Sign up to add this to your collection
|
Sign up to add this to your favorites
|
|
66%
Overall Rating
|
|
Ranked #13,633
...out of 20,698 movies
|
Sign up to check in!
|
The secluded Camp Blood was supposed to be the perfect place to spend the summer. But when six teenage counselors show up the terror begins. To their horror the find a deranged killer determined to pick them off one by one. Hormones, Illegal drugs, an catchy tunes form a recipe for death in... Camp Blood: The Musical.
--TMDb
|
|
Review by Chad
Added: June 16, 2008
For some bizarre reason, the horror musical has had a bit of a resurgence recently. It all started with Sweeney Todd, the film that the majority of you seemed to enjoy (and the one that I personally hated), but even though that was a Tim Burton release, I didn't think that it would be mainstream enough to prompt a flood of imitators. Now, this is not to say that the genre is becoming diluted (we're not talking about zombies or torture porn here), but I think that I've heard of and seen more horror musicals in the last six months than I have in the last six years. Tonight's film is a musical that also attempts to parody the slasher genre, and even though it weighs in at a slim thirty minutes, I have to say that it provided me with much more entertainment than Sweeney Todd did.
The storyline... wait, stop me if you've heard this one before. Six young teens - the virgin (Sofia Alvarez), the jock (Dan Wilcox), the druggie bad boy (Jacob Wolf), the goth (Ashley Hanna), the whore (Emma Manion), and the nerd (Tom Shoemaker) - head out to a summer camp for three months of drugs, campfire songs, canoing, and premarital sex. Instead, they discover that the lone counselor of the camp has been slaughtered, and they also find out that there is a masked madman (Jim Bolenbaugh) roaming the woods who will eventually dismember, decapitate, or disembowel each and every last one of these campers... but not before we get to see some gratuitous nudity and wanton drug usage. Oh, and the stars also take a break here and there to break out into a song and dance routine, with the songs poking fun at the slasher genre as a whole.
Tonight's film had two things working against it before I even pushed "power" on my DVD player: I'm not a huge fan of musicals (Poultrygeist won me over, but that was an exception, not the rule), and very few parodies of the slasher genre have managed to get the comedy-to-accuracy ratio correct. In regards to that second statement, it seems as though the vast majority of these parodies can't find the proper balance of the elements that make a film of this nature memorable - namely, a knowledge of the material that the filmmakers were attempting to parody, and of course, some humorous material to go along with it. Thankfully, the boys responsible for Camp Blood: The Musical obviously knew their shit when it comes to the finer points of the slasher genre, and in addition to that, they came up with some damned hilarious material to compliment it.
There's an old saying about "saving the best for last", and if that is indeed true, then it would stand to reason that the worst would come first. That's the case with this film: the first two songs were pretty bad, so to say that I had high hopes for the rest of the film would be a lie. We're first "treated" to songs sung by actors with no apparent experience in the world of singing, and even though the lyrics were pretty funny, it seemed as though the actors were just singing lines out of the script rather than honest to goodness songs. Then, things quickly turned around in the span of a single scene, and from there on out, the songs are hilarious, memorable, and most importantly, easy to listen to without getting the urge to shove a knife in your own eardrums. There's no middle ground here, folks: the songs are either horrible or awesome, but thankfully, there's much more of the latter than the former.
The parody of a slasher film that surrounds these songs is also an entertaining affair. There are some great moments to be found here, and as mentioned up above, it's readily apparent that the filmmakers have seen more than just a couple of slashers in their time. They really captured the look and feel of the old eighties slasher film, complete with all of the clichéd plot points and subtle nuances that made those films so great in the first place.
Of course, we wouldn't have a slasher without the T&A and the kills, and the film delivers on both accounts. The film was shot on a budget of around $200, so it'd be a bit silly to expect award-winning special effects; I knew this going in, and I wasn't expecting much in terms of great gore effects. However, while you certainly wouldn't mistake this for the latest Hollywood blockbuster, I have to give the filmmakers credit for doing the best with what they had, and I also have to give them credit for at least one kill that was surprisingly well done. Tom Savini won't be put to shame by this film, but considering the budget and the lighthearted nature of the film, the effects crew could have done a lot worse.
Camp Blood may never find a huge audience, as it's a film that really caters to those with specialized tastes; after all, how many people do you know who love old-fashioned slasher flicks and would want to see them mixed together with comedy? More than a few? Alright, how many of those people would want to see this sort of film served up as a musical? I wouldn't say that there's a huge market for this sort of thing, but I will say that those who are in said market will find that this film is certainly an enjoyable romp in the woods. 8/10.
|
|
#1:
Chad
- added June 16, 2008 at 1:21am
I didn't want to post this in my review as I'm not
sure how long this page will be online, but as of
this writing, you can view the entire film here:
http://www.lumberyardmedia.com/fest2006.html.
|
|
#2:
Nirrad
- added June 16, 2008 at 2:19am
I have a question. What kill did you think looked
great, because I sure as hell couldn't think of
one. This movie was alright I guess. Beginning was
pretty funny, I don't know why but I couldn't stop
laughing. After that I kept checking to see how
long until it was over. Neat idea though. 6/10 for
me.
|
|
|
#3:
Chad
- added June 16, 2008 at 2:37am
The pole to the head of the girl giving head.
And the T&A song + the chase song
were just classic... those two songs alone are
worth more than 6/10.
|
|
|
#4:
Nirrad
- added June 16, 2008 at 2:44am
Meh, I thought that looked kinda lame. Just by
looking at the picture you can tell it's not in
her head. I liked the shovel handle in the mouth,
or whatever it was. Also, what is the name of the
cat? I can't seem to catch it. Mr. Colds? Codes? I
dunno.
|
|
|
#5:
Chad
- added June 16, 2008 at 2:54am
It wasn't something you'd expect out of Hostel,
but did you happen to note the budget? Yeah, that
budget was for the entire film, not just that one
scene. So, I stand by what I said: surprisingly
well done.
|
|
|
#6:
Nirrad
- added June 16, 2008 at 3:07am
Oh I know about the budget. I guess it was ok,
maybe they could have used her hair to hide the
faults.
|
|
|
#7:
Nirrad
- added June 16, 2008 at 2:21pm
You know what, after a second viewing I enjoyed it
much more. I'll bump her up to a 8/10 as well.
|
|
#8:
bluemeanie
- added June 16, 2008 at 2:26pm
I laughed quite a bit. I normally don't give an
'E' for effort, but I will make an exception.
Very funny low budget flick. 7/10.
|
|
#9:
Crispy
- added June 20, 2008 at 2:07am
Absolutely loved this.
|
|
#10:
GJaneway69
- added September 12, 2008 at 10:05pm
Funny movie, Im a huge slasher fan and loved the
references throughout especially the Sleepaway
Camp story in the middle
|
|
|
#11:
The Red Clover
- added September 12, 2008 at 11:59pm
Loved it. 8/10
|
|
Rate Movie? 
