Camp Wedding review: An unexpectedly fun and unique horror extravaganza
By Mads Lennon
When Mia invites her bridal party to Camp Pocumtuck, no one is anticipating the weekend to take a dark and sinister turn. Read our review of Camp Wedding.
Camp Wedding is an upcoming horror-comedy flick that will remind you of your favorite 1980’s slashers such as Friday the 13th. Although this movie reminded me more of a recent film, You Might Be the Killer. If you enjoyed that film, Camp Wedding should be right up your alley.
The movie follows Mia and her bridal party as they get set up at Camp Pocumtuck. In the 1980s, the camp was notorious for being incredibly strict and religious. The camp shut down after a girl was struck by lightning and died.
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But the camp’s bad luck didn’t begin there. Before the ’80s, it was also home to several witch burnings and a Native American massacre. Yet our title character, Mia, believes it’s the perfect place to host her wedding!
Mia is a perfectionist who wants the entire camp made over into her dream wedding space.
However, no one in her party is as thrilled about the idea of hard labor as she is. As if it wasn’t bad enough that they can’t hold up their end of the bargain by preparing the cabins and stringing up lights, they also begin to disappear.
Soon, the survivors begin receiving ominous texts from someone telling them to “bury the bodies” or more will come.
When I started the film, I thought this would be a more straightforward slasher flick. Initially, I was a little thrown off when my expectations weren’t met. Camp Wedding introduced a plethora of other strange, haunting, and sometimes ludicrous, horror conventions to the story.
It certainly holds up to the “camp” part of its title, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. Once I began to understand the direction the filmmakers were going, I was more inclined to sit back and enjoy the ride. And boy, is it quite the wild ride.
If you’re anticipating tons of gore and jump scares, you probably won’t be fulfilled by Camp Wedding. But if you’re more inclined to get to know the dark secrets these characters are hiding and watch a talking teddy bear become a local menace, along with plenty of cheeky jabs at the genre, you’ll have a blast watching this film.
I’ll also add I was impressed with many of the effects. The on-screen texting and phone effects, in particular, helped give the movie a certain savviness that compliments the resulting climax.
As far as the acting goes, Wendy Jung is a standout performer. Her zany hilarity with the character of Eileen is both endearing, relatable and somewhat terrifying at times. But the entire cast has excellent chemistry together which makes watching them try to defy the odds and make it out alive all the more entertaining.
Camp Wedding is the perfect antidote to the end of summer blues. I highly recommend checking it out when it becomes available.
The movie also stars Kelley Gates, Sean Hankinson, Cadden Jones, Jan Kutrzeba, Morgan McGuire, Cliff Miller, David Pegram, Melissa Roth, and Adam Santos-Coy.
Watch the trailer for this hilarious, yet terrifying, new horror flick right here:
Are you planning to check out Camp Wedding when it becomes available? What are some of your other favorite indie horror films? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Camp Wedding is now available to pre-order on iTunes. The film will be available on August 20, 2019.