CAMP PLEASANT LAKE (2024)

New On Demand from DeskPop Entertainment!
Directed/Written by Thomas Walton.
Starring Jonathan Lipnicki, Michael Pare, Bonnie Aarons, Robert LaSardo, Andrew Divoff, Kelly Lynn Reiter, Mike Ferguson, Devanny Pinn, Elley Ringo, Adam Treasure, Anne-Marie Olsen, Leila Almas Rose, James Di Giacomo
Check out the trailer here!!

Long after two children go missing at Camp Echo Lake, a profiteer (Michael Pare) reopens the camp 20 years later as a horror weekend experience. But when a murderer actually arrives at the camp, it’s difficult to distinguish between the act and bloody reality.

CAMP PLEASANT LAKE is…OK. Well, it’s barely that, I guess. It’s an extremely low budget take on a concept seen many times before; where someone is being killed and the rest of the group believe it to be an act. Usually this concept is used in horror movies in a “ Boy that Cried Wolf” scenario, where a jokester like Shelly from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 acts like he’s been killed and then when he is really injured, the group believes it to be another gag. It’s a concept that work for a single bit, but when extended to an entire film, the concept that people can’t distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake is stretched beyond its limits. Unfortunately, stretching that concept is exactly what CAMP PLEASANT LAKE does. Sure, in one instance the body isn’t recovered, and another Micharl Pare decides that for the sake of making money in the camp, he wants the show to go on. But for the most part, it stretches the illusion that it is all a show past the point of believability, which makes all of the cast look like morons for not picking up the obvious clues that there is a killer amongst them.

But CAMP PLEASANT LAKE isn’t without merit. There is some decent gore. And while the mystery of who the killer is seems pretty obvious from the first time the actor appears on screen, the masked killer does go full-Jason on the campers decently. I guess, if you want to see a bunch of horror convention actors you might recognize like Michael Pare, Robert Lasardo, Andrew Divoff, and Devanny Pinn, meet their maker in bloody ways, I guess there’s a thrill in that. The true standout, in more of a trainwreck style, is Johnathan Lipnicki. You know, the kid from JERRY MCGUIRE? He is playing a complete spaz and delivers an over the top, screeching, and frantic performance that sort of has to be seen to be believed. I don’t know if he’s having a real mental break or just that good of an actor, but he brings something…special to his performance.

One of the more annoying aspects of CAMP PLEASANT LAKE is that the victims are online critics, as this grand opening is only for the press, so in a not-so-subtle way, this is another film that serves as catharsis for creatives who have animosity towards those who dare criticize their work. So the critics are cast in a cartoonish and unlikable manner–rude, demanding, socially ignorant, and simply abhorrent in every way. While there are bad apples, most of this group is simply made up of normal people who feel passionately about what they are criticizing. And while making fun of them and seeing them murdered in your movie might cause the director to chuckle a bit, it doesn’t make the story or the buffonish takes characters worth investing in, which should be a bigger priority for a film that scoring on the critics.

The main problem with CAMP PLEASANT LAKE is that it doesn’t know if it wants to be a spoof of slasher films or the real thing. Some of the actors feel like they really want to sell this as a straightforward mystery slasher thriller. Then again, some are obviously simply aping for the camera. And then you have Michael Pare who delivers his usual non-plussed performance as if he receives a partial check every time his various scenes ends. And in the world of slasher films, you have to have a pretty strong concept to stand out as a spoof as the concept has been spoofed since the 80’s with STUDENT BODIES, WHACKO, and PANDEMONIUM. Either that, or make a serious slasher that tries to scare, thrills and even nauseate the audience. Sadly, CAMP PLEASANT LAKE is neither.