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[BD Review] ‘Camp Dread’ Blows Its Fun Premise

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Here’s a cool little flick that takes an interesting approach to the camp slasher but tanks in the end. Harrison Smith’s Camp Dread has a solid premise backed up by wickedly menacing performance from the great Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight). The rest of the characters are really weak, sadly, which drags the film way down for the bulk of its running time.

Eric Roberts stars as Julian Barrett, the director of the cult “Summer Camp” trilogy from the ’80s. His career took a dive in the toilet when word of his negligence in regards to his cast’s safety got out, which led to him being blacklisted by the studios. To resurrect his career, he stages an elaborate reality game show hoax. Under the guise of a rehabilitation program, 10 troubled kids are brought to the summer camp where Barrett’s trilogy was filmed. Cameras are set up all over the place (including inside their private cabins) and if every single kid makes it through the challenges, a million dollars will be rewarded.

Barrett is full of shit, however. He’s really filming this experiment as a “Summer Camp” remake or reboot or whatever. While the 10 campers go for each other’s throats, endure “challenges,” and rub lotions on their ultra fit bodies, Barrett sneers in his control room as visions of dollar signs dance in his head. Eric Roberts (who recently had a terrific one-episode stint on Justified) plays such a good bastard. Barrett is a cocky prick and Roberts really has fun with the role. He’s easily the most interesting character in the film to watch. I didn’t root for him or anything, he’s just such a good actor.

The reality show experiment thing goes along swimmingly for a couple days or so. The kids play that American Gladiators q-tip fight game on a dock and get in some volleyball before they start being picked off one by one. None of the kids are all that interesting though, so I didn’t really care. Out of the 10, only two of them have any depth. There’s Adrienne (Nicole Cinaglia), an insular, meek girl who killed her brother after he raped her for a year and this burly guy who left the armed forces after his brother died. Both of their brothers died under entirely different circumstances, so they manage to gravitate towards each other through some cosmic force. Or just because everyone else is getting killed.

The weakest character is the goth girl, who happens to be a huge fan of the “Summer Camp” series. During the scene where a “therapist” (Sleepaway Camp‘s Felissa Rose) reads aloud all the shit the kids did to get in trouble, she’s got nothing on the little miss goth. Smiling, the girl draws attention to her black lipstick, black gloves, black tights, and goes “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” Like everyone who dresses like an asshole is inherently trouble or something. Maybe we’re supposed to figure she got busted for shoplifting some studded wristbands from Hot Topic, I dunno.

Camp Dread goes through the beats of a typical slasher, but what’s interesting is that Barrett’s true intentions remain cloudy throughout all the impaling and throat gashing. Does this prick expect to sell this as a “Summer Camp” reboot when kids are dying for real on camera? Does he even know they’re really dying? Who put up the million dollar prize money? All this shit keeps you guessing until the final minutes. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the 88 minutes leading up the revelations to be all that interesting or entertaining. Eric Roberts is the only engaging presence, but all of the parts with the kids were flat in tone (I keep saying “kids” but they all look like they’re in their late 20s).

While I dug the premise a lot, Camp Dread blew it on its lousy characters. Roberts is great (as always), but those damn kids were nothing more than stock characters and I didn’t care if they all got killed. Murder the lot of them and serve their guts in the mess hall, it doesn’t make any difference. I think it’s worth checking out as a rental though. It’s an amusing take on the genre, just don’t expect to be blown away or anything and you’ll probably have fun.

Camp Dread hits DVD April 15.

Patrick writes stuff about stuff for Bloody and Collider. His fiction has appeared in ThugLit, Shotgun Honey, Flash Fiction Magazine, and your mother's will. He'll have a ginger ale, thanks.

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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