World Ends at Camp Z

When I judge the "quality" of a zombie movie I usually take into account the budget. "Okay, it's not that good, but it was made for just 500.000 dollar so what could you expect?" This weekend I checked out World Ends at Camp Z that only costed 300.000 dollar. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there is bad acting. Yes, there is bad dialogue. And the zombies look very bad too. But I thought a lot of things were done okay.

The story takes place in Canada. Young Dean has lived and worked all his young life on this camping La Tuque. He's not happy to learn that his "home" will be sold to some rich guys. His uncle just couldn't pay the bills anymore. To make matters worse the new owner Aaron, a spoilt kid in his twenties, wants to check out the camping with his friends before purchasing. They start a big party. Now Dean must be their butler before the deal is done. He does have a connection with Vanessa, a young lawyer who must check the paperwork. However, she turns out to be the girlfriend of the owner. Damn! When a friend of the owner gets injured, they must go to town to take him to the hospital. And then the zombies turn up...

What I liked about World Ends at Camp Z was the beautiful locations. The makers used drones to film the camping (which is located near Quebec?) surrounded by trees and water and it looks great.

Also a good point was the fact that one of the heroes is a Native Canadian named Clay. Clay is a father figure to Dean and knows how to deal with the threat when the zombies take over the camp. I think we should see more Native Americans or Canadians in movies, also in "normal" roles.

Lastly, I enjoyed the two leads. Of course Dean and Vanessa don't really get along at the start of the film. But the way they get closer to each other wasn't bad. Overall Vanessa (played by Anne-Carolyne Binette) gives us the best performance.

When the first zombie appears in the movie (after 55 minutes!) the film goes downhill. The action scenes with the undead aren't the best part of the movie but it does have a satisfying ending.

Not brilliant, maybe not even good, but I did like World ends at camp Z.

7/10.

I've actually seen World Ends at Camp Z twice, and it's not as bad as some of the reviews suggest. It's no masterpiece, but I've definitely seen zombie movies of significantly lower quality. While the acting isn't exactly stellar, the story holds up reasonably well, with elements of both drama and horror woven into the plot. There's even a touch of romance added to fine-tune the overall experience.

That said, when working with a low budget in horror filmmaking, there's often a trade-off: should the money go toward the monsters-in this case, the zombies-or everything else? I feel this movie opted for the latter, and that's where it falls short for me. The zombies in World Ends at Camp Z just don't look very convincing. I would have preferred them to at least look cool or scary, but some appear quite underwhelming-almost pathetic.

The film appears to be a Canadian production, set in the French-speaking province of Quebec. It's in English, though, which I found to be a nice twist. Quebec's natural scenery is truly beautiful and adds a unique flavor to the movie, especially since the entire horror unfolds at a camping site.

All in all, I think World Ends at Camp Z deserves a higher rating than it's received.

Plot

During the pandemic, the present camp owner is forced to entertain the new buyer then learns of his evil intentions towards the land. In order to stop the sale he has tricks up his sleeve but a zombie uprising was never one of them.

Cast

Not familiar with anyone involved and nobody stood out.

Verdict

I was alarmed at the low rating before I even pressed play, I've had a lot of instances of this recently and to be fair to the IMDB community there tended to be a reason! But what could it be here? I assumed it was another instance of the spoiled viewers expecting a blockbuster and being frustrated with a low budget effort, that may be partially true.

You see straight away you notice everything looks fine, everything is competent, it develops very slowly but that's okay and I was engaged with the film and the story they were trying to tell. I scratched my head confused at the low rating and then it happened, the first "Action" sequence. You see when the zombie appear (No spoilers here it's a zombie movie!) there are two major problems. First of all the zombies look naff, visually everything in film looks great but the zombies are simply not on the same level so that's a real shame. Second, whenever action occurs they implement a filter that I can only describe as 5fps where everything slows, gets jittery and just looks positively awful.

So I found myself dreading the zombie sequences because they ruined what was otherwise a passable enough film, yes it's slow but it was competent. The rest of the film once everything goes to hell, is cliched, generic and ugly and that's such as shame because I found myself really wanting to like it.

Rants

What were they thinking with that filter/effect? It really is the absolute pits. I'm sure they felt like they had to counter the lack of budget but ironically it made the movie look and feel even more cheap. Night filters are common and dreadful, this right here SO much worse. Without that the zombies still would have looked terrible, but the film would have been a lot more tolerable!

The Good

Surprisingly well made initially Passable cast

The Bad

Zombies are very cheaply made That darn filter!

Very slow burner Falls on too many uninspired cliches.

For a film budget of just over half a million (CA) dollars, Worlds End at Camp Z by Diane Janna is a fine example of what a decent script can get you. This was more than an enjoyable film.

The film itself was a nice mixture of camp, corporate, and living dead apocalypse, with news reports and the corporate jerks adding extra spice to the buildup as you wait eagerly for the living dead to attack Camp La Tuque.

There were many fine performances throughout, Dean Person (Julien), playing the irritated and frustrated camp worker, Anne-Carolyne Binette (Vanessa), the business representative of the potential buyers, and. Michael Czemerys (Aaron), a spoilt and obnoxious rich boy who has come to buy the camp, pushing fake pretence to get the deal done. Not forgetting Osawa Muskwa, AKA. Clay.

So to reiterate, World Ends at Camp Z is a delightful zombie film, a nice addition to the genre, and one that will not disappoint you at any point throughout its ninety minutes.

Its not a big budget movie, but its worth watching on a lazy weekend.

The acting is decent, the cinematography is solid, these story is interesting enough.

It had a pretty low IMDB score, so i wasn't expecting much, and as i suspected it is a lot better than most viewers seemed to rate it.

It was what I've come to expect from Canada based or directed productions, having worked on similar pilot films and commercials.

The ending could have been better, and leaves some obvious questions, but resolves well enough I be able to sleep well.

In essence this is a pandemic or post pandemic made movie, built upon a pandemic gone wrong theme that results in a zombie chow down.

I have no regrets having watched it and included it in my list of "Pretty Good Movies"