DeskPop Entertainment released their new horror film “Camp Pleasant Lake” straight to video on demand March 27. Written and directed by Thomas Walton, the indie slasher is already coming out with some very negative reviews.
“Camp Pleasant Lake” is a 1980s inspired slasher movie. It follows the story of a couple who open a horror camp on an abandoned camp property where a young girl, Echo Meadows, went missing and her parents were murdered 20 years before. Brutal slashings begin to take the place of the scheduled simulated horror.
The two main characters, Echo Meadows (Kelly Lynn Reiter) and Jasper Meadows (Jonathan Lipnicki), are my favorite characters in the movie, but that isn’t saying much. Most of their characters are revealed through flashbacks, and their childhood selves have the best acting in the movie, making them the most tolerable. Their acting feels pretty genuine for the most part and they have a little bit of personality — they’re damaged kids in a dysfunctional family. And they are disappointingly one of the best parts of the movie.
One of the most noticeable aspects of the movie are the dry, personality-lacking side characters. All of the side characters have terribly forced acting. Every character interaction feels incredibly fake, including every death scene — making those scenes very anticlimactic. None of the side characters are given more than one personality trait, most of which are just bad stereotypes; such as the ‘creepy camp director’ and ‘shallow social media influencer.’
The killer of the movie is one of my favorite elements of the film. The killer has a well made mask that is beautifully painted. It has many tattered details that give it a wonderful aged look and creepy appearance. All the details included in the mask also have a history behind them that end up playing an important role in the movie, which I adored. The mask alone shows so much craftsmanship. The killer’s movements are very well executed as well. The killer has an expressive crawl that is used multiple times throughout the film and is extremely menacing and unsettling. They also have many taunting movements and actions while they stalk and hunt the other characters like prey, which come off as genuinely intimidating. These movements create a unique personality for the killer that makes them stand out and be the most memorable aspect of the film.
The plot of the movie is a formulaic ‘whodunnit’ trope. It follows a similar plot to “Friday the 13th,” which has been done hundreds of times before. It is not an original idea. It copies every other slasher movie without adding something new to the genre, which makes most of the movie very uninteresting.
The cinematography is dreadful and the film is quite grainy. It looks like it was shot on a low quality camera. In addition, there is no art to the cinematography. There’s no depth to any of the shots, no special coloring, filters or signs of composition. The movie doesn’t use any elements of cinematography, — simply taping events on camera.
The soundtrack is underwhelming. The film has an original score composed by Reuven Herman — however, it sounds like royalty free stock music. There are no unique aspects to the songs. They barely fit the scenes that they’re in. The soundtrack comes across as a half-finished, disappointing mess.
Despite its well designed killer and its handful of decent characters, I majorly disliked the film. The majority of the characters were insufferable, there was next to no effort put into the quality and there is almost nothing to distinguish it from any other slasher movie. This movie not only had no budget, but no care, and it shows.
“Camp Pleasant Lake”: ★☆☆☆☆
