Camp Daze

OK, so I'm bias. I had the opportunity to work on this film and mostly I can say it was a great deal of fun and a lot of long days. I realize it was not a greatly made movie, but I'd like to see someone do better on such a low budget with such a tight shooting schedule. This movie was shot in Maine over the course of about a week and a half. Every person on crew got about 4-6 hours of sleep due to the extended shooting schedule. Of the equipment it was not the best, lots of clamp lamps, simple rigs, etc. But the cameras and sound equipment were better than most used in independent production. The people involved were a blast!!! Some of the most fun I have ever had was working on this movie. The death scenes were a blast to see setup, I even got to be in one, as one of the stoners (the blonde one)who gets impaled which shotgunning a joint. Most of the crew, at least it's true when it came to me, got paid very little to nothing. And for me, having virtually no film experience it was a great learning experience. I would like to get into acting/filming and anything at all that you can have on a reel is better than nothing. Oh, and Camp Slaughter (Camp Daze) won Best Feature at the Indy Film Festival, so some of the horrible opinions of this movie that can be found here should be ignored by anyone interested in checking this film out.

I had to give this movie 4 out of 10 because its not total crap as many are saying. There are some very good things here, but unfortunately its lost under a lot of %$#@! It has a promising start that is a homage to the original 'Friday the 13th'. Two lovers wander into the woods for some love. The acting and shooting here is decent. Hurt by cheesy scripting, the performers at least seem to be trying. Not really scary, but old school horror fans will smile at this bit. However, from here it is all downhill.

As we get into the film, it gets marred with a convoluted plot about time travel, which probably sounded good on paper, but doesn't come off well on screen. The acting takes a nose dive, as does the scripting. In fact most of the leads in this movie are terrible actors that look like gay porn stars. The supporting stars seem to be much better overall.The crazy fat girl seems to have the most talent of the bunch. The special effects are pretty bad and the score is awful.

You can see hints of a good film in here, and its really a shame. I know horror doesn't have to have Al Pacino, but if they casted for talent before model 'stud' looks and did another draft on the script they may have had something here.

I will say that unlike most comments, I liked the look of this movie. The time warp thing should have been used more. After it was introduced, they never really done anything else with it.The gore was pretty lame. Every kill was almost the same. Maybe a little cherry pie filling coming out of the mouth. The score was pretty nice. The composer did a great job with the 80's themed music and the use of strings, which really captured the sound of the 80's slasher. I agree with the other comments with the over use of close ups. It's like they had a camera mounted Mic and were trying to stay in close enough range for the best audio. I think these filmmakers have some talent, I think they just need to concentrate more on good audio, and developing a solid plot.

I attended the Boston screening of Camp Daze. I have recently joined the dark side with other horror genre fans over the past few years. This movie not only surpassed my expectations in terms of gore and blood, it adds humor (with shocking dialogue) to a clever and entertaining story. Jen's delivery of vulgar comments and the exaggerated 80's apparel (especially Ivan's short shorts and belly shirt) will make your mouths drop in shock and laughter. Despite its modern feel, Camp Daze pays its dues to 80s slasher film with its own unique twists and deaths. Even the soundtrack suits the movie's 80s feel of suspense.

This was definitely a low budget flick and it showed. There was definite problems with the audio track and in a special feature about the special effects you could see how simplistic the effects actually were. I liked the plot but the script and the acting could have been better. some of the campers were kinda cheesy and there was more profanity than I care for. I would like to point out one mistake they made with one time related reference. The visitors to the camp kept referring to Jason from Friday the 13th but the campers didn't know who Jason was. They should have, Though. Friday the 13th came out in 1980 and the campers were stuck in August 1981. Despite how my comments may sound I enjoyed the film and its problems were nothing that a larger budget wouldn't of fixed.