 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Summer Camp • Year: 2015 • Country: Spain, USA • Director: Alberto Marini • Main cast: Diego Boneta, Jocelin Donahue, Maiara Walsh • Runtime: 81 minutes • Production company: Castelao Pictures, Somnium Films, Filmax Group • TRAILER |
It is hard to think of a theme in the horror genre that you can call original. But, sometimes, the mix of two different topics, like could be zombies and summer camp slashers, might end up in a product that manages to avoid to bore by overusing. Or at least that’s what the creators of Summer Camp might have had in mind.
The start point might sound quite unoriginal. Three american plus one local counsellors have plans to spend quiet vacations in a spanish summer camp, when a strange outbreak start to turn everybody, both animals and humans, into bloodthirsty killing machines. But behind this worn out plot, the film has aces in the hole, so the audience better be ready for a few surprises.
The movie is basicly conducted by the 4 counsellors, played by the not very known actors Diego Boneta, Jocelin Donahue, Maiara Walsh and Andrés Velencoso. Although the forest and the summer camp house are like another character. A location lost in the middle of nowhere, with no phone reception, isolated from all kind of civilization, that could give the creeps to the bravest of the horror goers. An excelent work of photography and set design, indeed.
Summer Camp is the directorial debut of Alberto Marini, who is not a newby in the horror films panorama. Italy born, he has spent most of his career in the spanish horror scene. Frequent collaborator of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, he has been the writer of titles like Romasanta (2004), Mientras duermes (aka Sleep Tight) (2011) or Extinction (2015), and producer of the first 3 [Rec] films. In fact, for some moments, Summer Camp feels like it could be related to the [Rec] universe, being some sort of prequel. Or at least that is the feeling I got. But at the end, there are no evidence to any kind of connection between this film and the successful infectious franchise.
Summer Camp became a tiny hidden jewel when it was shown in several genre international festivals in 2015, such as Film4 FrightFest in the UK, Busan Film Festival in South Korea, Sitges Film Festival in Spain or Fantasy Film Festival in Germany. And although it didn’t have a big presencer in theatres, it became one of the most profitable Video on Demand titles of last year 2016.
For all the reasons mentioned above, I think Summer Camp is a movie worth to watch. It has enough potential to satisfy the horror fans, and it manages to keep the tension and thrills along the whole running time. It won’t change the world, but for sure brings a good dose of entertainment.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2638662
