It doesn't really know what it wants to be. If Zombie Campout is trying for Evil Dead funny, it's not quite fast enough or jump out of your seat enough. If it's aiming for Dawn of the dead, it's not horrific enough. As it is, the movie plays out like a big reflexive horror movie about movies. It's just kinda scattershot as to where it wants to be at the end of the day.
This is looks to be Mr. Smith's first effort, and by the look of the credits, it's obvious he poured alot of his own sweat and effort into this film. The film has it's share of flubs (texas lic. plates everywhere, and the comet lands in northern Mexico) but it's really all in the details, and this film doesn't need to mess with it. There's no mics in frame, or crew members in the shot (well, maybe one...)
It's got some good laughs, the cast looks like they had fun (smiling zombies tell all) making it, and has really nice gore FX for a budget like this. I did spot a rubber baseball bat, otherwise everything was appropriately nasty looking when it needed to be. There aren't any FX where someone's passing off cow liver as a victim's stomach (like Romero's done...) so big ups on originality in the gore. One of the victims looked like she was really missing her arms...
I'd recommend it to someone who likes a good laugh, or anyone wanting to stage a MST3K-eque show. Better than Manos: the hands of fate or Red Zone Cuba, but maybe not some of the later Police Academy movies. I eagerly await whatever Mr. Smith does next.
