Camp Slaughter (DVD Review)

1 Mar, 2006 By: Brendan Howard

Camp Slaughter

Prebook 3/13/06; Street 4/11/06
Lightning/Visual
Horror
$24.99 DVD
Rated 'R.'
Stars Kyle Lupo, Anika C. McFall, Matt Dallas.

What better way to take jaded 21st-century horror fans back in time to the days of classic strangulation, spearing and decapitations than to send them back in time?

That's what happens in Camp Slaughter to four college-age kids whose highway detour leads them to Camp Hiawatha, where the guys wear cut-off tees and short shorts, the girls wear ribbons in their hair, and the killing is old-school. After a day of merciless murdering at the camp ends for the quaking quartet waking up to the same day starting over, the four learn that the camp-goers have been dying every day since they were killed in 1981 — and that the 21st century kids are the only ones who can help stop it.

After that are a few more nice twists that keep Camp Slaughter as entertaining as it is bloody. The homage to the past doesn't end with the “Friday the 13th” camp atmosphere, but continues with a classic orchestral soundtrack and the best of the bunch — McFall as angry black Angela, cursing her head off and screaming about how the whole thing seems like a 1980s horror movie and everyone's being so stupid.

The box art makes this look like a brand-new Cabin Fever, but horror fans who look past a few low-budget flaws will be glad to find the killing in these cabins is done with arrows, axes and leather straps, not mysterious viruses.