Director: David Kerr
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Attempting to work at a summer camp, the counselors there working to get the place running for the upcoming festivities finds themselves disappearing one by one at the hands of the masked killer said to be haunting the woods around camp and must put their differences aside to stop his rampage.
Review:
This was a highly enjoyable and fun indie throwback. One of the better features here is that it plays incredibly well with the old-school aesthetics of the genre that it's clearly aping. Taking on a lot of the summer camp slasher film look that took place in the early 1980s, the style here is quite apparent with the initial exploits of the counselors getting together for the summer session and slowly coming across the series of incidents that bring about the traditions and overall experience at the camp which makes everything far more relatable to the time period. As well, with the film employs the time-honored tradition of featuring the campfire retelling of the legend involving an accident at the camp alongside the idea of keeping the killer at the heart of the disappearances and bringing the various character quirks against the others as a means of keeping the red herrings going throughout here, there are a lot of fun familiar elements ta play.
The other factor that really works nicely here is the actual stalking scenes that take place throughout here. Employing the familiar form of shock ambush sequence that has become prominent in the indie genre recently, there's a nice slew of scenes here with the killer arriving out of nowhere and delivering a brutal and far more graphic kill shot than expected which has some great work here. With these ambush encounters ranging from confrontations in the kitchen to the constant encounters between the campers in their cabins and the ambush on the swimming victim at the lake being just a part of the sequences throughout here, this one provides a nice slew of encounters that bring about some fun deaths to set up what's going on at the finale. Aware of the disappearances but not the killer, the series of stalking chases and brawls that take place here are quite fun and really end this on a high note for a lot to like here.
There are a couple of minor problems present here. Among the only issues is the incredibly exaggerated running time that has little business being this long. For a film that supposedly plays with the old-school aesthetics and formula the way this does, running over two hours makes it a slough at points that's badly in need of an editor more than anything as a lot of the early scenes here getting to know the counselors and going through their greetings can be massively trimmed down. Getting the backstory on the characters or hammering home personality traits is a bit unnecessary the way it's done here with multiple attempts at exploring that topic which goes on far too long for this type of genre fare when only a few characters would've been fine. As well, there are also bits about the aesthetics of the actors playing the roles that really throw a slew of anachronisms into the mix due to its low-budget origins, but beyond that, there's not a lot wrong here.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly-enjoyable and generally fun indie-style throwback, this one manages to feature a lot to like and only a few minor drawbacks that do manage to bring this down. Give this one a look if you're a fan of the modern indie-style scene, are fans of the creative crew, or are hardcore slasher aficionados while those who don't appreciate those factors should heed caution with this one.
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