User reviews

It seems like just another slasher stereotype: a group of young attractive camp Counselors, alone in the woods trying to get to know each other before the kids come. This time around however, a strange outbreak turns anyone exposed into a raging murderer for a small period of time. It eventually wears off, but do to the nature of how it spreads, anyone at anytime can become the slasher and as easily not become the slasher.

It makes for a very suspenseful film not knowing who was going to be the slasher or the victim at any given time, and it was very impressive that they kept this up with so limited resources for 83mins.

It's starts off slow and very corny. The movie is filled with a lot of OMG and WTF moments that are very slasher campy, but as the mystery of the outbreak begins to unravel the camp turns form bad to really good. Summer Camp seems to go for one big punch line instead of a few good kills, which turned into a smart tactic that makes this cleaver film work.

It's the type of Horror film all slasher fans should check out.

You need to see around 10 minutes of this movie to realize it's everything you've seen before 1000 times. All the moves, the reactions, the plot, the actors and so on.

But look what happens if you pass 25 minutes: it gets better! It gets somewhat different, and you start to actually enjoy it. To connect with the characters a little, to feel the tension around, even to start to wonder. Rarely have I seen something that starts out from bottom and ends up nicely indeed.

I will recommend it as I do consider it better than many such productions. It was a pleasant surprise and I'm glad I found this one. You just have to make it through the first 25-30 minutes. But it will all be worth it.

Cheers!

Shot in Spain this starts off reasonably interesting but quickly descends into an hour or so of infected people chasing non-infected people which becomes tiresome & tedious. It's also confusing as the infected become uninfected, then infected again. The ending is reasonably good but it's too little too late. The title sound more like a slasher movie, perhaps it would have been better had it been one instead.

How many more of these ridiculous "shaky camera" thriller and horror movies must we endure...??? Exactly when in Movie making classes were these people taught that shaking the camera all over the place somehow enhances your movie..Well guess what, It doesn't !! It makes it look silly, cheap, nauseating and at the very least nearly impossible for some to even follow what you are even attempting to show on screen...

Personally,, I'm going to start to boycott any movie that their trailer or info shows this pathetic attempt to cover up the fact that they can NOT coordinate even a basic action scene without this ugly practice..

Anyway the story was became all too familiar even with a twist like ending..just mundane, nothing that has not been seen before in zombie horror,,but, again,the filming technique stopped me from following it at close as I do most films..

This is very good bad horror movie and the ending is the best.

It starts off in familiar territory: a small group of young counselors in a remote camp. However, just by reading the movie's summary, you'll already know it's not going to follow the same trajectory as others with this same set-up. The premise borrows heavily from a sub-genre of horror movies such as "28 Days Later" and "The Crazies," where people suddenly suffer from a plague of unknown origin that causes murderous rage (again, part of the brief summary here on IMDb). What it adds is an interesting twist in that the people who are inflicted by this "rage" suddenly snap out of it, and are clueless to what happened while in its grip.

The positive is that multiple people could suddenly go off at any moment; it's not just one person who's suddenly gone insane and the rest get picked off one by one. This adds some tension, but unfortunately the filmmakers seem to only touch on some of the implications of this condition that could elevate the premise from "scary" to "horrific." For instance, the characters all come to realize that they all are infected, and they all cycle in and out of this madness. If the screenplay had been fleshed out enough so that the characters could dwell on the facts that, not only do they not want to kill a friend even in self-defense (especially knowing they'll eventually come back to normal), but there's also now a fear that they themselves might be killed in self defense when they're suddenly in the grip of unstoppable rage.

Instead, the movie careens from one person going crazy (sometimes multiples at the same time) to another, to another, etc. and it becomes tedious. There's no time for character development (although at times the movie adds in nuggets of characters' back-stories which are obviously added for the viewer to feel something for them, but are too sparse to register as anything other than awkward and misplaced), and the constant growling/snarling/attacking starting about 1/3 into the film never ratchets up any tension. By going from 0 to 100 so early and then consistently staying there becomes monotonous and actually reduces the fear factor since it's basically doing the same thing repeatedly.

