User Reviews

Stumbling upon the 2024 horror movie "Camp Pleasant Lake" without ever having heard about it, of course I had to sit down and watch it, given my love of the horror genre. However, I must admit that I wasn't exactly harboring any particular grand expectations to the movie, as it just didn't really have that particular feel to it. But I still opted to give writer and director Thomas Walton the benefit of the doubt.

"Camp Pleasant Lake" was an archetypical masked slasher flick. But unfortunately not a great one. The storyline and script was pretty straightforward, although it was riddled with plot holes and things that just made zero sense. For example, why wouldn't the Rutherfords have a carefully planned and orchestrated routine of how to faking the deaths of the campers or councilors, but would just wing it as things went along? That made absolutely no sense for something set to take place at a camp site that ran horror experiences for paying customers.

I am rather impressed that a horror movie with the likes of Andrew Divoff, Mike Ferguson and Bonnie Aarons on the cast list would prove to be this abysmal. In addition, there were a couple of other familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Michael Paré and Robert LaSardo. The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, but the actors and actresses were seriously struggling with having nothing worthwhile in terms of script, dialogue or character gallery to work with.

And the fact that character gallery was as bland as tap water just didn't help promote the movie either. I have to admit that I didn't care one bit about any of the characters, much less the masked killer. In fact, the masked killer proved to be more of a comedy gag than anything else.

This was a lousy attempt at making a slasher, even with some of the effects being so dubious that you just had to go back and see it twice, to ensure that you hadn't seen it wrong, and coming to believe that effects could be that horrible. I loved the fact that when throats were cut, the blood would appear an inch or two above the line where the cut was made. That was just such an amateurish thing.

It amazes me that the movie had a staggering 6.2 rating here on IMDb when I sat down to watch it. This movie is a dumpster fire of a slasher flick. Sure, if you are a newcomer to the horror genre and slasher subgenre, then I guess that the movie comes off as being watchable. But if you have grown up on slasher movies, then "Camp Pleasant Lake" is just a movie you want to forget about ever stumbling upon.

My rating of "Camp Pleasant Lake" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Dumb slasher movie. Starts off that Camp Pleasant (home of some bad stuff in the past) is being turned into a horror show camp where people pay to be scared.

The guys who are gonna do the special effects are murdered.

Cut to titles and scene where a bunch of ju-ju-bees are talking about the camp. The acting is HORRIBLE.

You actually can't imagine how bad the acting is. Not one of these performers is any good.

The plot is laughable and void of any imagination. Even the kids in the flashback make no sense. Their parents are black haired but the kinds are platinum blondes!!!!!

Can't believe I wasted my time on this garbage!

I usually don't comment, I didn't even have an IMDB account as a veteran internet critic. Ive created an account to review this movie. The inner-beast forces me to react.

My god, the acting, lines, its just the perfect amount of bad to be annoying. Its not funny bad, its cringe bad. Why? Who paid for this? The cliches. For it to be so bad, everybody needs to be in it. The actors, the director. I'm pretty sure the cameraman must have been cringing all over. Sti did a good job!

The only logical explanation is that its made for mentally challenged people.

As a junior movie director I am ashamed and insulted!

Had a lot of hope for the movie, because the description sounded nice, but once i actually got into the movie i realized just how truly horrible the acting was, the whole plot was literally just not working, and everything was rushed.

Figuring out who the killer is also doesn't take much effort, i'm sure a kid could do that. Because it's just so obvious.

And i have seen my fair share of bad horror movies, but this is seriously the worst movie i have ever seen.

The acting was just so horrible, i was genuinely crying laughing for most of the movie.

Once in a while you can see the lighting equipment and just fails like that.. truly sad..

do not recommend at all lol.

The murderer theme can no longer create new ideas I thought it would be at least a bit scary.

The results were so bad that I was asked to register a website to write reviews.

Horrible bad movie

Don't waste your life watching this movie Everyone inside will voluntarily commit suicide, and then the murderer will just laugh.

The storyline is not convincing at all

The actors are not embarrassed, but the audience is really embarrassed

Totally money-saving movie Even the money on special effects is saved.

