Camp Dread (2014) User Reviews

Could have been better

[victoryismineblast · 5/10 · 16 April 2014]

Eric Roberts plays washed-up filmmaker Julian, director of the "Summer Camp" movies, a trilogy of wildly successful horror films from the 80s. He has recruited a bunch of young wayward delinquents who have pssed off their parents, to have them attend his summer camp in lieu of jail or rehab.

The camp is covered in cameras, and so are the young adults, as they are told that they will be participating in a reality series, where one by one they will be participating in a series of challenges, and "fake killed," with the last one standing winning a million dollars. There's more to the story but it doesn't really make a difference in the film. It's so convoluted that none of it really does.

Felissa Rose (of Sleepaway Camp fame, get it?), plays the washed up star of Julian's famed trilogy who is now a therapist, and as head counsellor seeks to rehabilitate these wayward youths.

This being a horror movie of course, they start getting offed for real, as they slowly begin to discover the truth of why they are there.

There are a few decent kills here but nothing much new. The gore and effects are pretty standard. One character in particular is killed with an object I won't name, but I'm pretty sure it's the first time put to film. You'll know it when you see it near the end.

One of the things that drew me to watch this film was the supposed starring role of scream queen Danielle Harris, who started in horror films back in 1988, has been in 4 Halloween films, and has always been a favourite actress of mine. She has SECOND BILLING in the credits and everywhere else but only appears IN TWO BRIEF SCENES FOR A TOTAL TIME OF UNDER 5 MINUTES. Obviously she was attached to this movie just to sell tickets, and cash a paycheck.

All in all a sub-par effort.

Slow but decent slasher

[tdeladeriere · 5/10 · 19 October 2014]

Don't go into "Camp Dread" with expectations of something new. This is a by-the-books slasher, and all the rules are respected (for a reason). Dumb and horny teenagers, a cabin by the lake, a mystery killer, gory offings every 10 minutes or so, down to the finale where the survivor keeps running into the dead bodies of her former inmates as he/she tries to escape the killer.

References abound in more than just the tired, if necessary, format. Felissa Rose plays the star of a slasher 80's trilogy, much like she did in real life as the cult hermaphrodite killer in "Sleepaway Camp". Most murders are recreations of classic offings from previous slashers, like "Friday the 13th" but also "Psycho". Of course, this all fits into the script, since this tells the story of a twisted slasher producer experimenting on a new reality-TV format for the 4th installment of his long-forgotten horror franchise.

Bodies are dispatched at a slower rate than usual, which is the movie's main setback. Unlike successful slashers of yore, most of the offings happen after the 40 minute-mark, with a crescendo during the last 20 minutes. For that reason, there's no real final girl, or suspense for the climax.

Although villains are a-plenty in this amoral marathon, the movie succeeds in keeping the audience wondering who is the killer, and a few final twists will actually keep you off-guard. That and a fair amount of blood should satisfy any slasher fan's basic needs.

Dumb, made no sense

[mvike · 3/10 · 25 October 2019]

The "staring actress"? She has about 5 minutes of total screen time.

The movie gets 2 stars for a solid production value, and 1 for OKAY acting...the rest? It's all bad.

I usually know anything with Eric Roberts is going to be trash ...but due to Harris name attached I watched it...kudos to them, they fooled me. Good job?

The plot doesn't make a lot of sense, and by the time you understand why they're doing all this, you've already lost interest.

Without spoiling anything, I'll just say the ending makes no sense...like...what was the motivations for ..the last one alive...? There was no motivation and it wasn't apart of their character at all, were they just faking it? I don't get it...this was a classic case of a film trying to be smarter than it is, which ends up confusing everyone (not cuz we can't grasp it but cuz it makes no sense) and being stupid. None of the kills were anything special.

Dreadful

[bastian-kreuzer · 2/10 · 26 September 2014]

The fact that Eric Roberts seems to be one of a few competent actors in this movie should tell you something about the quality of acting in Camp Dread. To be fair to the other 'actors' in Camp Dread, I should say that they didn't write the screenplay and the cringe-worthy dialogue by themselves. Someone else did. Director/writer Harrison Smith did. And he botched it. Also the stretch from a has been actor to a has been director is not that big of a leap for Mr. Roberts. He really didn't have to act in this one and collected a paycheck for it. Well played, Mr. Roberts, I guess.

The plot is pretty simple as it should be in a slasher movie. A washed up and penniless horror movie director Julian Barret (Eric Roberts) decides to dabble in reality TV to make some money. He enlists the help of his former scream queen, who is now conveniently a licensed youth counselor, and another old friend of his who gets killed off in about 20 minutes into the movie. I can only assume because he seems like a decent actor and they were going for total incompetence or bust. Add about a dozen stereotypical youngsters as cannon fodder. Explain the rules of the Summer Camp reality show. The fake killer, the insane amount of money that goes to the winner, drop a hint or two about the presence of a real psycho killer and we should have a solid setup for a fun slasher movie.

