The slasher subgenre has always been a relatively diverse one. More often than not, slasher films are able to take an unoriginal plot (killer chops up teens) and give it a slightly original twist. Sleepaway Camp somewhat succeeds at this.
The trailer is a bit misleading, as it portrays the movie as a campy Friday the 13th knockoff. Most of the reviews I read had treated like that, too. But this is far from it. While the location and overall plot of the film is nothing more than a knockoff, the script itself manages to set it apart as an extremely bizarre slasher movie.
There's very little horror to this movie; it plays out more like "Meatballs", but with a death scene every fifteen minutes. In fact, there's almost no suspense either. Instead, we're treated to extensive scenes of the campers playing baseball, pulling pranks, and generally just hanging around. Normally, this would provide ample room for character development, but this time is wasted and used as pointless padding. That of course leads to one-dimensional character whom we care nothing about. And as is typical of slasher movies, the main character isn't given enough time to justify him being the hero; and in this case, there's no real hero at the end of the film, making him all the more pointless.
The makeup effects for the death scenes are decent, though. The deaths themselves, however are lacking in suspense and really predictable. And again, most of the characters that die are the ones who given the least screentime, and therefore we don't care about them. The film editing for the deaths seems a bit off, too. The pacing between shots of the dead guy to the the person who finds them is a bit too jumpy, but that's just me be picky.
(Spoiler Alert!)
The ending, which is really the only memorable part of the movie, is very confusing and poorly explained.
The killer turns out to be Angela, who in turn is revealed to be a man. This seems to have been done just to have a shocking twist-ending, as it's barely hinted at beforehand, and it doesn't explain Angela's motives. Albeit his motivation for killing people is pretty obvious (he kills the people who bully him at camp), but it's never explained why he decided to start killing people in the first place.
Overall, this is a fairly entertaining slasher movie. It's extremely weird, and that's really the only hook to this film. As a whole, it's pretty hackneyed, but if you're in to slasher movies, or just weird movies in general, it's worth looking into.
Enjoyment- 3/5
Quality- 2/5
IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086320/
March 21, 2012
March 18, 2012
Movie Review- The Deadly Spawn
The Deadly Spawn is a very strange movie. It's strange in the fact that it feels like a 50's B-Movie, but it was made in the early 80's. Other than that, there's really nothing to this film. It's just sorta there; it's not horrible, but it certainly isn't good.
The main problem here is, as I said, is that the movie plays out like a 50's B-Movie. The storyline is nothing more than the overused "Aliens land and kill some people" plot that was so popular in the 1950's. I wouldn't have a problem with that, if this were meant to be an homage to the B-Movies of old, but it's not, and so there's no excuse for the plot to be so bland. The dialog is also a bland medium between hilariously terrible and just plain terrible. There's no memorable lines, everything's forgettable. Then again, so is the rest of the movie.
The characters are all very bland, too. They're all one-dimensional, and exist solely to keep the shambling husk of the plot moving. Fortunately, they aren't annoying stereotypes. Unfortunately, there's nothing to these characters other than being eaten by the aliens. And the acting is really poor, too. The character Charles in particular. He's really the only stereotype here, the "weird little kid who likes monster movies too much", but the script makes this stereotype even more bland than it already was. He spends most of the movie completely unfazed by the rampaging aliens. In fact, the first time he sees the aliens, which are eating his parents, he doesn't even bat an eye.
The only good things are about this movie are the special effects. Most of the budget seems to have gone to the alien puppets, and it really shows. This movie was made for about $25K, and for the budget, the effects are really convincing. On the DVD, there's a bit of behind-the-scenes footage that shows how some of the effects were employed, and they're all very clever. But special effects alone couldn't save this movie.
Overall, this is a very boring and cheap movie, with very little cinematic value. It's just so darn dull that it makes you question why someone took the time to grind out this waste of time. And while the effects are interesting, it's nowhere near enough to improve the film's quality. This is definitely a movie to skip.
Enjoyment: 1/5
Quality: 1/5
IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087998/
The main problem here is, as I said, is that the movie plays out like a 50's B-Movie. The storyline is nothing more than the overused "Aliens land and kill some people" plot that was so popular in the 1950's. I wouldn't have a problem with that, if this were meant to be an homage to the B-Movies of old, but it's not, and so there's no excuse for the plot to be so bland. The dialog is also a bland medium between hilariously terrible and just plain terrible. There's no memorable lines, everything's forgettable. Then again, so is the rest of the movie.
The characters are all very bland, too. They're all one-dimensional, and exist solely to keep the shambling husk of the plot moving. Fortunately, they aren't annoying stereotypes. Unfortunately, there's nothing to these characters other than being eaten by the aliens. And the acting is really poor, too. The character Charles in particular. He's really the only stereotype here, the "weird little kid who likes monster movies too much", but the script makes this stereotype even more bland than it already was. He spends most of the movie completely unfazed by the rampaging aliens. In fact, the first time he sees the aliens, which are eating his parents, he doesn't even bat an eye.
The only good things are about this movie are the special effects. Most of the budget seems to have gone to the alien puppets, and it really shows. This movie was made for about $25K, and for the budget, the effects are really convincing. On the DVD, there's a bit of behind-the-scenes footage that shows how some of the effects were employed, and they're all very clever. But special effects alone couldn't save this movie.
Overall, this is a very boring and cheap movie, with very little cinematic value. It's just so darn dull that it makes you question why someone took the time to grind out this waste of time. And while the effects are interesting, it's nowhere near enough to improve the film's quality. This is definitely a movie to skip.
Enjoyment: 1/5
Quality: 1/5
IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087998/
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