There was this noticeably generic slasher I saw on TV a long time ago called Bloody Murder. A while back, I was thinking about it. Mainly trying to remember what it was called, and whether I even liked it or not. Like I said, It had been a while. I just remembered watching some slasher (and its sequel) on TV back in the early 2000's, and for some reason, I got curious enough to try and seek it out. My search eventually led me to a movie on Youtube called Camp Blood. As it would turn out, Camp Blood is NOT Bloody Murder, but for some reason, I thought that was the one I had found. Bloody Murder is a bad Friday The 13th ripoff, and Well... I guess Camp Blood kinda is too. As I sat down and watched this unfamiliar SOV movie, it didn't take long to realize that this wasn't it. And it didn't take long after that to not give a shit. Who needs Bloody Murder when you have Camp Blood in your life?
My first clue that this wasn't the movie I thought it was the fact that this didn't at all seem like something that would ever get played on TV. Being more amateur and shot-on-video, Camp Blood looks and feels like something out of the old Sub Rosa (now SRS) catalog. It all feels a little thrown together, and includes a story we've heard too many times already, but ultimately, this isn't a hard one to sit through compared to many. In Camp Blood, we have four young people headed out to the woods for a weekend of camping. The obvious final girl and main character, Tricia, has reservations about this already, and expresses such to her boyfriend, Steve, before they even leave the house. Too late I guess, because their slightly obnoxious friends are on the way to pick them up. Jay is a preppy little dickwad, and Nicole is his blonde bimbo girlfriend who looks like Hayley Duff. Neither of these two come off like they'd ever be caught dead out in a place like Camp Blackwood, but here they go.
The preppy little dickwad hired a guide as this is a place one could easily get lost. Jay is displeased when Harris the guide turns out to be a chick because there is just no way a girl is going to know her way around this place. Harris quickly proves Jay wrong and proves herself to be his equal as a dickwad pretty early on, with obnoxiousness not far off from that red-headed, wildling bitch from Game Of Thrones. Yeah, I said it! While somewhat physically abusive, the lesbian makes herself useful as she does seem to know her way around these parts pretty well. As the journey gets going, we're spared anything remotely interesting for a while. We watch the five walking to their desired destination with some light bickering between confrontational Harris and insecure Jay. We watch them collect firewood and complete other dull tasks while setting up camp. Harris watches the preppy little dickwad make out with his blonde bimbo and get called out on it. She doesn't care. She must have a thing for Hayley Duff.
Later that night, Harris tells the story of why locals refer to this area as "camp blood". Years earlier, Stanley Cunningham caught his girlfriend getting it on with someone else, and as revenge, took them both out to these woods and brutally murdered them. Doing so in a clown mask. Stanley Cunningham was never seen again, but some claim to have seen a guy in a clown mask wandering the woods over the years. Not to mention all the unexplained disappearances. Of course we the viewer know the fucker in the clown mask is near by because we saw a scene earlier where he killed a couple of people. Everyone calls it a night and goes to their tents to get it on, but of course Harris likes to sleep under the stars because she's hardcore like that.
The next morning, we have a bit of a problem as someone has gone and set Harris on fire, burning her alive, somehow without waking anyone up. Everyone's pretty traumatized by this, especially Jay's main squeeze who goes catatonic for a while. Nobody really cared much for Harris, but everyone is in agreement that this is fucked up. It soon dawns on everyone that the only person who knew how to find their way out of here is now beyond well done. This is around the point where the clown makes his presence known. And finally, something happens!It is beyond me how I went as long as I did without hearing about this one, especially considering the unusual amount of sequels it has spawned. Brad Sykes made Camp Blood in 1999, and soon thereafter made a sequel, which very much feels like the same movie. A few years later, Sykes would make a movie called Into The Woods, which apparently is an unofficial sequel for some reason. And a few more years later, the floodgates would open. In 2014, Mark Polonia of the Polonia brothers came out with Camp Blood: First Slaughter, the real (?) part 3. After this, someone got the idea that way more people love these movies than actually do because at least one Camp Blood sequel has been released for every year since. This includes a compilation movie including all the sweetest kills, entitled "Camp Blood Kills". Most of these sequels have been from the surviving Polonia twin, which is probably for the best. Some of these movies are pretty bad, but some more watchable than others. I wouldn't say the original is THAT much more superior, but being a bit older, there is a noticeable old school tone to it for anyone who is into that. If none of that is good enough, there's always Bloody Murder, I guess. 4/10
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