Camping del terrore

In a camping area, two groups of friends simultaneously arrive to spend some days and practice radical sports. One by one is killed by a Shaman, who has been threatening the area for fifteen years.

"Body Count" is another B-movie sub-product of "Friday 13th", full of naked women and having non-original deaths. Even the soundtrack, when the killer is arriving, recalls the one of Jason. Its greatest attraction is the name of the cult Italian director Ruggero Deodato. However, it is a cheesy and slasher movie, with a silly screenplay, some beautiful breasts and naked bodies, and recommended for fans of this director only. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Contagem de Cadáveres" ("Body Count")

Obs: On 22 June 2008, I saw this movie again.

What a relief to find out that Ruggero Deodato is a fallible human being after all. His teen slasher BODY COUNT is the perfect pill for anyone who might make the mistake of finding him to be maybe more than human. I've read comments from people saying he is a god, a genius, a bastard, and Satan, and my advice to any/all of those who feel that way is to watch this film.

It could have been made by anybody, with only the remarkable supporting cast of Italian cult movie favorites as the selling point: David Hess, Mimsey Farmer, Charles Napier, Ivan Rassimov, John Steiner -- these are heavyweight names, so what are they doing in a disposable, formulaic and ultimately silly teen slasher movie? The answer is making a living, which is exactly what Deodato was doing as well. I would imagine he was under contract to direct a movie that would have to sell and this was what he chose to do. Anyone who has seen any three slasher horror thrillers made since 1981 or so will have a fairly easy time figuring out what is going to happen next, and if like me you've developed a taste for slightly offbeat, lower budgeted examples of the form this will prove to be somewhat more interesting than most.

Besides it's cast the best thing the film has going for it is the use of locations -- one commenter has already identified much of it as Colorado, which may be the case but certain locations will be very, very familiar to anyone who has seen a Spaghetti Western or two. I recognized a waterfall location from THE GRAND DUEL, a field of boulders from DAYS OF VIOLENCE and some patches of woods from WHITE COMANCHE, so it looks like maybe they either filmed part of this in Spain or France in addition to Colorado and edited it all together to look like a seamless shoot.

Who knows. It's wonderful to see an actor like John Steiner with that hollow, unemotional deadpan alongside Ivan Rassimov scowling at a bunch of college nitwits who are about to be chopped to bits. Deodato does deliver some good gore sequences during the butchery and the film is replete with the nudity the genre calls for, but honestly it could have been directed by just about anyone with a feel for shot composition, has none of the crackling immediacy or controversial nature of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and serves as a workmanlike effort by a director who has been hailed as some sort of a demigod or agent of the Devil, depending on your sentiment.

Nope, he's just a man, and as capable as anyone of making a routine, paint by the numbers movie that is of interest because he was the one that made it. How refreshingly stupid!

6/10

This a typical, formulaic, run-of-the-mill slasher movie from the mid-80s by a genre veteran ( Ruggero Deodato) who is known for his gross-out sensational jungle cannibals films ( CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST among others) of the late 70s. So I was expecting an over-the-top gory slasher with lots of body count but what I got is a routine slasher who has some decent moments but fails in delivering the goods in terms of bloodshed except for one or two enjoyable splatter sequences. There is nothing new here and it is rather dull but an interesting cast and the great soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti makes it a bearable ride if you don't expect too much.

I first saw this in the late 80's on a rented vhs. As a kid in the 80s, the creepy vhs cover enticed me into renting this movie without any knowledge about the director. Revisted it recently. The main problem in this flick is the sheer tons of stupidity n the rubber mask.

It does boasts of lots of horror veterans, Mimsy Farmer, John Stiener, Ivan Rassimov, David Hess, Bruce Penhall and Charles Napier.

The best thing going for Body Count is the location which is definitely one of the pulling factors. The mountainous woodlands are a sight to see and have a very alienating feel that tells you that you are never safe, no matter if its daylight or night. The mountain pass, the lake n the woods r serene but creepy cos of the desolation.

Most of the kills happen in broad daylight, which i am a fan of. I hate darkly lit scenes, flickering lights n shaking cam stuff.

When i saw this for the first time in the late 80s, i enjoyed the nudity n found the kills very brutal but didn't noticed the stupidities.

Lemme point out some stupid stuff:

1)A girl is attacked by a fella n later she finds her boyfriend covered in blood but rather than running straight out in the open, she lies down on a bed...

2) A girl witnesses her boyfriend tumble down a mountain but rather checking on him or running to a populated place, she enters an abandoned bathhouse n removes her clothes....

3) The killer manages to convince a dead girl's boyfriend by jus wearing a wig. How the killer got the wig, how the killer assumed that the dead girl's boyfriend wont be able to recognize the difference in the body is beyond me. To top it all, the boyfriend ain't able to differentiate between a man n a woman's body structure.....

4) A doctor is somehow able to tell a story about a murder so fluently as if he witnessed the incident. That too, the doc tells this story to a cop who looks completely lost.....

5) The toy's significance is a big wtf....

6) The husband is aware of the wife's infidelity but he goes on with his life n his wierd obsession with the shaman n traps....

7) As audiences we r never explained how many similar masks r readily available whenever the killer wants to strike n that too outta nowhere..

8) And what's with the growling sound....

I'm a fan of backwoods slasher films such as The Forest and Don't Go In The Woods, so had to see this one. And since it was done by the same director as Cannibal Holocaust I was of course expecting something brutal and bloody. Well, it wasn't that bloody. But it was a fairly decent slasher. The focus is more on atmosphere than anything else, and there are some rather creepy moments especially in the old house in the woods. There are some good death scenes too, such as when one girl is looking in the mirror and suddenly a hand breaks through and kills her. There is quite a high body count (as the title would suggest) but sadly the deaths are just not gory or bloody enough. There's also the mystery of who the killer is...I never saw it coming.

Watch this if you're a fan of backwoods slashers or a general slasher fan, but don't expect anything special.