DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE (2010)

Directed by Shea VanLaningham
Written by Shea VanLaningham
Starring Rito Balducci, Nathan Bottorff, Bryan Brogan, Heather Chilson, Melissa Chirello-Wood, Catherine Flynn, Carissa Lund, Ron Rotondo, Andy Schatner
Find out more about this film here and here!

Filmed on what looks to be digital solely in a forest, DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE is a love letter to slasher in the woods films of old.

Everything that made FRIDAY THE 13th a classic is here. Foreboding townsfolk. A creepy legend. A group of sex and alcohol crazed kids in the woods. A killer with a penchant for axes and bag-head masks. All of this has been seen before, but DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE does a decent job of rehashing it all. Though the acting is strictly amateur hour and the sound fades in and out as if only one microphone worked, and even then only occasionally, DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE delivers on a decent body count and some scenes that actually do instill jumps despite its rough edges. There are quite a few scenes involving the killer stalking the soon-to-be victims in the background a la Michael Meyers that work. The most chill-inducing scenes depict the killer emerging from the expansive darkness in the woods at top speed taking the campers by total surprise. I also dug the brutality of the kills, as this maniac doesn’t just go for one kill shot. He tends to thwack and thwack over and over until the axe blade goes through the body and into the ground beneath.

The film opens with an extended scene of multiple murders occurring at once, deftly playing with the viewers’ sense of pace and time. I loved this opening scene and had the film been as ingenious as intertwining multiple groups of campers being killed across multiple timelines, it would have lived up to its name. As is, DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE is by the book, but adheres to that book with a knowledgeable handling of the genre, hitting every well tread beat.

Check out the trailer here!!