Taissa Farmiga plays the daughter of an actress (Malin Akerman) best-known for a cheesy 80s slasher pic called “Camp Bloodbath” (which was set in the then contemporary 1986). Sadly, Akerman died in a car accident a few years back, and now a classmate wants Farmiga to attend a revival showing of “Camp Bloodbath”, which she very reluctantly agrees to. The screening goes horrendously bad, involving a fire, and somehow after she and some friends/classmates make their escape they end up weirdly in the middle of the world of “Camp Bloodbath”! They even come across the character Farmiga’s mother played. Typical culture clash and weirdo meta humour ensues, whilst Farmiga takes the chance to befriend camp counsellor Nancy (Akerman again). Pretty soon, though, they remember that they’re in a horror film and are forced to save not only themselves but help the movie characters evade horrendous death. And hey, maybe since Nancy is essentially Farmiga’s mother, maybe she can get her mother back kinda sorta. Adam DeVine and Angela Trimbur are annoying as other camp counsellors, whilst Farmiga’s friends are played by Alia Shawkat (as the token quirky best friend called ‘Gertie’), Nina Dobrev, Thomas Middleditch (in for Jamie Kennedy, essentially) and Alexander Ludwig.
I’m not sure the world needed another slasher movie parody, even if it’s co-written by the creepy little turd from “Near Dark” and “The River’s Edge”. Sadly, director Todd Strauss-Schulson (the not-bad “A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas”) and screenwriters (and apparently life partners) M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller (the latter being the aforementioned creepy little turd now all grown up) have simply offered up “Scream” done with a “Pleasantville”-like twist, and that’s just not good enough. This film’s best assets are the terrific cinematography by Elie Smolkin (who has worked on a lot of short films), the excellent music score by Gregory James Jenkins (who has mostly worked on shorts), and appealing performances by the somewhat ethereal Taissa Farmiga and a warm and sunny Malin Akerman.
The script is mostly unfunny, far too reminiscent of “Scream”, though there’s some poignancy with Farmiga’s longing for her dead mother, leading to some interesting, if slightly on the nose plot developments. It’s also really cheap and far too PG-13 which for an early 80s slasher wannabe made in 2015, is frankly unforgiveable. There’s not even any nudity. In a film parodying the slasher in a summer camp subgenre. Really? I mean, the first person to bite the dust clearly has the machete glued to his side. It’s not even close to being convincing, and if it was meant to be funny…woof. Also, for a film supposedly set largely in 1986, the references are way off. For instance, one character does a stupid ‘funny’ sexy dance to Warrant’s ‘Cherry Pie’. Any hair metal fan out there knows that Warrant were pretty much the death knell of the hair/glam metal scene and that song came out in 1990. That’s an incredibly sloppy mistake for someone to make at script writing level, let alone to have made it into the finished product. It’s also just an awkward and unfunny piece of acting from Trimbur to be honest. Also, as much as the opening fake trailer is amusing, subsequent clips from the movie-within-a-movie are lame. It’s trying to be bad-funny, which never works. On the plus side, the final gag/twist is absolutely brilliant. All I’ll say about it is that “Halloween” fans might see it coming. I should’ve too, but I didn’t. It’s not enough to save the film, though, nor is the wink to “The Thing” with the title font.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Opening with an amusing 80s horror trailer spoof and culminating in a brilliant and knowing final twist, this is for the most part a dull, uninspired, outdated, and unfunny slasher parody. A couple of the performances are good, but the script has ten terrible ideas for every good one, and although colourful and well-shot, it’s clearly cut-rate. Horribly lacking in exploitation goodness, too. I was really disappointed with this one.