In addition, it relies way to heavily on the camera shake technique. Not the "found footage" type, but the kind that's meant to convey action, confusion, and chaos (and yes, probably shift attention away from budgetary constraints). That can work well in small doses, but again, when the action starts so early and doesn't stop for an extended period of time, it greatly reduces its effectiveness. The viewer is bombarded with quick-cuts and constant camera-shake which becomes annoying and and pretty much defeats the whole purpose.

I applaud them for an interesting premise, and both the acting and the effects ranged from passable to good. I just think fleshing out the premise and expanding on its implications would have pushed it beyond just another zombie-like "rage plague" movie that many horror fans have seen enough times already.

Summer Camp: The title suggests a slasher film, even the build up points to this with a mysterious knife wielding stranger in the woods and odd new age travellers in the area. Three Americans are hired as counsellors to work with the director at a Spanish camp in an old building. Problems abound as animals come down with a strange illness, turning savage.

Soon humans are also affected and turn violent after vomiting up a dark liquid. This is a fast zombie style illness involving biting and feral behaviour. Some impressive action scenes as the violent ones hunt the uninfected through the building and the forest. Perhaps a little drawn out and the attacks/violence becomes a tad repetitive. Nevertheless it is an effective directorial debut by Alberto Marini who also co-wrote the screenplay. 7/10.

Holy crap, talk about judging a book by its title.

I went into this movie 100% cold. I knew nothing about it other than the title and I thought I knew it all. I hadn't watched a trailer, read a blurb or even seen a poster. What I thought I read into the name was going to be a cheap, independent take on the killer stalking camp counselors subgenre, à la Friday the 13th…a personal favorite of mine: the slasher flick.

Before I go further, it's best you do the same as me. SEE IT before you read anything about it. Go in as cold as I did. Heck, I just now stopped this review and watched the official trailer. Boy! did that ruin a ton of surprises and twists. Not everything, but you know what kind of movie this is and it was fun to learn on your own from the beginning.

Suffice to say, I hesitate to NOT give this a perfect rating. It was absolutely one of the most effective, scary, original, tight and inventive horror movies I've seen in probably a good couple of years. I loved the rules it came up with, the acting was believable and the pacing and continuous flow was near perfect. It didn't settle on just one direction; it kept reinventing itself.

It gives some damn good red herrings in the opening, which I loved and it does enough foreshadowing to enjoy the inevitable scenes, even if they're predictable.

I was shocked about both my experience going in cold and expecting so little as I was when I enjoyed the movie itself. I do like a lot of horror films and 50/50 independent films, but every once in a while an independent horror flick just blows me and my expectations out of the water. Definitely see this movie.

***

Final thoughts: If you're reading this on IMDb, most likely you've seen at very least the poster. Shame. Even that gives too much away. Luckily, I found the perfect, nondescript, albeit official poster to share with my review on Facebook. Hopefully, you'll take my warning (don't read/see anything about this before viewing it whole) and just see it. And have fun. It's Summer Camp, after all. Right?

Four young Americans travel to Europe to work as counselors for a summer camp there but an unseen terror stalks and strikes this group . They are the four followings : Diego Boneta (known for ¨Rock of ages¨) as Will , Jocelin Donahue as Christy , Maiara Walsh as Michelle , and Andrés Velencoso (who replaced Álex González who had to be substituted due to scheduling problems) as Antonio . Before the children arrive at a European summer camp , however , the rage-inducing outbreak begins in the animals , specifically in a raging dog . The group soon discovers that an inexplicable virus is causing fits of rage in both , animal and human alike . One by one are bitten and extending the doomed virus , as the group has to escape from the terrifying plague . Resulting in the biting Andres Velencoso/Antonio who starts the killing outbreak . As the counselors desperately attempting to getaway the illness . However, the camp is in the wilderness , being really under siege and far from the civilization.

