Director: Andy Palmer
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Trying to save his show, the lead of a paranormal hunting team takes the crew to scout a location shoot involving a supposedly haunted summer camp, but the longer they stay at the area the more they come to believe it’s stories and haunted history are true and must try to get away alive.
Review:
For the most part, this one was an enjoyable enough genre effort. Among its better features is the strong backstory about the history of the camp and how it got its haunted reputation. The backstories told about the incident at the camp involving the woman who lost her daughter and then decides to take to witchcraft in order to commit the murders against the children which is shown in a brutal yet tasteful blashback involving the kids suddenly and without warning beating each other with ordinary objects and being lead to death-by-drowning. It serves itself well enough to a likable setup for a show like theirs to be interested in exploring.
This fine and serviceable setup helps to make the later ghost-hunting scenes come off with some atmospheric touches. The first night where he does the lone investigations of the still-lighting fire and the strange symbol nearby is a fine start, while the later scene featuring the technological flare-ups is somewhat unsettling. That these tend to provide a nice bit of tension by mixing them filming everything for the show which enables some nice found-footage style sequences with narration about strange odors and markings along the walls alongside the real-time monitoring showing them being unnerved at the situation is a fun touch.
Likewise, the series of hauntings and confrontations leading into the finale as these scenes manage to make the storyline rather chilling. The attacks in the bathroom stalls or on the playground offers enough of a hint that things are building nicely which is what happens as the true purpose of the hauntings is revealed. This leads to a rash of fun encounters and confrontations throughout the campground which all brings about a highly enjoyable and somewhat surprising series of revelations which have some shocks involved for the most part. These, for the most part, are the more engaging aspects of this one.
There are some issues with this one. One of the biggest issues is the nonsensical storyline involving the series of twists and turns this takes in the finale. Featuring several twists that are quite lame and just underdeveloped due to be introduced so late that it’s somewhat questionable why it would be featured at all with no build-up makes this section look rushed and inconsequential. As well, for supposedly professional ghost hunters they display some startling unprofessional behavior, from their attitude towards the job, failing to recognize when something’s supernatural and just being unaware of what’s going on, which just seems to lower this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
A better-than-expected genre effort that features enough to like about it that there's some enjoyable aspects to be had even with a few mild flaws that holds it down. Give it a look if you're a fan of these ghost-hunting reality show efforts, love indie-style ghost movies or intrigued by the creative crew involved while those who aren't into these efforts should heed caution.
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