Summer Camp (2016)

best movie i've ever seen.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It starts off in familiar territory: a small group of young counselors in a remote camp. However, just by reading the movie's summary, you'll already know it's not going to follow the same trajectory as others with this same set-up. The premise borrows heavily from a sub-genre of horror movies such as "28 Days Later" and "The Crazies," where people suddenly suffer from a plague of unknown origin that causes murderous rage (again, part of the brief summary here on IMDb). What it adds is an interesting twist in that the people who are inflicted by this "rage" suddenly snap out of it, and are clueless to what happened while in its grip. The positive is that multiple people could suddenly go off at any moment; it's not just one person who's suddenly gone insane and the rest get picked off one by one. This adds some tension, but unfortunately the filmmakers seem to only touch on some of the implications of this condition that could elevate the premise from "scary" to "horrific." For instance, the characters all come to realize that they all are infected, and they all cycle in and out of this madness. If the screenplay had been fleshed out enough so that the characters could dwell on the facts that, not only do they not want to kill a friend even in self-defense (especially knowing they'll eventually come back to normal), but there's also now a fear that they themselves might be killed in self defense when they're suddenly in the grip of unstoppable rage.Instead, the movie careens from one person going crazy (sometimes multiples at the same time) to another, to another, etc. and it becomes tedious. There's no time for character development (although at times the movie adds in nuggets of characters' back-stories which are obviously added for the viewer to feel something for them, but are too sparse to register as anything other than awkward and misplaced), and the constant growling/snarling/attacking starting about 1/3 into the film never ratchets up any tension. By going from 0 to 100 so early and then consistently staying there becomes monotonous and actually reduces the fear factor since it's basically doing the same thing repeatedly.In addition, it relies way to heavily on the camera shake technique. Not the "found footage" type, but the kind that's meant to convey action, confusion, and chaos (and yes, probably shift attention away from budgetary constraints). That can work well in small doses, but again, when the action starts so early and doesn't stop for an extended period of time, it greatly reduces its effectiveness. The viewer is bombarded with quick-cuts and constant camera-shake which becomes annoying and and pretty much defeats the whole purpose.I applaud them for an interesting premise, and both the acting and the effects ranged from passable to good. I just think fleshing out the premise and expanding on its implications would have pushed it beyond just another zombie-like "rage plague" movie that many horror fans have seen enough times already.

A horror film co-produced by Televisa and distributed by Filmax? Sounds as a perfect recipe for disaster. And even though the result isn't very satisfactory, Summer Camp includes one or two original details which make this bland and forgettable movie at least worthy of a slight recommendation. The first 20 minutes of Summer Camp introduce the insipid characters and explain the "logic" of the screenplay. The producers surely though (rightfully so) that nobody would swallow a decrepit mansion as a childish "summer camp", so co-screenwriters Alberto Marini (who was also the director) and Danielle Schleif had to invent multiple dialogues to justify the incompatibility between location and premise. Besides, the actors aren't able to display the slightest credibility in their already generic characters, while the screenplay makes too many turns to inflate the short running time, and the camera has the irritating custom to frantically move during the "horror" moments in order to simulate tension the material isn't able to generate. What is more, the convulsive camera distracts us from the lack of special effects. There aren't instances of gore which would have helped the experience; even though it got rated R, Summer Camp feels close to PG-13, so it doesn't have much to offer on the visceral level. On the positive side, I liked the fact that Summer Camp plays with our expectations during the beginning, suggesting various thematic alternatives which generate a certain suspense; for a while, we don't know whether this will be a slasher film (there's a mysterious man spying from the woods with a knife), or of ghosts (the isolated mansion suggests spirits in every somber room) or of satanic possession (a dog shows clear signs of demonic influence... or it might be rage). Besides, we have an interesting twist which adds deepness to a popular cliché of contemporary horror; unfortunately, it comes too late, and it's not fully exploited in order to completely compensate the monotonous development of the movie. After all, Summer Camp didn't end up being the disaster I was expecting due to its fleeting moments of ingenuity, but it didn't leave me very satisfied either. At least, it didn't bore me and I don't regret having watched it, so, as I previously said, I think I can give it a slight recommendation.

How many more of these ridiculous "shaky camera" thriller and horror movies must we endure...??? Exactly when in Movie making classes were these people taught that shaking the camera all over the place somehow enhances your movie..Well guess what, It doesn't !! It makes it look silly, cheap, nauseating and at the very least nearly impossible for some to even follow what you are even attempting to show on screen...Personally,, I'm going to start to boycott any movie that their trailer or info shows this pathetic attempt to cover up the fact that they can NOT coordinate even a basic action scene without this ugly practice..Anyway the story was became all too familiar even with a twist like ending..just mundane, nothing that has not been seen before in zombie horror,,but, again,the filming technique stopped me from following it at close as I do most films..

Remember the eighties? Remember when horror movies set in summer camps featured gruesomely deformed and masked killers – or their deranged mothers – that slaughtered dozens of scantily clad and hormone-overloaded teenagers? Oh, how I miss those days… I don't want to sound too much like a dinosaur, but good slasher movies practically aren't made anymore nowadays and apparently now even the throwback/tribute movies don't even properly qualify as slashers anymore! Based on its title, film poster and brief plot description, I went to the premiere of "Summer Camp" at the Brussels' International Fantastic Film Festival and I was fully energized to watch a homage to 80s slasher flicks, but what I got was actually a zombie/virus- infected people flick instead! Due to the massive oversupply of bad and derivative zombie movies during the past decade and a half, I try to avoid them as much as possible so I'm pretty irked that I got lured to the theater thinking it was a slasher! "Summer Camp" is an American-Spanish co-production and you may take that very literally since it stars American students that spend their summer vacation in Northern Spain to work as English language counselors. With only one day left before the children arrive the conditions are far from optimal: there are tensions between the four camp leaders, the tap water is still cut off, there's a massive amount of pollen in the air, a bunch of freaks set up an improvised drug laboratory in the woods nearby and one of the camp's pet dogs had to put down because of rabies… Then suddenly, the teenagers alternately get struck by a murderous rage that causes their mouth to froth and their eyes to turn black, but – and here's the big surprise – the rage/infection is only temporary and the effects wear off leaving the victim without any recollection of what happened! Seriously, instead of a slasher throwback we get a film in which zombie infection turns out to be some kind of bad drug trip?!? In spite of being written, produced and directed by a couple of supposedly talented Spanish horror experts, Alberto Marini and Jaume Balagueró, "Summer Camp" comes across as very amateurish. There isn't any character development (one of the girls has personal problems but they never get clarified), the timings are all wrong (all horrendous stuff takes place before the children arrive at camp) and of all the possible clichés there's hinted at in the script (pollen, rabies, water, mushrooms…) they chose the most dreadful one as cause of the infection. I can easily imagine that, during the development process of the film, the main idea that every character in the story gets his/her turn to be the murdering maniac as well as the terrified victim must have sounded very refreshing and original, but outcome is merely just idiotic and far-fetched. The gore and make-up effects are quite disappointing as well, and the only thing I'm remotely enthusiast about is the acting job of the young protagonists, particularly the naturally beautiful actresses Maiara Walsh and Jocelin Donahue.