The blood spray scene is also very ridiculous

After watching this movie, I will be filled with questions.

I feel very regretful for not checking the scores here first.

Super waste of time,

Arriving at a summer camp in the woods, a group of horror fans arriving to partake in a recreation of summer camp style horror films with a real-life killer, but when they and the counselors start to really die realize that a legendary killer might be responsible for the current rampage.

Overall, this was a decidedly decent enough effort for what it is. One of the strongest elements of this one is the rather strong and unique setup that shows this off as a solid way to pay homage to the genre classics of the past. The idea of the all-adults campsite that caters to fans of the cinematic genre fare is so obviously playing up to the setting of a real-life summer camp in the woods where people can pay to provide that kind of experience. As the festivities carry on and the weekend turns into a bloodbath where people aren't able to tell the difference between something set up for the weekend and a real-life killer in the area, there's a lot to like about the setup at play here where the more traditional setup homaging the past can feel quite intriguing once this gets going. As well, the fact that there's such a huge assortment of kills in this part of the film makes for a decidedly fun time waiting around for the group to get knocked off. Requiring a near-endless stream of solid indie-based encounters featuring campers, guests, and other stragglers wandering aimlessly into the killer's sphere of influence but because they're all convinced it's part of the game allow themselves to be taken out, this sets a wholly impressive series of practical effects-filled sequences into motion as the stalking, slashing, and stabbing that goes on makes for a nice bit of bloody happenings here. As the manner in which these occur leaves the second half with a fantastic tempo due to the breakneck pace they're doled out, this comes off rather nicely in this regard. Outside of these factors, though, the film does struggle a bit. The main drawback here is such a cliched and underwhelming storyline that never really delivers what it sets out to be. The main focus of the first half is spent on the cliched family-drama nonsense that takes up way too much screentime for what it should for no other reason than to get more names into a cameo appearance and have their names on the poster artwork. This is inherently silly and doesn't endear us to any of the counselors or campers as they barely get a name before getting dispatched by the killer so it's nearly impossible to care about them. Given that the flashback also reveals the killer so the shock reveal of the identity reveal that makes the whole backstory feel useless and just flat-out stupid. On top of that, there are other big issues with the film in how its kills are treated. While they're carried out practically, so many of them are just stabbing in the chest or stomach or having their throat slit that there's just nothing stand-out about them or memorable beyond the quantity as they're repeated so often it just grows tiresome. Also, with so many instances of the low-budget origins coming into effect, not just with the flimsy gore effects but the egregiously overdone shots of a train going by in the distance, padded-out drone shots flying over the campsite, or vehicles driving by when they're supposedly out in the middle of the woods just make this feel far worse than it should and are what cause this to be as low as it is when there's still some good stuff here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and mild drug use.

Wow. What have I just been watching? Who decided that making this "film" was a good idea? Is it a tax write-off? A crowd-funded passion project, made with friends, family and maybe some of the funders? (The large number of exec and assoc producer credits would appear to favour the latter.)

The plot has more holes than an average road in Britain. The dialogue is matched in cringeworthiness only by the acting (and obvious lack of professional direction). The lightning of the night scenes made me laugh out loud. If I have to list something positive: some of the effects are okay-ish and the actors seem to have had a great time (although most of them won't be needing agents I suspect).

As a professional film this should not get more than one or two stars. But the thing is, I enjoyed watching the whole thing. So I'll give it a generous five stars.

"tHe StoRyY" it seems like bad acting, I couldn't care for the characters, definitely not a good horror movie. At least they added special effects. The story could be good if the writing was good. It just isn't a movie for anyone probably, also maybe there were voice over for the people. But, just nothing sounds genuine. Looks like they had a budget at least, drone shots, some props and locations. They at least did go outside. I can't really see anything to recommend that is good about this movie and definitely should skip like me but instead I kept trying to watch. A toddler calls his older sibling who is like 6 years old, Big sis. I feel like that only really occurs in books.

