The movie opens with a generic scene of a young couple running out of gas in the middle of the woods. The man gets out, leaving his wife/girlfriend in the car and walks up the road to get gas. After walking a few feet he runs into a hockey masked man wielding a chainsaw. The killer revs the chainsaw (and the camera makes a close up shot of the chainsaw and the blade doesn't even move as the killer revs the tool) and chases the man down. The scene ends without even the hint of blood.
We then cut to a different car during the daytime. We soon learn that it is a group of teenagers who are on their way to work as camp counselors. They're arriving a few days early to help prepare the camp to reopen for the summer. (Does this sound familiar yet?) As the teens arrive they make vague references to some sort of camp boogeyman that supposedly stalks the surrounding woods. We get little to no information about the camp's past or about this supposed boogeyman. Instead we get a bunch of boring exposition that is poorly written and poorly acted. The story gets quickly convoluted in a mess of poorly contrived back stories for each character (supposedly setting up motive for each person). But mostly it is just flat talk with no real substance and adds very little to the film.
These conversations made me think the filmmakers were trying to make "realistic" and "relatable" characters for their story. But they just tack on these serious, real world issues to these flat, poorly developed characters. It seems disrespectful to the reality of such issues and unfitting for the slasher genre in general. It only shows, even more, how poorly written this film is.
Well, after finally hearing the camp fire tale we start getting more murder scenes. But they don't come without more bad acting and dialogue in between. It was almost as if the filmmakers were trying to fill up the script with enough time to actually call this a "feature film." Every murder scene is bland and usually lacks any creativity or omph you would get from a Friday the 13th movie. Someone gets shot with an arrow, someone else gets stabbed with a knife, it is all generic and all takes place off-screen. It is possible to have a bloodless horror film still be frightening and well-made. (Halloween anyone?) But without decent writing, acting, or cinematography the only thing a horror movie has left is it's gore/killings. Well, this movie fails on all fronts.
The final act of this film was the worst of the entire movie. At times I wondered if I was watching a Agatha Christie knockoff. There were pointless flashbacks to murder scenes that just felt awkward and then there was probably 4 or 5 "twist" endings. These twist moments don't work well and don't play well in the overall plot. Remember all that boring exposition at the beginning? Oh yeah, that was so the filmmakers could feasibly throw in these twists without blatantly fibbing.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 6
Language: 3
Gore Factor: 2
Sex Factor: 1
Scare Factor: 0
Fun Factor: 0
Overall Rating: 1