Camp Hell

Perhaps this movie is better described as a psychological thriller, rather than horror.

It details events based on the director's own experience as a teenager. A teen is sent to a church camp that is an odd mix between catholicism and fundamental Christianity (baptist/charismatic). Apparently it's a real sect of Christianity called the People of Hope that I hadn't heard of before.

Having grown up in fundamental Christianity, I recognised a lot of the teachings in this film, and I don't think the director over-exaggerated any of it. There are supernatural events in the film, though those events seem to be the hallucinations of the christians themselves, brought on by their indoctrination.

The film's core point is the guilt and fear that fundamental Christianity puts in people, particularly those who grew up in the church. Everything you do is a sin or allows "the devil" into your life. Whether it be a worldly comic book, or sex before marriage, both are treated equally as bad and there is no excuse. Ironically, there is no grace or real love - it's all about condemnation, suppression, and always trying to be 'holy' (which can never happen since humans are imperfect).

This constant indoctrination by the church leaves many christians full of guilt, fear, and in extreme cases, psychotic.

The film could've been a bit shorter and it does have a bit of an indie feel. I think the audience it will speak to the most is those who have any experience with fundamental Christianity. In that respect, I recommend they watch this film.

Over here it's called camp hell, a perfect title, it was indeed hell to watch, or in the US it was released as camp hope, yes, i hoped it was over. What was this that I just watched, luckily I paid almost nothing for this piece of crap. I thought that you couldn't get worser than the Twilight franchise but it could be done. This is all about not having intercourse or don't masturbate. And don't get me wrong, you won't see any of this. This is for me just a promo for fundamental Christians. Nothing else happens. No horror, no scary parts, no nudity, no nothing except 3 dead pigeons beheaded, man was I afraid. If you are a Christian in real life than you will surely masturbate on this one but for the pagans, as they call it, don't visit camp hell.

i rented this from redbox, and was pretty disappointed in it. i'm a fan of all types of horror movies, but in my opinion, mr. vanbuskirk could have done a lot more to give it some kind of menacing atmosphere...it's like i spent most of the movie waiting for the movie to start, honestly. there were several side stories, none of which were brought to conclusion, or developed enough to be anything more then an addition to a confusing movie. camp hell had some potential, but seems like the director was so intent on trying to fit everything he wanted to do in one movie that he ended up with too much stuff, too little time. i would skip this. at first i thought it was a new genre, Christian horror...after reading an interview with him apparently this was not the case, but it still didn't turn out very well.

Here's a time waster of a film. If you think that you will see another Exorcist movie, forget it. If you think this is a celebration iof religion, forget it.

Father Bruce Davison runs a camp where good Catholics send their kids every summer. This place is mainly to teach about giving into temptation especially those sins of the flesh. But other things too. Imagine confiscating jelly beans. Where's God's commandment aganst them?

The only sin is sitting through this tripe and see a lot of good players waste time and talent.

The acting was okay. The story was interesting until it went absolutely nowhere. It was a road that should have stayed less traveled. The movie is suppose to be based on true events. But what the hell where those events. The story telling is so fragmented and ambiguous, and perhaps would have been better told in say 22 minutes ala Twilight Zone, but the plot is so stretched that the filler dilutes whatever message the movie makers wanted to make. I waited until the last minute to see if this movie would "save" itself, yet alas no. I only sacrificed 90 minutes of time to trite. Oh, and the music, the score, or whatever it was, was just awful. In fact, the music used during the opening credits should have tipped me off to the crap that lied ahead.