The Overlook: Summer Camp

(imdb.com)

Good horror movies are great and terrific, bad ones mar the genre and mediocre ones often fall to the wayside. But, for many of these average films the ignorance is uncalled for. Horror fans constantly crave new content - perhaps more than any other genre - and for that, it's important to point out films like Summer Camp.

Summer Camp follows a group of four young Americans hired to be counselors at a summer camp in Europe when tainted water turns them on each other in a fits of rage. It stars Diego Boneta (Scream Queens) as Will, Jocelin Donahue (The House of the Devil) and Maiara Walsh (The Starving Games). It's got a somewhat ridiculous premise, pretty disjointed characters and a flimsy plot, but opening title credits that label the characters as 20-somethings and an eventual explanation as to how and why Americans would be hired to work in a manor-turned-summer camp make the film seem in on the joke. Summer Camp works best when it doesn't take itself too seriously.


For Michelle who spends the first half of the film asking about a phone and the second half making a surprising turn as what looks to be a "final girl," the movie seems destined to fall apart. But, a seeming desire to keep the cast alive leads to a surprising turns of events that actually makes a previously mediocre movie, pretty entertaining. The back-and-forth between virility and normalcy are shakily explained and the film does little to clarify every minute detail but it doesn't stop it from rounding out to a bumpy, but fun ride.


The film is also important because it’s an additional piece to modern scream queen Jocelin Donahue's repertoire. For her, the ability to blend into an array of horror roles comes easy. She is the most salvageable part of the film and her continual participation in horror shouldn't be discouraged or overlooked because she is consistently terrific.


Questions like why Michelle is initially blatantly ignored when she says she needs to use a phone or why WIll doesn't need to go to the hospital after being bitten by a dog suspected of rabies are beyond answering and probably the film's most notable failures. The acting is fine even if the characters aren't and there's definitely enough within the film to make it an easy watch. Regardless of it all, nothing is so terrible that the movie is hard to witness - there's plenty of fun jarring attacks and plenty of cheap thrills. Summer Camp is a good movie to pass the time.