Lost Tales from Camp Blood

I thought this little gem was kind of entertaining. It's not telling you what else happened at Crystal Lake. It's more of a What If? tale. And yes, the segments are kind of cliché, but they are definitely in the spirit of Friday the 13th. For those of you who thought it was pointless, guess what? You only watched 7 of about 40 minutes! This is almost an anthology tale where The Killer is relentless in chasing The Lone Survivor. And I've got to say, I've watched lots of fan-made films before, but this one actually had a budget and high production values. The camera alone was probably worth way more than what most fan-made films can contribute. Not to mention believable effects. Some of them were even better than the smeared-on blood effects from the actual sequels. I suggest you watch all 6 chapters in this little saga to get any fulfillment, though. Just watching 1 chapter is like picking up a film cell and trying to suss out the plot.

Lost Tales from Camp Blood: Part 1 (2009)

** (out of 4)

An interesting idea isn't really pulled off to what I'm sure people would be hoping for. This short film appeared on the Friday THE 13TH blu-ray and, from what I've read, was meant to just show "other kills" that happened at Crystal Lake but weren't in any of the movies. This one here has a couple in bed when they hear something outside. Being a horror film, the man goes out to investigate and then it's on. Does the film work? Not really. I think the biggest problem is that there isn't any suspense and this really kills the film. I'm not going to sit here and say that the Friday THE 13TH films were masterpieces of terror but they at least had some nice chase and murder sequences. The two kills here have gore but that's about it. I'm really not sure if the killer here was meant to be Jason since we never get a good look at him but the walk makes me think so.