Camp Twilight (2020)

Directed by Brandon Amelotte [Other horror films: N/A]

Watching this via digital screener prior to it’s release was nice (I do a podcast with a friend on Fight-Evil, and we reviewed it there), and Camp Twilight does have some quality names and a decent level of production behind it, but when all of the gloss is rubbed away, it’s just another slasher with a lack-luster killer and kills that aren’t that memorable.

Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) is nice to see here, and though her character is way too upbeat at times, it reminds me of her role in Sleepaway Camp II, and I can’t complain about that. Steven Chase was decent as one of the few really competent adults there. Tracy Lear was pretty awful, but I think that was sort of the point, and more than anything else, I think she was just there because people wanted a well-endowed woman around.

As for the six younger characters, most everyone did fine. I think the best performance came from Hayleigh Hopkins, and I wish that we had seen more of her than we did. Certainly Dondre Tuck (who was one of the few actual decent guys here) and Harris Sebastian were great too, as I hated Sebastian’s character with a passion, and it takes a decent performance to do that. I thought Cougar MacDowall was reasonably scummy, and both Brooklyn Haley and Angela Gluchowski add something special too.

The thing is, as decent as most of the cast is in Camp Twilight, the story itself is generally played out. I like seeing a mysterious killer going around and killing kids as much as the next man, but few of the kills here were really worth it (there was a solid ax-throwing kill, but even that seemed tame to me), and the little twists they threw in didn’t spice things up enough (and in fact, I thought one of the twists was both unnecessary and really irrelevant to the story). Also, the last 15 minutes was a cliché “This is why I committed these murders” speech to the last survivors, which also felt sorta ridiculous.

What you have with Camp Twilight is what you have with a lot of modern-day slasher films, being a competently-made movie with pretty solid production value, some attractive women, and an okay (but played out) story. Even the ending they tacked on struck me as pointless. It’s a fine movie to rent, but I don’t think it’s going to be a new-age classic despite some of the names involved.

6/10

This is one of the films covered on Fight Evil’s podcast. If you’re curious as to what Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I thought about this one, listen below.