| Backed by Wong Jing's Workshop, director Bowie Lau understand the slasher movie genre in and out (not that there's much to understand) but being the post-Scream era, there's not much room for throwbacks to the good ol' days of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween or the Friday The 13th films. Lau certainly opens the film strongly in that regard by featuring all of those references with a smidgen of Evil Dead creeping in via the camera work. These types of films need a template only as an excuse for vicious slaughter but also actual visual, vicious slaughter because this is certainly the majority of the time otherwise not cinema the genre offers up. Director Lau (whose next film would be Resort Massacre so it's obvious where his mind was at) however has so little means to work with (ferry ride out to the island setting probably ate up half the budget) and subsequently, the various killings don't amount to any fun gorefest at all. Crappy actors performing crappy characters under crappy direction. That would still make The Deadly Camp a gem if it had had an effects department of note. A rare excursion for Hong Kong cinema into this specific genre it is but that's where all notables end.
Anthony Wong gets top billing but only appears sporadically. Enough time to fondle his female co-star and then lend her out to the retarded son of the killing unit of the film. At least he's looking healthier by this point compared to his appearance in Beast Cops the year before. Also starring relative unknowns Samuel Leung, Lam Chi-Sin and Benny Lai. The film has a 1999 in its title and a Deadly Camp 2003 (aka Torturous Adventure 2003) also followed. |
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