Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 09/24/2003 A group of pretty young kids head to a deserted island for a weekend of camping, but the island's resident lunatic family has other plans for them. This is an effective little horror movie in the vein of Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's nothing great, but it works as a slasher movie, with a few truly creepy moments that should please fans of other HK horror movies like The Untold Story. There are two stumbling blocks in the film, though. The soundtrack -- an integral part of movies like this -- is pretty horrible. Blaring hard-rock doesn't really lend any sense of suspense and tends to take away the emphasis from what's going on. Also, the movie really isn't all that bloody. You might think a slasher movie where the killer's favorite weapon is a chainsaw would have buckets of blood, but, alas, that's not the case here.

Reviewed by: ryan Date: 11/21/1999 Summary: Deadly Camp (1999) Following the Hong Kong International Film Festival, which showed the new wave movies from the 80s, it is interesting to see that producers are trying to remake movies from that decade. While 'Second Imp' is trying to resolve the copyright issue with Mei-ah, ProFilm's new wave remake, 'Deadly Camp,' has been playing in theatres. 'Deadly Camp' starts off with a group of young kids camping, over 3 days and 2 nights, on a small isolated, outlet island in Hong Kong, in 9.9.1999. The group is headed by the 'Professor' (LA Chi-sin), with members including Ken, Ken's girlfriend, Winnie, 'Solider,' 'Professor's' girl, Linda, and 'Soldier's' girl, Be Be. During this time another group, headed by Boar (Anthony WONG Chau-sang), also goes to the same island. Their camp is fun-filled on the first day. However, everything changes when one of the group members teaches a disabled guy (TSANG Tak-wah) a lesson by pissing him off and burning him. Suddenly, that member is being hurt by the disabled guy's Dad, a mummy-like man. On the next day, one of the group members disappears. They begin a search. One-by-one, the each group member starts to disappear, too. All of the disappearances are caused by the mummy-like man. Everyone fears for their own safety. 'Deadly Camp' is a remake of YU Wan-kong's 'The Beast' (1980). However, the VCD wasn't released until yesterday. Thus, this review is based on a viewing, without having seen 'The Beast.' I consider 'Deadly Camp' to be a movie filled with horror and romance. The emphasis on the relationship between the characters, at the beginning of the story, gives me the impression that the filmmakers wanted to show how deeply the pairs love each other. However, when watching 'Deadly Camp,' you don't feel the romance until the end of the movie. This looks like the director's problem in presenting the script. The script is supposed to provide the first part with a sense of relaxation and romance. But, the pointless dialogue makes the first half-hour of the movie very unpleasant. For example, the gag featuring Boar, selling used condoms to the 'Professor,' is too ridiculous to even laugh at. The second half should be the horror part of the story. But again, most of audience failed to be gripped by the horror elements. The audience lost interest and got bored when the movie's pacing slowed. It is also interesting to note that you don't get to see the disabled guy's face clearly. The filmmakers don't seem to understand that giving the audience a glimpse of the disabled guy is useful in setting up the horror-filled climax. Another thing that may annoy you is the love scene done by Anthony WONG Chau-sang. It's been annoying, too, to see him in sex scenes in other movies he's made this year. In short, 'Deadly Camp' offers a good concept of mixing romance and horror. Unfortunately, the poor directing and the pointless ways of presenting the ideas made this movie hard to watch.