To be clear, this is a zero-budget indie. In my opinion, it's in desperate need of editing down the runtime. What is cheaply charming at first, turns into an over-exposure of bore which ends up being obnoxious mainly due to horrid audio. Still, the odd choice of casting, spewing out ridiculous comments and wearing costumes that look they came out of a trash can somewhere, has a spark of entertainment here and there. There were some missed opportunities for exploitive sleaze that would have added a few stars. The lowest point on this one for me is the terribad voice soundtrack dub. Makes me wonder if they had some kind of technical disaster and had to call the cast back in to redo the audio.. which is why the majority of the sound effects are missing. Bizarre..

Arriving at a secluded spot in the woods, a woman takes a group of teens out to a trip attempting to have them reconnect with themselves, but when they start disappearing around the woods they realize there's a cannibalistic serial killer out in the woods with them hunting them one-by-one and must try to get away.

This one wasn't too bad of a backwoods slasher effort. One of its strongest elements here is the film's central and single-minded purpose to showcase constant interactions between the oblivious victims and the maniacal killer. The opening series of encounters between the various hikers showing each of their run-ins with the killer living in the woods over the years which sets the stage for some stellar series of brief slashing encounters that focus on random people coming across the killer. This ends up giving off a wholly full-throttle pace and tempo that moves this along quickly into the next situation nicely and makes for a fun time here. That manages to highlight the film's other great quality, it's over-the-top gore and graphic kills. From getting scalped with an axe, having a pitchfork rammed through their neck, bung gutted with an axe or getting knifed through the jaw, the kills here are quite fun and exceptionally graphic. The vast majority of the kills and encounters here result in vicious fountains of blood-spray that couldn't possibly exist yet it does so here as the blood-flow from these wounds creates plenty to like here. The random encounters to enhance the body-count do this one well as they generate some solid action here as well, managing to bring out some great aspects to this one overall as there isn't much wrong here. Among the film's few problems is the completely scatterbrained and simplistic storyline that barely looks to hold itself together. The fact that it's doesn't even introduce the campers at all or what they're trying to do, merely content to feature them hanging around far more than the other random interlopers that are hiking around supposedly abandoned woods that it finally dawns on you they're the main characters in the running order. That's rather strange to have the lead characters be dumped on-screen without any kind of purpose or distinguishing marks for what they're here for or even who they are since we don't know they're names immediately and they only pop out as main characters through the amount of time spent with them as a default. The other real issue to be had with this one is an ending that doesn't seem to know when to end. The encounters with the shocking amount of family members that emerge out of the woodwork to continually threaten their escape attempts go on far too long than necessary with these seeming like an opportunity for some supposedly shocking actions but come off as just lame. The epilogue featuring the extra characters encountering yet another member that we've never met before for what seems like a lame twist to the whole affair has no real place here being that it's just tacked on for no real purpose in how it connects to the film as a whole. Combined with some of the same problematic issues that continually plague low-budget indie efforts that some might have an issue with, these are the film's flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Graphic Language, lesbian sex scenes and themes of necrophilia.

Movies that imitate the style of sleaze master Herschel Gordon Lewis are inherently problematic. KILLER CAMPOUT starts out with a montage of all of the killings that take place throughout the movie, narrated seemingly from the grave by Mr. Lewis himself. Lovers of the ultraviolent stuff might want to check out after about two minutes into the film, because Mr. Lewis practically divines that there is nothing else to see beyond this incoherent prologue of carnage.

The remainder of the movie plays out in the overused style of FRIDAY THE 13TH, as a group of wayward teens get lost in the woods of West Virginia and one by one encounter a hulking, cannibalistic man monster who systematically butchers the cast. You can forget about well-developed characters. Acting also suffers, with mostly unknown performers that can barely articulate the trite dialogue.

In a revealing bit of perhaps autobiographical screenwriting, one of the characters complains that even though he loves watching the most violent horror movies he is in his heart a non-violent person who was put on medication because of his anti-social attitudes. Could explain where these filmmakers are coming from.

In a scenario such as this, the only purpose of these witless characters is to line up for slaughter in ways that in some cases seem physically impossible. Wailing stabs of electronica intended to wake us up prior to the killings is also very 1980s by design. The movie's emphasis is on the killer, but he is a run-of-the-mill head bashing, drooling maniac played by an actor who seems to be enjoying it all too much. The director, Brad Twigg, can't construct a scene unless it is supposed to make you wretch.

Film historians will note there are cameo appearances by fan magazine editor George Stover and John Russo, the man from Night of The Living Dead. While Stover has made a marginal career of appearing in schlock, Russo should know better.

The most interesting aspect of KILLER CAMPOUT is the critics' reviews from apparently different websites that are in some cases use the same verbiage and push unconvincing gushing admiration for the director. A bit of promotion that didn't quite come off.