This splatter/gory film deals with some American counselors who must deal with the outbreak of a rage-inducing illness , a demonic disease spread rapidly from animal to person , displaying horrifying scenes , screams , action , suspense , a twisted finale and resulting to be pretty entertaining . The thrilling and suspenseful premise turns out to be the following : how are they going to get to safety to getaway from the raging people infected by a creepy plague , having their cars wrecked , phones out , fully isolated and completely besieged by starving killers , Zombie-alike . The horror moments are compactly made , fast moving and well-paced . This ¨Summer camp¨ takes parts of ¨Rec¨ saga , ¨28 days later¨ , ¨28 weeks later¨ and ¨Walking dead¨ series . In Spain was premiered in 2016 -two years after being shot- only in a few theaters in dubbed version , getting a limited success . Most of the film was shot on actual Cataluña wilderness and an old building , though some of the sets had to be recreated at the studio in order to allow space to film and do stunts.

Atmospheric though dark cinematography in ¨Rec¨ style and including a shaky camera by Pablo Rosso. Thrilling and heart-pounding musical score by Arnau Bataller . Decently produced by Jaume Balagueró and his work partners , producers Julio Fernández and Carlos Fernández , the fine artificers of such a big hit as ¨REC¨ , ¨REC 2 , ¨REC 3 Genesis¨ , and ¨Rec 4: Apocalypse (2014)¨ . The motion picture was professionally written and directed by Albert Marini . He is known for his work as head of development , script consultant , story editor , development executive in ¨Julio Fernandez's Fantastic Factory¨, ¨Filmax¨ and specially on a quite a few successes as ¨Dagon¨, ¨Arachnid¨ ,¨Bullying¨ , ¨Kovak box¨, ¨The abandoned¨, ¨Gisaku¨, ¨Fragiles¨ ¨Darkness¨, ¨Beyond Re-animator¨, ¨Nocturna¨ , ¨Sleep tight¨, ¨El Camino¨, the smash hit ¨REC¨, among others .

Remember the eighties? Remember when horror movies set in summer camps featured gruesomely deformed and masked killers – or their deranged mothers – that slaughtered dozens of scantily clad and hormone-overloaded teenagers? Oh, how I miss those days… I don't want to sound too much like a dinosaur, but good slasher movies practically aren't made anymore nowadays and apparently now even the throwback/tribute movies don't even properly qualify as slashers anymore! Based on its title, film poster and brief plot description, I went to the premiere of "Summer Camp" at the Brussels' International Fantastic Film Festival and I was fully energized to watch a homage to 80s slasher flicks, but what I got was actually a zombie/virus- infected people flick instead! Due to the massive oversupply of bad and derivative zombie movies during the past decade and a half, I try to avoid them as much as possible so I'm pretty irked that I got lured to the theater thinking it was a slasher! "Summer Camp" is an American-Spanish co-production and you may take that very literally since it stars American students that spend their summer vacation in Northern Spain to work as English language counselors. With only one day left before the children arrive the conditions are far from optimal: there are tensions between the four camp leaders, the tap water is still cut off, there's a massive amount of pollen in the air, a bunch of freaks set up an improvised drug laboratory in the woods nearby and one of the camp's pet dogs had to put down because of rabies… Then suddenly, the teenagers alternately get struck by a murderous rage that causes their mouth to froth and their eyes to turn black, but – and here's the big surprise – the rage/infection is only temporary and the effects wear off leaving the victim without any recollection of what happened! Seriously, instead of a slasher throwback we get a film in which zombie infection turns out to be some kind of bad drug trip?!? In spite of being written, produced and directed by a couple of supposedly talented Spanish horror experts, Alberto Marini and Jaume Balagueró, "Summer Camp" comes across as very amateurish. There isn't any character development (one of the girls has personal problems but they never get clarified), the timings are all wrong (all horrendous stuff takes place before the children arrive at camp) and of all the possible clichés there's hinted at in the script (pollen, rabies, water, mushrooms…) they chose the most dreadful one as cause of the infection. I can easily imagine that, during the development process of the film, the main idea that every character in the story gets his/her turn to be the murdering maniac as well as the terrified victim must have sounded very refreshing and original, but outcome is merely just idiotic and far-fetched. The gore and make-up effects are quite disappointing as well, and the only thing I'm remotely enthusiast about is the acting job of the young protagonists, particularly the naturally beautiful actresses Maiara Walsh and Jocelin Donahue.

