This is one chaotic trio of films, but they sure did hold my attention. Let’s get right into them.
THE CAMP HOST (2024)
This little film is so odd that I found it quite entertaining. It at first seems to be taking itself seriously, but just when shit gets really serious these quirky little hints of humor come forward, making for a rather confusing ride.
The film starts off just the way I like it—quick and to the point (of the knife!). A couple having sex in a tent gets hacked up. Yay!
Next, a straight couple is on a road trip. At a campsite they are greeted by the “camp host”, a woman so blatantly witchy and weird that you have to wonder why the couple didn’t immediately drive away.
The plot is somewhat messy. We meet a couple of other guys staying at the camp site, and there’s an attempt to give them all some character development, but it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that the crazy camp host is sort of like Angela from Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3; everyone in camp needs to follow the rules…or else.
The highlights include a nasty outhouse scene (I don’t understand why the male partner decides to go sit on a disgusting outhouse toilet bowl seat without dropping his pants to actually use the bowl), the camp host running super fast while chasing an RV, which suggests she’s somehow supernatural, and the main girl telling her man straight up she will dump his ass if they don’t return to the camp to rescue her dog. Love it.
It’s a truly weird movie, but I was never bored and it was refreshingly different than everything else out there these days. Just note that it leaves you with a lot of questions, including vague aspects concerning Native American lore and the camp host’s mystique (is she supernatural or just crazy?).
THE OLD ONES (2024)
I’m a fan of horror flicks from Chad Ferrin (Someone’s Knocking at the Door, Exorcism at 60,000 Feet), so I was excited to find another of his movies in my watchlist. This time he takes on Lovecraft, and it’s just as confusing and hard to follow as Lovecraft always is.
Basically a man from a century ago is found in the water by a father fishing with his adult son. He was possessed by a monster and did some horrible things for a cult back in the day, so now he intends to make up for it by taking down the cult. But the cult is on to him and comes back to destroy him in a myriad of monstrous forms.
Ferrin really goes for that old school, 1980s practical effects monster vibe, and I was so there for it. Modern viewers might find the lack of CGI-rendered monsters cheesy, but this is the kind of stuff I devoured on HBO and VHS back in the day.
Weirdness and quirkiness abound, including the son of the fisherman just immediately going along with the man from the past to help him take on freaky creatures, Kelli Maroney of Night of the Comet as a rotten lady monster, a nude woman showing bush (talk about retro), a gender-bending dude dressed as a waitress, and even some throwback elements that reminded me of From Beyond and other Lovecraft adaptations from the 80s. There’s a lot going on here and much of it doesn’t make sense, but it is one visually satisfying monster ride.
GUYS AT PARTIES LIKE IT (2024)
This dark sexploitation film manages to delve into sex and violence on the surface while actually making a whole lot of statements about frat culture, misogyny, rape culture, toxic masculinity, male white privilege, homophobia juxtaposed with homoeroticism in fraternities, and much more. If you hate “woke shit”, there’s good news. You probably won’t even realize it’s being presented to you since it comes sneakily in the form of offensive, sexual entertainment geared towards straight male sensibilities.
A frat is throwing a hazing party. The goal for the pledges is to lose their virginity. So one guy is sent upstairs with a girl to sacrifice his innocence, but before long, the attempt at scoring spirals out of control, and people begin dying and being murdered from all angles.
It’s a pretty clever way to have all hell break loose, and the movie is never boring, even if it isn’t exactly a horror movie. The kills are predominantly caused by a series of accidents until the very end, when intentional violence moves to the forefront.
Considering the film includes one gay guy who will delight those who like very queer representation and will piss off those who resent over-the-top gay stereotypes, it definitely scores a place on the does the gay guy die? page.
