that!