If you are a horror fan you've probably seen worse ideas turned into good movies and vice versa. You've seen this done before, right? Summer camp, lots of young good looking people and a psycho killer on the prowl. The movie has some good gory kills and a bit of a surprising twist at the end but it still fails to deliver.

The movie is just dull. The setup is solid but once Summer Camp starts, boredom ensues. The kills are few and far between, the fights between the contestants are long and boring. The director tries to generate tension using gimmicks like strange noises outside the cabins, doorknobs jiggling for what seems like an eternity, wrong people showing up in wrong places, etc. I didn't expect any deep character development in this one but it would have been nice if they'd make decision based on logic and common sense. Instead they all seem to have left their brains at home. I've touched the subject of acting already and it seems the big chunk of the acting budget went to Mr. Roberts and Danielle Harris for her ten minute cameo appearance. Some gore and the surprise ending, which really isn't that much of a surprise, don't fix that. The characters just seem to have the memory of a goldfish because they seem to keep forgetting what happened just a few seconds ago. The acting is atrocious at times. The cast is comprised of scrapings from the bottom of the barrel of acting talent. Add a bad screenplay that makes the characters utter some dumb and corny lines and the whole thing results in some cringe worthy dialogues and sometimes monologues. So bad that I had to pause it, rewind and cringe again just to make sure I wasn't hearing things. Annoyed the heck out of me. Even if I'd start to follow the plot and get involved into the story a bit something dumb happened or being said and it just snapped me right back to reality. This is a horrible movie.

Camp Dread doesn't have a lot going for it. It seems like its banking on having two known names in Eric Roberts and Danielle Harris, who's in it for about 10 minutes, to lure people in. Then it just goes through the motions of slasher horror until it ends with a surprise twist. And it isn't much of a surprise anyway. A fun throwback horror movie? Just throw it in the trash. That's exactly where it belongs.

Camp dreadful

[sebpopcorn · 3 July 2014]

A washed up director, played by washed up actor Eric Roberts, sets up a reality TV show where the contestants get murdered. A familiar and simple plot that's been used many times in the 10 years or so since reality TV was topical. But this movie is so ineptly put together that it makes less sense at it goes on.

Eric Roberts may as well have been filmed actually reading from the script since he conveys no emotions whatsoever. The movie does have one intriguing idea regarding the reason the contestants were picked but fails to go anywhere with it making the already threadbare plot even less believable.

The contestants are so uninteresting that you can sum them up in their entirely with a three word description. Fake leg guy. Girl in lingerie. That's not a sign of a good movie. I didn't expect much out of this but honestly my low expectations were a long way from met. Well, that's just a viewers opinion read the other reviews to see what the makers thought of their own movie. Turns out they liked it.

Don't pitch your tent in this boring camp!

[jwnewbury · 1/10 · 22 May 2018]

I am so angry at myself for paying for this DVD without reading more reviews. It is an Inept, dull, lifeless, low-budget, boring, rip-off of a movie. I threw it in the trash half way through. Avoid this dreck . You have been warned!

really, really bad

[pieterjanspiessens · 1/10 · 22 September 2018]

This movie was boring, there was almost no gore and the story was just so bad, it had more holes in it than a piece of swiss cheese. This movie is a pure waste of money that could have been used to make a proper movie. I have nothing more to say about this

Camp dreadful

[ArchieIsCool · 2/10 · 5 July 2014]

What an awful film not even scary it's basically about a reality show based on a camp where the last one standing wins a million dollars.

Eric Roberts is the show creator who set it all up and so the 20 something's arrive at camp and they all have some problem that they should have gone to rehab for but have been sent here. The first 40 minutes is dull the killings are awful you basically don't care about any of them as the acting sucks.

In the end one of them is doing the killings to win and then is bumped off by another of the gang who then thinks she's won only for Eric Roberts to kill her off too.

Apparently their parents sent them there to get killed off and reap insurance money? Don't bother with this movie it's not a patch on Friday the 13th it's dull dull!!!!!!!!

where's Danielle?!?

[jamesmbarnes-78827 · 3/10 · 8 November 2020]

Ok...clever plot twist ending. virtually no Danielle Harris (5 minutes tops). next to no blood. eh.

