Camp Blood 666 Part 2: Exorcism of the Clown

Producer David Sterling is back with another addition to his cult franchise Camp Blood. Camp Blood 666 Part 2: Exorcism of the Clown is a worthy sequel to the original, and a fun addition to the Camp Blood universe. Director Will Collazo Jr. And writer Julie Anne Prescott did a great job of capturing the spirit of the previous Camp Blood movies.

Lots of kills in this installment, with a fun mix of practical and VFX effects. Marvin Maddicks Jr. Did an excellent job scoring the movie, he sets the tone perfectly. There are too many great performances to mention them all by name here, but I was happy to see indie stalwarts Tim Hatch and Jamie Morgan, as well as up and comers David Perry and Heather Harlow, who are quickly becoming indie horror staples, in significant roles. I also loved seeing Clint Beaver in his recurring role as a newscaster. If an indie movie has a newscaster and it's not Clint Beaver, what are they even doing? If you're a fan of indie horror, you're going to see a lot of familiar faces in Camp Blood 666 Part 2.

Clocking in at a brisk 71 minute runtime, the movie doesn't drag. It's well paced and the perfect length for an indie horror. You won't be looking at your watch during this one.

I had a lot of fun with this movie and I'm excited to see Will and Julie's next movie, Amityville Turkey Day, a sequel to Amityville Thanksgiving.

I am a fan of the Camp Blood Franchise and I can say that with the series going into the double digits (if you count spinoffs like this) it surprisingly has more hits than misses....sadly this falls into the miss category.

This is a film that kind of follows up on the original Camp Blood 666 with a possessed mask and some supernatural elements thrown in. In this film we seen Camp Blood is under new management and of course the killer clown cult has returned so you know you are going to have some Clown Killing action.

The plot is not a hard one to do when it comes to killer clown slasher films. You have a camp with people in it and you have them all get killed. I can say that the worst thing about this for me is that I was bored. Though I would not put this film up to the level of Camp Blood 4 and 5 (still by far the worst in the franchise) I will say that this is right in there with Camp Blood 3: First Slaughter where I kind of felt there wasn't much that caught my attention for long.

The acting in this was fair when it comes to microbudget films ($10,000 budget). I do feel that many of these actors have done much better work than was seen here. I will point out a few people that made brief appearances that I enjoyed seeing and wanted to bring to light. Kyle Rappaport had a bit at the end that was very fun and I enjoyed looking for Tim Hatch,. Cody Tudor, John Ward and Forrest Bennett in the scenes which gave me something to do during the film's run time.

The effects were kind of poor if you compare it to some of the newer Sterling Run (3-8) but especially fall short of the original Sykes trilogy. I feel that anyone directing this series should sit down and watch the Sykes Trilogy and get back to basics or at least take some inspiration from the Axegrinder series that feels much more like a successor to those films than this did. In the end the clown mask is the best part of this film for me.

The Music was for the most part forgettable. It did what it needed to do and didn't step on any feet.

I feel that the camp blood series has been a roller coaster over the years with the highs being in the original Sykes trilogy then the lows of the new #3 through the lowest point of part 5 to the newer highs of the classic 666. The series had been mostly doing fair to good since that time, finding its stride and moving forward. With this movie I feel that new lows are coming and this brings concern with Director Will Colazo Jr. Taking the wheel for the 9th installment.

Still, in the end this is a franchise that will rise again in time so it is well worth sticking by and seeing where it goes next.

Why are there so many of these films in the franchise? Why is this even a franchise?

The Script was really bad. I mean really bad. It looks like it was shot on a handycam from the 90s. Lighting appears to be from worklights from HOME DEPOT. I'm guessing most of the "actors" paid to be in the movie. Also, how do you run a crowdfunder, have people to pay to be on your movie...only to cut them out and put them on the "rough cut"? This seems to be very shady and i would say this could severely hinder future projects with this group.

When you watch a micro budget film you can overlook certain things if the movie has something good to offer. This does not have anything of value to offer.

1 severed head out of 5.

I got this film from Makeflix on Blu-Ray. Included on the Blu-ray that's worth mentioning is a commentary track that is not synced with what the commentators are viewing at all. What's on screen for the viewer is about 5 seconds behind what the commentators are commenting on. Is this a nitpick? Yes, but it's distracting when you realize they're talking about stuff that hasn't happened yet on your end.

Also included on the Blu-ray is an alternate version of the film, a Rough Cut. I kind of wish they had a DVD version of the film instead of the Blu-ray, just so I could rip the film and the Rough Cut onto my PC. Why? Because the amateur editor that I am craves to trim this film, rearrange scenes, and simultaneously include some of the scenes that were deleted and left in the Rough Cut. I don't think I could do the film any justice, but I feel like I should at least give it a shot.

Before I dive into this film anymore than I already have, I want to make it clear that despite my gripes with the film, this is one of the better made entries of the franchise. It's sad for me to say that, considering it's still nowhere near the levels of entertainingly bad of the original two films and Within The Woods. It's unique that this franchise's entries are all bad, but almost all of them are bad for unique different reasons.

This film does not tediously try to cross the 60 minute mark like in 3, 4, 5, 666 or Ghost of Camp Blood, with numerous padding techniques and flashbacks to previous films, or flashbacks to its own scenes earlier in the film. Albeit it does have some flashbacks to 666 and 7, but not excessively like other films would.

It's not using someone's garage as a cabin like in 7. Nor is it using someone's house as a Rehabilitation Center like in Children of Camp Blood. Nor is it using a Community College building as a TV Studio like in Ghost of Camp Blood. This film had access to actual cabins at an actual campground, and what appears to be a real bar, albeit a closed real bar. If this were other films, the bar would just be someone's kitchen, or a bar that they have in their basement or garage.

