Summer Camp (2015)

Four American counsellors at a European summer camp must deal with the outbreak of a rage-inducing plague that starts in the animals.

Director:

Alberto Marini

Writers:

Alberto Marini, Danielle Schleif

Stars:

Diego Boneta, Jocelin Donahue, Maiara Walsh

Cast

Credited cast:
Diego Boneta	...	Will
Jocelin Donahue	...	Christy
Maiara Walsh	...	Michelle
Andrés Velencoso	...	Antonio
Àlex Monner	...	Marcos
Xavier Capdet	...	Javier
Vivi Lepori	...	Carmen
Rick Zingale	...	Tattooed Man
Montse Noales	...	Manish Woman
Ainhoa Vázquez	...	Kid Instructor
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marc Padró	...	Hombre salvaje

Storyline

Four young Americans travel to Europe to work as counsellors for a summer camp there. Before the kids arrive, however, a rage-inducing, demonic disease spread rapidly from animal to person, resulting in the counsellors desperately trying to escape the illness. However, the camp is in the wilderness, and with the phones out and cars wrecked, how are they going to get to safety?

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Plot Keywords:

american | summer camp | europe | low budget film | independent horror | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence, terror and language

Details

Country:

Spain USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

10 June 2016 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Campamento del terror

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castelao Pictures, Somnium Films, Filmax Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Spain was released in 2016 -two years after being filmed- only in 18 theaters in dubbed version.

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Quotes

Christy: It's just not what I was expecting. Where are the cabins and canoes?

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Crazy Credits

During the end credits, a woman's voice can be heard. She is reading the news about what happened to the 3 young Americans who were missing.

User Reviews

Interesting Idea, but lacking in execution

It starts off in familiar territory: a small group of young counselors in a remote camp. However, just by reading the movie's summary, you'll already know it's not going to follow the same trajectory as others with this same set-up. The premise borrows heavily from a sub-genre of horror movies such as "28 Days Later" and "The Crazies," where people suddenly suffer from a plague of unknown origin that causes murderous rage (again, part of the brief summary here on IMDb). What it adds is an interesting twist in that the people who are inflicted by this "rage" suddenly snap out of it, and are clueless to what happened while in its grip.

The positive is that multiple people could suddenly go off at any moment; it's not just one person who's suddenly gone insane and the rest get picked off one by one. This adds some tension, but unfortunately the filmmakers seem to only touch on some of the implications of this condition that could elevate the premise from "scary" to "horrific." For instance, the characters all come to realize that they all are infected, and they all cycle in and out of this madness. If the screenplay had been fleshed out enough so that the characters could dwell on the facts that, not only do they not want to kill a friend even in self-defense (especially knowing they'll eventually come back to normal), but there's also now a fear that they themselves might be killed in self defense when they're suddenly in the grip of unstoppable rage.

Instead, the movie careens from one person going crazy (sometimes multiples at the same time) to another, to another, etc. and it becomes tedious. There's no time for character development (although at times the movie adds in nuggets of characters' back-stories which are obviously added for the viewer to feel something for them, but are too sparse to register as anything other than awkward and misplaced), and the constant growling/snarling/attacking starting about 1/3 into the film never ratchets up any tension. By going from 0 to 100 so early and then consistently staying there becomes monotonous and actually reduces the fear factor since it's basically doing the same thing repeatedly.

In addition, it relies way to heavily on the camera shake technique. Not the "found footage" type, but the kind that's meant to convey action, confusion, and chaos (and yes, probably shift attention away from budgetary constraints). That can work well in small doses, but again, when the action starts so early and doesn't stop for an extended period of time, it greatly reduces its effectiveness. The viewer is bombarded with quick-cuts and constant camera-shake which becomes annoying and and pretty much defeats the whole purpose.

I applaud them for an interesting premise, and both the acting and the effects ranged from passable to good. I just think fleshing out the premise and expanding on its implications would have pushed it beyond just another zombie-like "rage plague" movie that many horror fans have seen enough times already.