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.

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.