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Film: Camp Death III in 2D!
Year: 2018
Director: Matt Frame
Writer: Matt Frame
Starring: Dave Peniuk, Angela Galanopoulos and Darren Andrichuk
Review:
I had the pleasure of viewing this film when writer and director Matt Frame reached out to me to review. He did warn me that this film was crazy and he didn’t lie. I actually also got to see it on the big screen when it came to the Nightmares Film Festival as well, as it kicked off the final day for me. The official synopsis for the film is a comedy/horror parody of Friday the 13th Part III in 3D and is proudly presented in two dimensions.
What I most enjoyed about this film is the care that was taken to parody not only the Friday the 13th series, but also the slasher genre. Now I’m not the most knowledgeable on this sub-genre, but I have seen most of the major films that fall into it. This film starts off almost like a recap that we would get before many of the Friday the 13th films. We are back in 1979 with our killer, Johann Van Damme (Terry Mullett), chasing the final girl. Harkening back to Friday the 13th Part II, she confuses him by mocking his mother’s voice with a hand puppet before defeating him.
Strategically the film then uses newspaper headlines during the credits to fill us in on the story, with some of them being quite outrageous. We are given the back-story much later in detail that is taken straight from the Friday the 13th series. The original massacre was done by Mrs. Van Damme (Gerald Varga). She was upset when her son contracted scurvy and got her revenge. A final girl decapitated her. Her son then came back for his revenge, which is where we jumped in.
In present time, they are going to reopen the camp. It is owned by Mel Boogjumper (Darren Andrichuk). He is a foul-mouthed man who cracked me up quite a bit. He is allowing his nephew, Todd Boogjumper (Dave Peniuk) to open a camp for the criminally insane. He is being aided by Rachel Diaz (Angela Galanopoulos) and Barry Brown (Chris Allen) as camp counselors. Mind you, Barry is in a wheelchair.
The goal is to try to help these people, but not necessarily for Mel. He needs Todd to keep the campers alive so he can sell the camp, as it has been a money pit. When the bus for the campers pulls up, that might not be possible. The deaths start to happen and the film just keeps getting crazier and crazier.
What I’ll say about this film, is don’t come in expecting a coherent story, good acting or effects. This film was made with a shoe-string budget and definitely embraced it. I know there are quite a few that will hate this. I personally thought it was fun. It is quite reminiscent of the slapstick and outrageous comedies of the late 1970s. It feels similar to that in there are almost skits that are placed together. Some of them I thought worked while others I wasn’t the biggest fan of. I personally thought it might have been better to focus on some of the kills more, because we don’t get to see many of them unfortunately. After listening to the director though, due to actors dropping out, that become difficult to do and they had work with what they had.
As for the acting, it isn’t good. I’m not going to hold that against the film too much though, because that is what they are going for. They are poking fun at how most slasher films do not have the best acting. This film is taking that and turning it to the max for sure. It is interesting though that Peniuk is quite dumb, but I do think what he is trying to do is noble. Galanopoulos I thought did well at hiding something in her past that gets revealed later. She was also nice to look at, especially when she dons the 1970’s outfit. I already said I thought Andrichuk was hilarious to me. He goes a little far near the end of his time in the film though. The mentally insane all have distinct looks, but many of them aren’t really fleshed out. I do have to say, some of the other ladies I enjoyed to watch as well. I did want to say that I loved the look of the killer. That blank mask is reminiscent of Michael Myers. It is plain but effective. I also like the call backs to The Burning, Sleepaway Camp and even it seems like Scream.
Much like other things I’ve touched on, this film does go heavy with the CGI and it is not good. For a normal film, if they would have that in it I would have tore it apart, but for a spoof film, it just keeps adding to what this film is going for. I actually would have preferred them to go a little farther to show more of these deaths, as that is what I want in a slasher.
The score for the film really didn’t stand out to me actually. Now I know there are the two musical numbers, which I didn’t like but they were funny. Ethel’s (Leslie Schwetz) musical number I did like a little bit more than the other. The rest of the film I would say the score fit, because I wasn’t too worried about it and it never took me out. I was noticing more of the comedy.
Now with that, this film isn’t for every one. You really need to like crazy, stupid comedy films. If you are into films like that, I think this would be up your alley. If you are a fan of slashers, especially Friday the 13th, then I’d also say to check this out to see if you find it funny. It doesn’t have the redeeming factors that other films have, but it is trying for the complete opposite of that. The acting, editing, effects and pretty much everything is bad, but I still had a soft spot for the film. It has a low running time which definitely helps. I think they should have cut down on the comedy sketches a bit to show more of the kills, but that is just my personal preference. I am going to rate this film slightly above average.
My Rating: 6 out of 10