Camp Cold Brook

I wasted 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back after watching this.

For the first 68 mins I was waiting for the movie to get going...then nothing really happened. Stupid illogical characters, no horror or scares. It's basically PG

Jack Wilson (Chad Michael Murray) is the star of the paranormal show, Haunt Squad. Angela (Danielle Harris) is his costar. They are getting canceled. It's time to go big or go home. They are given one more show to turn things around. They head to Camp Cold Brook. There was a murder spree in the past and no one has ever investigated the site.

The premise is kinda cheesy. This does have CMM and Danielle Harris. With only four characters, the kill potential is limited. Nothing happens for far too long. It's only the last fifteen minutes when it does anything. By then, it's too late. It's not anything that scary anyways.

This is well acted. Everyone involved did a pretty good job of getting into their parts, and I appreciate it greatly when actors make the effort. It's what they should be doing and speaks well of them as professionals. I give them all kudos and frankly it's the only reason I rank this a 5 out of 10.

This is well filmed, it has that quality you hope to find in a movie when you view one: clear video, steady cameras, good story-boarding.

Unfortunately that's it. Plot wise it was very unoriginal. It's been done before by only, oh I don't know.. 60 or 70 other movies? I'm being facetious of course, but seriously, it's been done before. The plot was so stale that I was able to guess the ending almost immediately after the first hint was passed out. The second I heard, "28 children died" BOOM! I knew exactly what the ending was going to be. I also guessed the part about the co-worker. I won't spoil it, though trust me there isn't much to be spoiled. It was so predictable.

Additionally I felt like there were some real holes. Many of the scenes in the film were cliches from other movies, but some of them were left somewhat uncooked. This happens mainly in the supporting characters. They'll say something like (loose paraphrase to avoid spoiler) "You know what we did!" And then we never find out what they did. Lol.

As far as being scared goes, there is little to scare you. The special effects are limited (thankfully) and when they do appear they are not terribly effective.

I think the biggest problem is that there is a very discernible lack of focus. Is this a scary movie? It's not that scary. Is it a mystery? It's too easy to guess. Is it a comedy, nope. Is this about the (NON-SPOILER CHARACTER) or the other (NON-SPOILER CHARACTER)? Maybe neither? It felt as though the intent of the film kept changing somewhere in the middle. All told, it just didn't fly with me.

"Camp Cold Brook" is a boppy, cheesy, campy style of indie horror film. This type of movie will appeal to a certain type of audience and its one you wont find me in. This is typical Joe Dante involvement shlock. The style of the film reminds me a bit of "Gags the Clown" which is another stinker. It's childish and devoid of any real sense of style. "Camp Cold Brook" is directed by Andy Palmer and this is far from his first film. Looking back on his previous work it should be a clear foreshadow to how this film will be. I do like Chad Michael Murray and he wasn't all bad here, nor was Danielle Harris. The acting is actually good but it's the tone that hurts it. Its just too...colorful. Sometimes I can tell by the cover and preview for a movie entirely how the movie plays out in my mind, scene for scene, before even watching it. This is what made me hesitant to purchase this movie and sad to say it was just as boring and stupid as I thought it would be. I love reviewing great movies and usually could care less about the duds but every now and then there is one sooo horrendous I just HAVE to review it to warn peeps.

I was expecting this to be a pretty b grade movie, I was surprised, to start off it was better then I expected. Nice and tense, got my heart racing a little. And then it got to the ending. It feels like they ran out of budget and just slapped together a 2 minute scene to finish the movie. I was so disappointed. Up until the end I would have rated it a 6 or possibly a 7. Honestly, it's enjoyable but be prepared to be pretty peed off at the ending.