By far some of most poorly written characters I've ever seen. By far the worst was Christy, just selfish and painfully stupid. It's a comedy of errors with gore. Oof, worst movie ever.

I understand that there are a lot of people out there, that either were expecting something different or got annoyed with the characters. Or even kind of hated most of the predictable stuff that happened. So it may be a lot to ask, but if can see this as light horror entertainment (still with pretty vivid special effects), you will be able to enjoy this for what it is and what it aims for.

This never went out there to be an instant classic or a classic at all. No this just wants to entertain and give it's audience some shocks along the way. So yeah the camp is deserted and only 4 people are there to bring it up to speed, but that's how these horror movies work. And if you are in on the joke like the cast, go for it

Seriously, this is one big waste of time.

The whole movie is a neverending roar sound. Like, one hour worth of it. It's boring, tiresome and ridiculous.

Skip it.

This movie is shallow, 10 minutes in and the screaming starts none -stop, couldn't make it to the end though we tried. If we'd paid for this we'd be definitely asking for a refund so I can buy some Hedex to get rid of the headache it gave me. There is no story, no imagination to this so called movie (if you can call it that), very poor show, DON'T WASTE 1HR 30 MINS OF YOUR LIFE, TRUST ME OTHERWISE YOU'LL BE SORRY, Chao.

To me originality in horror is the most important thing, and this film has it in spades. It gives you all the usual enjoyment of a zombie horror but with a great dynamic, which is used to full effect, to make it much more interesting and compelling.

There is something of the Evil Dead about this movie and I would be surprised if the makers weren't heavily influenced by it. The most important thing to note is that it starts off kind of slow and then steadily gains momentum throughout and never loses steam. There is also a good amount of dark humour scattered throughout which I really enjoyed. As for people's issues with shaky cam, I honestly don't get it. I have seen some horrors with terrible camera work that spoils the movie and I didn't even notice anything wrong here.

Overall I was highly impressed by this movie, thinking it was going to be just another generic slasher from the set up and title, but it was much more. There is a chance that this is done on purpose, along with the title, to mislead its audience since it does spend a lot of time on trying to fool you, but in the end it all works and makes the overall effect better, despite seeming trivial at first.

With a title as generic as 'Summer Camp', I was expected this to be a standard zombie horror film. Nothing wrong with that - but the results are a pleasant surprise because director and co-writer Alberto Marini, along with Danielle Schleif have dared to do something different with the formula.

Great locations, occasionally clumsy camerawork - initially I wasn't too keen on the hero Will but he grew on me. But it is the twisting, turning storyline that is the hook. You can't afford to look away. If you do, you'll miss a major twist. In this spoiler-free review, that's all I'm prepared to say. My score is 7 out of 10.

A small group of American teens or near teens stuck in the woods threatened by monsters or things that go bump in the night. Where have we seen this before? Twelve hours later, when you have completed your list...this one is not about monsters or zombies, although the zombie connection is not that dissimilar.

The group have flown to Spain where they are to teach young kids English at a summer camp miles from the nearest town, only the kids haven't arrived yet, so they are currently amusing themselves. No, not like that, shame on you for even thinking it; there is no sex at all in this film, and not much else bar people running around in the dark screaming. One of our heroes is bitten by a rabid dog, and goes crazy. Or was it really the dog? We are given the answer near the end of the film, the dog bite was actually a coincidence. What has really been happening is somebody has been mixing mushrooms with water, as you would do. This has led to an outbreak of stachybotrys, better known as black mould, something that is actually mentioned in the "Bible". In the real world this condition can cause a wide variety of medical problems, especially in the young. Fortunately the effects are temporary, in this film at any rate, which begs the question how many of them will survive till the end? Unfortunately, to find that out, you too will have to survive to the end, which is barely an even money proposition.

Pretty mediocre throughout. Writing's okay, acting's okay, camerawork's okay... everything's just... okay. Except for the last five minutes. If only the rest of the movie was as good. 5/10 (Oh, the girls are hot)