Motor Home Massacre

When you go into a film like "Motor Home Massacre", you expect to see either: 1) A surprisingly well crafted film that actually delivers some genuine suspense, even if it is low budget. (Extremely unlikely.) or 2) A movie that makes you burst out in peals of laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

What we have here is a case of the second option. Basically, the story concerns a group of kids who are portrayed in the crudest possible stereotypes that you'd expect in a "dead teenager" film. They go camping, and have a fateful encounter with a machete wielding maniac.

That's it, pretty much. The villain doesn't even use a chainsaw for the killings, which was odd, being that there's a bloody chainsaw on the cover of the DVD. One of those little things that makes you go "Hmmm..." The direction, atmosphere, and acting in this film ranks somewhere in between a softcore porn film you'd see on Cinemax at two in the morning, and a film class project made by high school students.

That's not to say that there wasn't anything about "Motor Home Massacre" that I didn't enjoy. One memorable part involving a gas station cashier and the soon-to-be machete meat had me in stitches. "What kind of troubles?" "DEAD PEOPLE TROUBLES." Whoever wrote the script for this film was a mad genius.

I expected nothing from this film other than a way to help me recover from my three-day 35th birthday celebrating, a day I spent watching films in bed. I expected even less from it once that horrible "I'm a trucker" main titles song was played. The Roger character was the worst of the bunch for he was so over-the-top obnoxious and revolting that he'd not be anyone's polar-opposite friend at their age. Therefore, the very set up that these "types" (wigger, sexist pig, dweeb) would be still be friends as adults is ridiculous.

You have to understand that this is actually a comedy, which became evident once the dweeb fantasizes that when the girl in bed slowly, teasingly lowers the bed sheet, she reveals not her breasts but a report card featuring two A+'s.

However, it's a very trying film to sit through. I think I stopped it at one point to check e-mail. Even for low-budget, there are scenes which are just so stupid they're not even bad-enjoyable. Case in point: the convenience store scene. This seemed written by two 14-year-olds. Dreadful. And note how the owner tells them how there was a murder "last night" and concludes his tale by stating that "they never found out who did it." Ah, speed investigations...

In fact, I'd be surprised if the script HADn't been written by various persons for there seemed to be different styles of writing. In contrast, a tied-up-in-bed scene produces an amusing conversation during the fishing-out of a pocket knife from the male's pants.

Justin Geer, who played the dweeb, was fun to watch, for he actually can act. Tanya Fraser, the black girl whom is twice befriended, was good, and game even when being referred to as "tar baby." She has a very funny scene later in the film involving one of the blondes and a frying pan.

The film gets better, in its bad-self way, as it nears its conclusion for it becomes simply ludicrous and over-the-top. (If one wishes to be let in to the RV before it drives away, perhaps going to the FRONT of the RV where, you know, the WINDSHIELD is, is better than pounding on the back of it.) It's played as a joke by the remaining cast, and if you're drinking and/or toking with friends, you'll chuckle. This is simply a film one cannot take seriously as horror or as a full-on comedy, but I find myself liking it, in a limited way. I'd watch it again with friends on "Bad Movie Night," but skip past certain scenes.

This film could have been a return to form for the slasher genre. With a plot similar to so many of the 80's slasher gems, I had at least some hope for this film when I popped it into my DVD player. Sadly, those hopes quickly vanished as I began to watch amateur,sloppy film-making at it's worst. And that is really too bad, because with a better director and production team, and certainly better actors, this film could have been decent. Hell, I could have made this a better film with everything I noticed that was wrong.

The plot is simple slasher cliché: a group of friends take a motorhome trip for the weekend, only to come upon a campsite, where the night before a couple was brutally butchered. They are told since they *may* be suspects, that they need to stay put. It isn't long before they begin getting picked off one by one by a ridiculous looking masked killer. The filmmakers seem confused about what kind of film they really want to be making: a comedy? a slasher film? a drama? This leads to many scenes that could have and should have been suspenseful becoming a laughable mess. Suspense is lacking throughout the entire film, particularly in key scenes when suspense should have been crucial. The setting of the film is actually pretty creepy, and a better director would have capitalized on that. Instead, most of the film's action takes place in well-lit areas that seem to be right off the side of the road. There are virtually NO stalk sequences, which should be a staple to any good slasher flick. There are also some pretty large plot holes and goofs...the most obvious being the disappearing and reappearing vest and tie combo of the main male lead. From reading other reviews here, I am glad to know I am not the only one that noticed that. Which leads me to wonder if the director and editor even watched the film after they shot it. After all, if I and others could spot this on our first viewing, it should have been painfully obvious to the crew. And the scene at the end where this same male lead gets attacked and hacked on the chest and arms about 2 dozen times with a large machete, only to appear with just a few spots of blood on his arms is just TOO ridiculous to ignore.

The acting is pretty bad, from every one involved. Laughably bad, at some points.

It's really sad that this film COULD have been a lot better. With a name like "Motor Home Massacre," slasher fans should at least expect to see a decent movie. And what takes place in this film is hardly a massacre.........Please don't waste time or money on this unless you want to witness how NOT to make a slasher film. A huge disappointment. 2 out of 10

The plot of "Motor Home Massacre" is pretty simple:a group of seven young friends climb aboard a vintage RV headed for a fun-filled weekend in the woods called Black Creek Park until they encounter a night-vision goggled,machete-wielding psychopath.I must admit that I did laugh few times during the film.However the acting is horrid,the story itself is silly and routine and the gore effects are extremely weak.The characters are some of the dumbest in the horror genre history.Thankfully the last twenty minutes are a constant flood of plot twists and laughs.Unfortunately there are far too many scenes of the characters just sitting around and endlessly delivering stupid one-liners,so there's absolutely no suspense conjured up and sustained.The murder sequences are ineptly handled and there's not a single valid scare to be found anywhere.4 out of 10.

This is why people think horror films are such a joke, this one proves it all. It's stupid characters, dumb bimbo women and stupid gore and a killer who right away is figured out. I swear this film had Lion's Gate behind it. I can't believe what is on the mind of some writers and directors. Could we once get back to what makes a horror film superb? Good character development, good story line, suspense, that too hard? I didn't have sympathy towards the victims, I cheered they were killed off. I can't believe some horror films direct to DVD or video. Take time writing out characters and brainstorm ideas. Even the old 80's were better than this one.