A fun throwback with surprising twists

[acidburn-10 · 7/10 · 23 May 2014]

Camp Dread is hell of a ride for a movie, we get a washed up director Julian Barrett who made a killing with the Summer Camp movies from the 80's, but success didn't last and he wound up broke, but now he's decided to bring back his classic slasher movies in a form of a reality TV show set at a real summer camp and even roping in his former stars as councillors and take in a group of troubled teens to participate in what supposed to be a fake murder mystery movie set and the chance for one of them to win a million dollars , but things take a turn for the worse when a masked killer does actually start picking the contestants one by one for real.

Well this is definitely a interesting concept for a movie and it does work for the most part, the setting at the real summer camp was a stroke of genius, as it is a beautiful scenery and the reality show setting is really fun and interesting and bringing in Eric Roberts as the twisted director was a treat as well as Felissa Rose of Sleepaway Camp fame and Danielle Harris of Halloween fame which was a great nod to the fun times. The movie itself is fairly straight forward and once we are introduced to the contestants things do pick up at a fairly even pace and the deaths aren't overly gory but are fun and nearly all of them meets a sticky end. The group of fodder we get are a dull nice guy, slutty girl, lesbian, shy loner, unhinged alpha male, disabled black guy, weird black girl and masturbator, all which makes a plea for survival but unfortunately none of them do come above they're stereotypes, and some are offed too quickly too either simply care or know anything about them, but that is the case in most of these movies.

The deaths are fairly fun and quite inventive in this movie we get arrows through the throat, a guy beaten death with his own fake leg, cleaning products forced down a throat, barbed wire round the neck, but the best one is the sling shot head death which was highly fun and original. And plus the twists which you will not see coming, like I thought that this movie was going one way, but then took a total U-Turn in the other direction and simply left me gob smacked.

The cast Eric Roberts was absolutely brilliant as the director, he chewed the scenery wonderfully as one of the only layered cast in the movie. Felissa Rose was also another great addition to this movie, she really hooks you in to the surroundings and Danielle Harris whose always a pleasure to watch but nothing more than a glorified cameo in this unfortunately. Nicole Cinaglia as the shy loner gave a decent performance throughout especially towards the end and her story really makes you feel for her, Joe Raffa does well as the unhinged camper Novak he really made the viewer hate his character with some serious problems.

All in all Camp Dread is a good fun throwback to the good old days, it's not perfect just enjoy it for what it is.

Trashy & Ridiculous - Some like that

[billbeast · 3/10 · 7 December 2014]

I liked the sound of the premise, really anything to do with camp gets me excited to watch, but Camp Dread is so bad, and it never even comes close to the so-bad-it's-good pile.

What I really hate in this genre I love so much is when endings make the whole film seem pointless and in my opinion thats what this film does. It's misleading, and im not just talking about Danielle Harris getting a star billing.

The death scenes weren't too bad, but when the movie finished I was extremely disappointed. If you like low-budget trashy camp flicks try Bloody Murder 2. It's so bad its good. This is so bad it's not even worth wasting your time on.

Bringing back classic horror

[justinandemily10 · 10/10 · 11 May 2014]

This movie will have you second guessing who's who as far as the killer of this movie.

Several young adults are brought to a camp competing against one another for a grand prize as part of a new reality show rather than facing jail or rehab. The twist, the camp is part of a classic 80's horror trilogy "Summer Camp" (like we don't know it's a spoof of Sleepaway Camp")and that there is suppose to be a "killer" that takes you "out". The problem, people are going missing for real and the bodies are about to pop out.

Overall, it's your typical suspense thriller/horror film trying to get back to the roots of the hayday horror films of the 80's. However, the plot twist as to the killer's identity and motive will greatly surprise and shock you. Nothing is as it seems in this film and you will be trying to figure it out to the very last minute.

Crystal Lakes Dread.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 1 December 2016]

After finding The Final Girls to be a surprisingly strong Slasher Comedy,I started keeping a look out for similar films. Picking up an old issue of UK film mag Empire,I read Kim Newman's Video Dungun page,and noticed a review for a similar-sounding flick,which led to me packing my bags for Camp Dread.

The plot:

After making his name writing/directing and producing the Summer Camp Slasher trilogy in the 80's.washed-up film maker Julian Barrett decides to revive the franchise.Wanting to keep the budget low,Barrett uses a reality TV show cover to get real troubled teens to sign up to "act" in the show/movie. Returning to the original where the films were made,Barrett covers the camp with CCTV . Revealing to his "cast" that they could get rich if they follow his directions,the group start playing around being in a Slasher,but soon find themselves giving "method" performances.

View on the film:

Slithering around the camp,Eric Roberts gives a marvellous slime ball performance as Barrett,whose Hollywood grin Roberts grips to keep Barrett mischievously ruthless nature just hidden under the sunglasses. Finding herself returning to the Slasher,the pretty Felissa Rose,gives a good performance as Rachel,with Rose giving the flick a comedic kick via knocking the fourth wall down in Rachel's attempt to escape the genre.

