User Reviews

Contains spoilers.

This movie is about a boy who is part of a covenant community that is beginning to have doubts about the religion he was raised to believe in, and his experiences at a summer camp for other youths from that same community. The devil makes a cameo, though this time in the form of hallucinations brought on by mass hysteria, which was a result of the indoctrination of all of the people involved. I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church that had a lot in common with a covenant community and I am now agnostic...mostly because of the way that religious groups in general, and the one I belonged to in particular, indoctrinate their younger members.

A lot from this movie made my skin crawl and brought back a lot of memories, but it wasn't really scary, at least not in a way that is usually associated with horror movies. For me it was a reminder of the evils of religion, of the way religious groups tend to brainwash themselves and anyone they can get their hands on. While I never saw anything as extreme as what was portrayed in this movie, I did hear a lot of the same kind of nonsense about sin and the devil and all of that. Guilt seems to be the predominant feeling elicited in many as a result of partaking of religion (especially Catholicism), and it took me a long time to get over the guilt I felt not only for wanting to disassociate myself from the religious group I was affiliated with, but also for not wanting to be considered a Christian.

This movie accurately portrays the ways in which young people are treated while being indoctrinated. The summer camp, the school they attend, the picnics and gatherings they enjoyed as children, all are part of a system designed to tie a person to a group of people and to ensure that they all adhere to a rigid code of "morality". While this movie seems to be denouncing this type of community it doesn't really do so as strongly as it probably should have.

You might notice that in this review I didn't really go into the plot of the movie all that much; the reason is that the plot is rather bland and uninteresting. It has its moments, but in the end it just wasn't that engaging. The only part of the movie I enjoyed was seeing a particularly obnoxious camp counselor getting his clock cleaned. The obnoxious priest did not really get what he deserved, which was to be publicly discredited, though he did end up in a coma. Also, the main character is portrayed as being disturbed; this movie would have been much better if he had realized that his beliefs were destroying him and renounced them. His speech when refusing to take the Eucharist at the end was more...lame (for lack of a better word) than moving or thought provoking.

While I am all for something different, this movie made me nostalgic for more conventional horror fare. I'd much rather see a bunch of people killed by a ubiquitous knife-wielding psycho, and women randomly taking off their clothes for no apparent reason, than watch a movie that does a rather poor job of tackling a serious issue.

Jesse Eisenberg does appear in the movie, but not for long. The movie seems to confuse Christian denominational theology. Traditional Catholics do not believe in "end-time" signs and prophecy. While they do believe in purgatory, they are not that big into it as they used to be. Tommy is connected to a demon, but we aren't sure how and why. There are a bunch of kids at Christian summer camp which is comical as a comic book is torn up and a Journey CD is the instrument of the devil. Tommy keeps asking the question, "If God is in control why is there a devil?" The priest asks Tommy, "When did you let sin into your life?" Of course masturbation is one of Tommy's "gateway" sins. Who knows where it might lead...

The sex scene consists of two teens (one a 16 year old virgin "harlot") dry humping in the dark.

I will say I was confused by the ending and the message of the movie. Is this an atheist movie or a movie whose message is that Satan uses long drawn out conversions to create atheists by manifesting himself as a demon? Does the movie really mean to say Steve Perry is a demon seed, or makes fun of those who do?

As a serious Christian movie, I would give it one star. As a movie that makes fun of Christians...maybe 2 stars.

No nudity, or gosh darn swearing. Dry humping, references to rock group "Journey" and Spawn comic book. Kids almost eating jelly beans. What I really can't believe is the "R" rating. As Sara might tweet, "WTF?"

Camp Hell was worse than an after school special. I am shocked to find they spent $3 million on this film. I get the religious undertones of guilt and torment these teens go through in a church community but the title is really deceiving. The direction, pace and plot was also pure torture to observe. What made this movie even worse is the fact your waiting for something scary to happen based on the suspenseful trailer. However, it appears Lionsgate spent more time on the trailer than the actual movie. I rank Camp Hell as one of the worse horror films I've ever seen because it was: (1) really bad; and (2)it took itself so seriously.

I just saw this film and it blew me away. For some people, this film will be a disappointment. Why? Because people are expecting a conventional horror flick. They see "religion" and "demon" and think: "Oh, exorcism movie, not again." This film takes the religion theme to a whole new level.

It's basically a social commentary on the dangers of how some people interpret religion. Religion itself has nothing wrong with it, it's how people interpret it that makes it such a touchy subject. The concept of "Saint vs. Sinner" is executed beautifully and it will make you think long after the credits have rolled. If it doesn't, then maybe films like this one simply aren't for you.

I've seen many people on here talking about how this is not a horror. This is not true, but not false either. Horror is subjective. Some see blood-and-gore flicks as horror, some say horror is something psychological. Is this a horror film to me? Absolutely. Jump scares, dramatic music and tension doesn't equal horror in my book. That's evoking a natural human reaction known as shock. Jump scares aren't a valid horror device because it doesn't evoke fear. Fear is being afraid of what is to come, not screaming with your heart going 300 BPM because someone just jumped out of a closet to really loud musical effects.

Camp Hell is a very interesting and beautifully executed psychological horror film that pushes the boundaries of what people perceive as horror. If this doesn't apply to you, you're watching the wrong genre of films. Harsh? No, simply an opinion. The horror community needs more films like this.

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.

On watching this I was hoping for some sort of horror after watching a trailer. Its about a camp for Christian teens sent by their parents to pray, sing and listen to the priest who runs it. Its more supernatural than horror concentrating on Thomas a teen who has bad dreams of a demon, at the camp a girl catches his eye and they pet in the woods which is a mortal sin.

I was waiting for the horror but there is not any! The priest is all for being pure and having no sins and is played well be the actor in fact the acting is fine but I was disappointed by the lack of gore that will teach me to watch a one minute trailer which misled me.

Its based on a true story.

..."Camp Hell" is a perfect example of why producers shouldn't be allowed to write or direct (stick with what you know) as well as a classic case of wasting money. Three million dollars, seriously? Where did it go, up people's noses? Numerous name actors lend their cred to this pitiful excuse for a cautionary tale of the dangers of hidebound religious dogma, and can only be forgiven if they were otherwise out of work. I'm not naming names because I'm pretty sure they're already fairly ashamed of themselves, right, Jesse? Andrew, Dana, Bruce? Are you listening? The youngsters can get away with it; they've still got careers ahead of them, as long as they don't make mistakes like this too often. You adults should know better. Have I reached the minimum word count yet? Good, that's more than enough typing wasted on this dreck. Yet another black mark on the reputation of whoever picks the videos for my local library.