As this film opens four friends go camping in the woods and are picked off, one by one, by a machete wielding maniac. Sometime later another group of friends, three boys and three girls, head into the same woods. They set up camp and one of them tells of an urban legend about 'Ranger Sparrow' who killed his wife and her lover in those very woods and is, if the story is to be believed, still out there killing those who venture into the woods. Of course none of them take it seriously until strange things start happening... will any of them make it out alive?

Few people will find this anything but utterly predictable; the only questions are 'in what order will they die?' and 'will any survive?'. Given that the characters are somewhat irritating one isn't likely to care all that much. They are meant to be friends but don't behave like it; they constantly argue and seem to dislike each other. 'Ranger Sparrow' just appears out of nowhere and kills those who are separated from the group; usually stabbing them with his machete... machetes don't work that way they are hacking or slashing weapons! There was no real sense of location; it was filmed in Poland, the group drove a car with New York plates and the cast were English but at no point talked about where they were meant to be; the fact that I spent much of the film pondering this showed how little the main plot gripped me. Overall I'd not call this a must see, not by any stretch of the imagination; it is just about okay if you like the genre and aren't too fussy.

I was not expecting a very British slasher, created by Poles, oh the irony, from a title such as Camp Massacre, but that is what I got. A brisk seventy two minutes of a bunch of mouthy dicks camping in the woods, getting ruthlessly butchered amidst all of the Channel 4 drama bants. Your mileage may vary on the latter.

The film is well photographed and utilises the archetypal woods setting to full effect. I could find nothing really wrong with the cinematography and whilst not groundbreaking, it looks far better than a film made for ten thousand pounds has any right to be. I was genuinely surprised to find out that this film was made almost a decade ago. Where the film does show it's budget is in it's atrocious ADR. There are moments where mouths aren't even moving and the dialogue is just pasted over like it's someone's inner monologue. I've seen Eurocine films with better voice synchronisation. The rest of the sound design doesn't fare so well either. Severely underwhelming and doesn't bring half the atmosphere that the cinematography does.

The cast is good, they get along, even when they fight. They're not made to suffer that much and there are even genuine character moments. Though high on the chav spectrum, i did not find their company grating. Although, I feel like I am in the minority regarding this opinion.

In conclusion, Camp Massacre has a lot that i like to see in slashers, a cast that has chemistry together, murder scenes that are never indulgently drawn out and most importantly for me, a very short running time. Camp Massacre knew what it was, did what it had to do and wisely felt that it had nothing left to prove. It is a near flawless, if predictable example of the sub-genre and i would have no problem recommending it.