It looks like a movie made out of boredom. I don't know where to start, the acting is shoddy, the plot of events ridiculous and the production is quite boring. It's not an homage to the slasher genre, it's an insult to it. It is very clear what will happen from the beginning of the movie. There are a lot of death scenes, but they are uncreative, too sudden and not scary. A group of people sat in a camp and tried to make a movie with a story they thought was scary, but the result is meaningless, ineffective, sloppy. I'll give it an extra point for respect for the effort. I definitely wouldn't want to watch it again. Unfortunately, it is among those that can be called a waste of time for the genre.

Yes, it's silly, the sound effects are outrageous, most of the acting wouldn't hold up in community theater, and it's not very original, but I think it was essentially supposed to be all those things, and I found it a much better watch than I was expecting. I do think there should be a class in film school on how to present text messages to an audience, as this film, like most, expects the view to be able to see a shakily-filmed text in what is basically life-like size on a phone screen presented for a split second.

While I wish the kills were a bit more varied and more gory, there was certainly no shortage of them, and some were rather comical (intentionally).

Some of the acting was not bad at all, but it seems that much of the cast were likely relatives of the filmmakers and had never acted before, and you could almost see each character waiting for a turn to speak their lines, but that added to the campiness and made me laugh, so I found it entertaining.

Overall I wouldn't necessarily recommend the film, but I wouldn't call it one of the worst I've ever seen either. At least it didn't just abruptly end and make you sit there staring at the screen wondering what just happened.

It's one of the worst low budget movie It's not about budget but why to make such disaster who one will watch or if any one watches will only have word to criticize. Why they make such a trash wasting time and whatever little money they have , acting too was below average not even below average but childish. Just saw first few minutes and thankfully knew this is time waster. Even if you have nothing to do avoid this and other low budget movies like this one. If any one who is giving positive reviews may be poor guy must be from the production team or some one on pills , save your energy go for a walk.

This movie is really, really bad, but not like the fun kind of bad. There is nothing in this movie that is interesting or entertaining. The acting is not anywhere near as good as you would find at an elementary school play performed by terrified children. There is not a word yet in existence that can adequately express how terrible this is. It's like if you took all the worst parts of good (or entertainingly bad) horror films stirred together to make a stew of absolute trash. This isn't even fun if you're drunk and/or high. Anything you do is better than watching this turd salad.

All in all, I did not like it.

That is all the time it took to realize that this is a completely cheesy throwback to Friday the 13th and that really is a stretch. The acting is abysmal. We tried to do a similar story in college as a parody to horror and that is exactly what this reminds me of. The storyline is predictable and almost copying some of the scenes from F13 and Halloween. From the first scene you can already predict who the killer or killers are. Even the child actors that are in the movie look like they're trying not to laugh at how bad the adult acting really is. The creepy foreshadowing is funny as hell so if you're into that enjoy this flick.

"Camp Pleasant Lake" is what all good, low-budget, indie horror films should be: fun, gory, and satisfyingly violent, with just enough cheese to make you laugh.

The "big names" - Jonathan Lipnicki, Bonnie Aarons, Michael Pare, Andrew Divoff, and Robert LaSardo - all turn in great performances. Divoff is particularly creepy (as he should be in the role) and Aarons shows she can play evil just as well outside of her "Nun" character. And Lipnicki leaves it all on the screen and is clearly enjoying getting away from the "cute kid" roles he played when he was young.

And speaking of kids... Lacey Burdine turns in a fantastic performance as "Young Echo Meadows." She more than holds her own in scenes with far more seasoned actors. I would be shocked if her career doesn't take off.

I won't bother re-capping the entire film as some people feel is necessary. The plot is simple: horror fans pay to spend a weekend at a "Camp of Terror" and things get bloody.

There is plenty of blood and some fun kills. It's not a film for the squeamish - but these films never are. Does it always make sense? Who cares? We watch horror movies to see the killer(s) kill and the victim(s) die. It's about the entertainment value - and "Camp Pleasant Lake" has a HIGH entertainment value.

I'm giving this a 9/10 for an indie horror film. Is it "The Godfather?" Of course not! But in this genre, it's far better than most and should be rated accordingly.

Hopefully there will be a sequel - I'd love to see this masked killer do some more damage.