"Camp Pleasant Lake" (2024)

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s retro slasher Camp Pleasant Lake from Thomas Walton and Deskpop Entertainment.

Synopsis

A couple breathes life into a new camp on an old campsite, connecting them to a chilling past that unravels a 20-year-old mystery involving a missing young girl. As eerie events unfold, they must confront forces tied to a brutal crime.

The Good

Joseph: Writer/director Thomas Walton and his cast and crew completed a feature film, which is no easy task, so a sincere congratulations to all involved for that feat. The practical gore effects look good for the most part, so gorehounds should enjoy those scenes. Viewers who often feel that masked killers don’t get enough backstory might get their wish here (see “The Bad,” also).

Mike: Jonathan Lipnicki, the little kid, from Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little, is fun to watch in an over-the-top turn as one of the campers who may not be quite who seems to be.

I originally had this bit down in the BAD section, but as I typed it up I started to wonder… (and this is more of an observation than anything else, but), there’s a lot of trains featured in establishing shots. If I didn’t know better (and I don’t), I’d almost think the sound of a train made it into the background of an otherwise good take and rather than reshoot, it was easier to just toss some shots of trains in to establish that trains were around. If this was the case, this is a great case of making lemonade out of lemons that other indie filmmakers should take note of. Always keep an eye and an ear out during the editing process as they did here.

As for the other ‘Good’ aspects, well…

The Bad

Joseph: Alas, I have so much to say here, but I’m only going to address a relatively few points, as I don’t like to dwell negatively for too long on movies that don’t work for me, and I have at least two great-to-excellent films to review for the site this week on which I would rather spend my time.

The story: a decent idea — people pay for a horror experience and can’t tell the difference between real kills and pretend ones — is totally lost in execution. It’s obvious from the film’s cold open who is behind the camp murders, and early backstory scenes only further hammer home the point, so when the cliched mask is raised — I’m giving the courtesy of avoiding a spoiler in this sentence — there is absolutely no mystery nor surprise behind it. Viewers who often feel that masked killers don’t get enough backstory might get their wish here, giving further weight to the adage “Be careful what you wish for.”

The acting: I didn’t bother to research whether Camp Pleasant Lake was crowdfunded, but the great majority of performances here certainly feel like “All donors get a line in the movie!” awful — and it felt like practically every one of the cast members got a token line. There is even a mid-credits sequence that feels like it gave donors who couldn’t make it to the shoot the opportunity to appear by Zoom. The number of “actors” with only a single line rivals the number of characters in a lengthy Shakespeare play (By no means take that comment as comparing this film with the quality of Shakespeare plays!). If crowdfunding wasn’t the case, I have no idea why the majority of the cast members give as dreadful performances as they do.

The screenplay: Why do the characters keep calling masks “costumes”? It’s hard to tell if some lines are intentionally bad or just poorly written. How can a nearby explosion happen but people so close as to be within earshot don’t hear it? Why are there constant train shots that mean nothing? When Alfred Hitchcock inserted a train scene, you darn well know it meant something (speaking of “inserting”) (By no means take that comment as comparing this film with the quality of Hitchcock films!). How do victims not die from stabbings and guttings, but a follow-up flat-of-the-boot kick to the face does them in? Why do the owners of the camp allow their counselors to shove campers who paid $10,000 each (an amount as ridiculous as those of professional wrestling storyline “fines” from the 1980s) to be there?

There’s plenty more, but I have already written enough, and I’m afraid of making this section sound like Camp Pleasant Lake is a “so bad, it’s good” movie to some readers. It is not.

Mike: They say that acting can make or break a movie and the proof of this is Camp Pleasant Lake. Not only do a couple of the stars (Paré and Divoff) turn in rather pedestrian performances, everyone else has the acting chops of someone who pledged $100 to a crowdfunding campaign.

The story itself is a bit weird in that the “campers” supposedly paid $10k for their weekend experience, but as soon as the bus pulled into a large mobile home/RV campground I would have been inquiring about a refund. Yes, the campers DO start asking about what their money was spent on, but nothing about the surroundings implied anything worth that amount. With no other activities and people in charge saying things like “Go get ready and meet back here in two hours” it was hard for me to believe anyone would have stuck around. Perhaps a much smaller and more remote location would have worked better.

Throw in some other questionable plot devices and bad dialogue and there’s a lot going on here that makes this feel like a much longer movie than it really is.

The Verdict

Joseph: Regular readers here at The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict likely know that I am a hard sell on modern slasher films, but that I go into each one we review with an open mind. For every rare one that impresses me, there are bad ones — for varying reasons, such as falling into mere pastiche rather than merely paying homage, or for wholly unimaginative approaches, for example — but Camp Pleasant Lake brings things to a whole ‘nother level of bad. It’s so bad that it makes me want to give up altogether on current slashers — which I won’t do, because there are certain to be some good ones headed our way. It’s the kind of movie that horror film fans watch for the first time with a friend who doesn’t like fear fare and has a near-impossible task of trying to get that friend to watch a better film to show why horror can be such a fantastic genre of cinema fare. Don’t make that mistake. I can recommend Camp Pleasant Lake only for viewers who truly love bad movies and for the most ardent of slasher-movie completists.

Mike: The idea for a much better movie lies in-between the cracks and crevices of Camp Pleasant Lake. Yes, there’s nothing new about the plot, but the opening factoid “You cross paths with at least 20 killers in your lifetime and don't even know it” is pretty eerie, whether it’s true or not. Had this played more of a part in the story it could have made things much more interesting. As it stands, the film is mildly entertaining, but is mostly a bit of a slog.

The high point, such as it is, is an unintentionally hilarious performance by Jonathan Lipnicki which steals the show. There’s also some mid-credits stuff to keep an eye out for, so stick around for that.

My bottom line is that this is not really worth a watch, but if you DO decide to see what the Jerry Maguire kid is up to, I suggest going in thinking that this will be a train wreck (Lord knows there are enough of them with screen time). That way, when it’s not as bad as you were expecting you might come out liking this more than I did.