Tommy, an adolescent teenager from a obviously Christian fundamentalist family, is sent to a boot camp where boys and girls of his age are expected to learn to deny theirs lusts and live their future lives in pure faith. Camp Hope is led by Fr. McAllister, a priest who is at the same time charismatic and fanatically devoted to fundamentalist Christian belief and his right hand, Christian, a drill sergeant type of guy. Then there is Bob, the camp's entertainer who seems to be the only staff member with more moderate opinions and nurse Carol, the camp nanny who believes that prayer heals better than medicine. Of course, putting adolescent boys and girls together in a summer camp is like leaving a cat alone with a fishbowl. Forbidden lust soon leads to "sin" which leads to guilt and all results in psychological catastrophe, inner conflict and psychosis.
The movie's biggest problem is that it first appears to be a classical teenage slasher flick but then turns out to be a fine psychological coming of age movie which settles with the tragic pressure of extreme religious morality. The cast is well-chosen and the playing is really good. Especially Fr. McAllister is highly realistic as an overly devoted priest who strongly believes in the path of pure faith, despite the fact that his very influence has, in the past, already caused a young man to become criminally insane and also despite of his recurring psychotic visions. Unfortunately, the way this movie is marketed, one would rather expect a sort of remake of slasher classics like "Sleepaway Camp", thus the rightful anger of nice and sleazy horror flick fans who feel like they were tricked into watching 90 minutes of pseudo horror and no one got murdered, eviscerated or beheaded.
If, like me, you are equally able to enjoy a movie like "Friday the 13th" and a movie by Aldomovár or a light-hearted coming of age movie like "Little Darlings" and if you're not offended by direct and open critic at fundamentalist Christian morality, you're quite likely to enjoy this movie. Otherwise, stay away! It's probably not the movie's fault if you don't like it, neither is it yours but most probably the undecided marketing which positions it as a horror flick.
The movie's biggest problem is that it first appears to be a classical teenage slasher flick but then turns out to be a fine psychological coming of age movie which settles with the tragic pressure of extreme religious morality. The cast is well-chosen and the playing is really good. Especially Fr. McAllister is highly realistic as an overly devoted priest who strongly believes in the path of pure faith, despite the fact that his very influence has, in the past, already caused a young man to become criminally insane and also despite of his recurring psychotic visions. Unfortunately, the way this movie is marketed, one would rather expect a sort of remake of slasher classics like "Sleepaway Camp", thus the rightful anger of nice and sleazy horror flick fans who feel like they were tricked into watching 90 minutes of pseudo horror and no one got murdered, eviscerated or beheaded.
If, like me, you are equally able to enjoy a movie like "Friday the 13th" and a movie by Aldomovár or a light-hearted coming of age movie like "Little Darlings" and if you're not offended by direct and open critic at fundamentalist Christian morality, you're quite likely to enjoy this movie. Otherwise, stay away! It's probably not the movie's fault if you don't like it, neither is it yours but most probably the undecided marketing which positions it as a horror flick.