Memorial Day Weekend 🇺🇸 is here and that means the start to the summer vacation season!…It also means camping, barbecuing, swimming, cabins in the woods, summer camp and maniacs in hockey masks! Halloween isn’t the only time of the year when things go bump in the night, as these 25 fright flicks prove! (…and no, I didn’t forget the cabin set Evil Dead films, they take place in the fall!)
To find the reviews for the films listed below, just type the title in the above right search engine!
A summer marina job is the least of his worries as Ben might have a witch living next door in The Wretched!  Photo: IFC MIDNIGHT
(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)
Flick opens with bloodied camp counselor Sam (The Cabin in the Woods’ Fran Kranz) terrified and hiding out in one of the camp cabins. He calls his good friend and horror movie buff Chuck (Buffy TVS’s Alyson Hannigan) to ask her advice as to how he might survive a killer on the loose right out of a slasher movie. As he starts to relate the ghastly events, Chuck comes to a possible conclusion…”You Might Be The Killer!”
Clever and fun comedy/horror is directed by Brett Simmons from a script by he and Thomas P. Vitale. It takes about a half hour to really click, but when it does, it is not only a fun homage to 80s summer camp horrors, but playfully has a good time messing with the familiar tropes. As the frightened Sam starts to relate and remember the bloody deaths of his co-workers, Chuck comes to the conclusion that he actually might be the killer. What comes next is a flashback to what really happened that has an amusing twist on the killer’s origin and even an interesting slant on the tradition-following mask that the killer wears. Is it Sam?…if it is, his killer has one problem…the final girl! The film also has a bit of fun with the final girl trope, too and the kills are quite gruesome as they should be. When one realizes where this flick is headed, you find yourself ready and willing to go along for the ride and a bloody fun, clever ride it is.
The film is well cast. Kranz is energetic and fun as Sam. He is having a good time playing both fearful victim and then suspected killer, as Chuck’s movie knowledge leads her to believe her long time friend is actually the killer in this unfolding slasher flick. As Chuck, Hannigan does little but stand in her video/collectibles shop and talk to Sam on the phone, but she makes Chuck a fun character and obviously this is not her first rodeo in delivering pop culture references, of which this flick has in abundance. Brittany S. Hall is good as Sam’s tough and tattooed ex-girlfriend Imani and Jenna Harvey is sweet and feisty as Jamie. Both are camp counselors and both are final girl candidates that Sam might need to look out for, if Chuck is right.
Once the flick locks in it’s premise, it’s a really fun homage to and clever meta twist on the beloved summer camp horror. It has all the tropes present and not only has a good time with them, but has fun playing with a few of them too. There are some clever twists mixed in with the nostalgia and having our hero, possibly be the villain works very well in the context to which the concept is used. A fun little flick that is both tribute and slasher flick.
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 