All of the actors did their best with the material that they were given, although at times it seems like some of them were either camera shy or didn't fully grasp what was supposed to be happening in a scene; maybe they weren't given proper direction to fully understand how to perform certain sequences.

Lead Actor David Perry seemed to be the most camera shy at the beginning, but you can see throughout he becomes more comfortable on camera, and has quite a few good moments with actors Jamie Morgan and Tim Hatch. These three together not only bring good performances, but also help enhance the performances of one another.

Best performances, outside of those three, have to go to Erica Dyer, Jen Elyse Feldman, and the film's writer Julie Anne Prescott. Especially with Erica Dyer's yelling during one scene, although it clearly caused the audio in that scene to clip and distort briefly.

The film's main issue is similar to the issues I have with a Friday the 13th fan film titled Vengeance. Both films have too many characters and too much going on that the plot feels TOO stuffed, the editing feels and IS choppy, and it kills the overall pacing. And above all that, it feels like not enough development was given in certain areas to make the film feel complete.

It took the film 18 minutes to finally introduce the main characters with Stu and his church group. In other films that are feature length or above the 90 minute mark or even close to the 120 minute mark, its not that big of a deal. But we are 53 minutes before the credits come to an end at this point, and the main characters JUST arrived. If some scenes were rearranged, the main characters would arrive a little bit earlier.

It took me two viewings of the film to finally kind of grasp what was happening, the second viewing being the Rough Cut. I still don't even think I grasped what was happening in the film entirely. So much happens in this film with almost 20 characters that once you stop and try piecing everything together, you realize how not so well the story comes together.

**Wrap Up**

The Final Cut of the film is 1 Hour, 11 Minutes, 14 Seconds, with opening logos, opening and closing credits, and a few title cards.

The Rough Cut of the film is 1 Hour, 19 Minutes, 44 Seconds. Just the one Title Card, no opening credits or logos or ending credits.

With this information, you would think that the film just trimmed down a few scenes, and maybe took out a scene or two to remove 8 minutes and 30 seconds of film, but no.

The final cut has about 6 Minutes and 43 Seconds of additional material that was not in the Rough Cut, including the opening logos, opening and closing credits, and title cards. Some of it is videos fans/indiegogo backers sent in to be a part of the film, but other segments that were removed in their place gave context to certain scenes, characters and plot developments.

So overall, this is a film that probably should've been at least 1 Hour 25 or 26 Minutes. Hell, I'd argue it should be even longer to flesh scenes and story out. This film had 15 overall minutes chopped off just to keep the runtime low at just above 1 hour and 11 Minutes.

And because so, as mentioned before, it feels like a film that is choppy, filled with TOO many characters and storylines going on at the same time. It feels like an incomplete film. And that is supposedly the case.

Unless the director misspoke on the commentary track, or unless I'm misremembering, the film was shot over the course of 4 days, and that the completed script was 111 to 112 pages long.

Going by the logic of 1 minute per page, that's 1 Hour 52 Minutes. These people tried to film an almost 2 hour film in the span of 4 days. And I'm going to assume, based on the final cut and the rough cut feeling like scenes are missing from both, they only managed to shoot 3/4ths of the script by the time production ended.

I'm also going to assume, based off of what is mentioned in the commentary, certain scenes were either deleted or not filmed not just because they ran out of time to film it, but because certain actors had to leave the shoot earlier than expected, so they had to film scenes of them being abruptly killed off just to explain why someone like Jeff who barely had any development or lines even is now missing.

Yet despite all of this, they had to trim it all down because of runtime concerns? Aren't feature films supposed to be above 80 to 82 minutes to be classified as feature length? Why is 71 minutes the cut off or the average for all of these films in this franchise? I'm sure there were at least a couple of these films that went over that 71 Minute limit.

And yet despite trimming the film down to a mere 1 Hour and 11 Minutes, some of the stuff they left in felt like it needed to be removed while other stuff they removed felt like they needed to be placed back in. And overall, the film lacks context in certain parts as to what exactly is happening.

Is it the worst film ever made? No, I'd say the worst FILM is still A Haunting on Gabriel Street. Is it the worst Camp Blood film? No, that title would go to Camp Blood 3, 4 and 5 collectively; I'm hesitant to even call those FILMS as I type this. Is it the best Camp Blood film? No, the original three films remain at the top of the crap barrel, on the rim, while everything else in this franchise is in the barrel.

Similarly to 7, Ghost and Children, this film tried to tell a story and have it connect to a previous film. But this film is marginally better than 7, Ghost, and Children for having actual locations to shoot at. It's on the surface of the crap in the barrel, just slightly poking out trying to reach the brim to join the original two films and Within the Woods.

Director Will Collazo Jr. And writer Julie Anne Prescott join forces with original producer Dave Sterling to present "Camp Blood 666 Part 2: Exorcism of the Clown." Surprising many, the franchise has evolved from its 2000 origins into a cult classic with numerous spin-offs and sequels. Collazo and Prescott inject their own creativity into the series, elevating its quality and paying homage to the genre. This installment transports viewers into the depths of horror as Camp Blackwood witnesses a new group, led by Pastor Lincoln (Dave Perry) and including Lisa (Jamie Morgan), Bridgette (Heather Harlow), Will (Tim Hatch), and Jeff (Forrest Bennett), unleashing unintended evil during their quest to lay souls to rest. With practical effects dominating over CGI, the film offers a nostalgic horror experience, delivering gore, destruction, and a dose of macabre fun. Collazo's adept direction, combined with a fresh script, breathes new life into the franchise, making it accessible both to devoted fans and newcomers. The absence of CGI amplifies the authenticity of the horror effects, resonating with enthusiasts of the genre.