Filming on a real summer camp,writer/director B. Harrison Smith & cinematographer Charlie Anderson cut a chunk of 80's Slasher atmosphere,with the fading colours of the camp giving the killings a day-glo shine. Limiting the murder set-pieces to side views,Smith cuts into the bright red Slasher gore,but stops it from covering the screen by oddly only showing the murders take place in side angles. Starting production on "Summer Camp 4" the screenplay by Smith gives the first half a wry, satirical bite slashing into washed-up Hollywood glee and reality TV desperation. Chopping up the jokes as the bodies pile up, Smith snaps the playful elements to present a straight Slasher,which whilst hitting some gory deaths,runs dry due to the sudden serious shift,as the group start to dread Camp Dread.

Not Good, But It Was A Fun Viewing

[chrismackey1972 · 5/10 · 7 July 2014]

I gave this movie 5 stars because I thought it was a fun, entertaining movie. With most of the movies in the horror/slasher genres being almost unwatchable, this was actually a treat. Not once did I feel like turning it off.

Eric Roberts is always a fantastic actor, and he did a great job as a washed up director who's trying to make a comeback.

Danielle Harris, who's only in the movie for five minutes - at the most - was good in her cameo type role as the sheriff.

Nicole Cinaglia is a definite scream queen, and she did a good job on the role of Adrienne.

The rest of the cast was good enough for what was required of them. In a movie like this, you have to expect most - if not all - are going to die, so I guess the writers felt there wasn't much point in layering their characters with any real development. Since there was a sizeable amount of people in this, I'm guessing the writers didn't want to waste screen time fleshing out that many characters. It would've been nice had they done it for at least a few though.

If you love the slasher genre, I'd advise you to watch this. As I said in my headline, it's not good, but it is fun, and it deserves to be seen. Enjoy! :D

down to memory lane but with a lot of bumps

[trashgang · 6/10 · 8 September 2014]

Aiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiai, voila ladies and germs, that should be my review. Do I need to say more? Guess you want to know why I'm saying those words.

This is a throwback to the slashers from the eighties but then done in a bad way. First the positive news, it's great to see Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp (1983) back here. I knew she was to return to the genre after the Blu Ray release of Sleepaway Camp. And in fact, this story do talk about her history in a film franchise, only with another title so far so good, and she even didn't act that bad at all.

The bad things are the facts that Danielle Harris (the sheriff) is used to promote this flick, and face it, she's only in it for a few minutes. On the other hand it could have been a really good flick but before things go wrong it's rather a boring flick with a lot of talking going on. When the first killing happens it was rather well done. It's messy and gory an I thought, hell, this is going to be good after all.

We also have sexy chick who happens to be lesbian so they do talk a lot about sex and doing it but it never happens and can someone tell me why one of the girls is wearing a towel because when she suddenly drops it she's still wearing her underwear. The only tittie shot happens due a sex scene boy girl; It's rather funny because the are doing it, with their underwear on. The funny part lays in the fact that we do see the cum on her body and watch closely, she never wipes it from her body when her lesbian friend enters, funny is the fact that she says, hmmm, it do smell sex here.

But look, I'm telling about the funny parts and not about the horror and it isn't even a comedy. When killings are done they are on-camera and are in fact gory but even there it becomes a bit ridiculous that a severed head can decapitate another human. How, well you must see it.

I guess the director went for PG-13. If it was unrated it could have been a lot better, so many shower scene's are involved here only showing...water. You know, if you want to return to the eighties then you know nudity has to be involved.

An ideal flick to start the evening and to see Felissa again. And for the not intended funny moments.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

If you enjoy 80's slasher, you might like this one.

[kimheniadis · 7/10 · 15 January 2016]

This one came into the library where I catalog items, and I snatched it up, since one of my favorite B actors, Eric Roberts, was on the cover. I didn't even read what it was about before popping it into the DVD player.

It was an amusing throwback to the 80's slasher films, with today's technology. The opening where Eric Robert's character, Julian, and the sheriff were eating breakfast, instantly made me think of the small town I grew up in. And then when they showed the cabins it looked almost exactly like Edgewater Inn and Cabins where the yearly IndieHorror.TV Cabin Weekend takes place. I felt a kinship with the movie right away.

It was very enjoyable, and the kill scenes were pretty decent. Towards the end I was lost for a second when one of the characters was attacked, but then a second later the killer was outside the door. But after I thought about it, it made sense. There was a twist at the end that I did not predict, which was nice. I would recommend this movie, especially if you enjoy 80's slashers.