Director: Brandon Guiles
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
After a vicious killer strikes, a clean-up crew is dispatched to the summer camp in the woods to clean up the bodies while the counselor tries to get the camp ready for the next session of guests to arrive, unaware that the killer is still on the loose and starting to target those still there.
Review:
Overall, this was a solid if somewhat problematic genre effort. Among the better elements present with this one comes from the wholly fun and cheesy setup that allows this one to not only play within the rules of the genre but to spoof it as well. The central setup about the duo heading to the woods following the campsite massacre the night before, and tasked with cleaning up the bodies left behind while the new staff arrives to set up for the genuine camp reopening, and finding the aftermath of what happened is a wholly enjoyable start to this one. That allows the film to operate on multiple storylines within here as the team cleaning up work through the regular’s nonchalant approach, having done this multiple times before, and his assistant’s incompetence looking for an easy payday alongside the survivors of the massacre, trying to move on as well as deal with the approaching timeline for the next session. It’s silly enough that this would come to pass in the first place, as any attempt at reopening would be held off by the police investigation into what happened, the attitude of the owners toward everything, and the reactions to the growing idea that someone might be at the camp killing everyone, providing for some genuinely funny moments.
While that’s all incredibly well-handled, the film doesn’t make the same care and purpose for the killer, which is where this one stumbles somewhat. The best elements here revolve around the aftermath of the kills, which are usually strewn around the woods as the evidence of what happened is quite prominent and obviously visible to all that someone was there, from the decapitations, axes stuck in a person’s neck, disemboweling, and one victim found with their face cut off and subsequently nailed to a tree. These are brutal and graphic and creatively integrated into the film, but beyond that, the films’ attempts at going for a joke make for a long-winded series of interactions with the other members of the camp rather than bring those elements to the forefront since almost all of the encounters are off-screen kills that we stumble upon later or cut away from just before the gory parts are displayed. That becomes quite infuriating over time as there’s so little of the main slashing antics going on in a slasher spoof, with everything instead building to a joke. That’s made all the more prominent due to the low-budget antics on display that never let the film go further than it does, and while it’s not as detrimental, it does serve as another factor holding this back.
Overview: ***/5
A somewhat fun if problematic summer camp slasher spoof, there’s enough going on here that it’s not a total waste, while most of those problematic factors are involved. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach, or those who don’t mind this kind of genre, will have a lot to enjoy here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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