The Horror Show
Scare Campaign
by Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
If you’re in the mood for some horror with a fun story and comedic elements speckled throughout, Scare Campaign is the movie for you!
It all begins with a small crew setting up for another episode of the popular “Scare Campaign” television show. The long-running show is known for its horrifying pranks on unsuspecting participants and right off the bat the film shows how sometimes these pranks go wrong, but fortunately for the crew, ultimately creates what they thing is a better episode than anticipated.
We cut to the Network meeting room and the crew of Scare Campaign is shown a series of online snuff videos that are growing in popularity. Ratings for Scare Campaign are down as it seems that people are more into the violent, anonymous web series and the Network is giving the show one more chance to really blow things out of the water or else they’ll be canceled.
Things go on from here as expected, but I couldn’t bring myself to see the predictability of the plotline to be a negative thing. There was comedy mixed in at just the right times to keep things interesting and I think the underlying story was told particularly well through elements of horror and violence. What it all boils down to is that greedy Networks and Corporations will stop at nothing to supply what is demanded, no matter the costs.
Scare Campaign is a fun horror film that develops at a decent pace. I never found myself bored or distracted. There’s a good amount of gore and intensity intertwined with an interesting, yet simple, plot that satisfies and entertains. I was reminded of the corny, real-life show Scare Tactics. I’m not sure if that’s what the creators were going for with this film, but hey, I wouldn’t mind one bit if the real, cheesy television show took a few pointers from the film Scare Campaign. Ya know, minus the whole actually killing people thing.
If Silent Retreat had been cast with better actors (except Tedi, he was great) and if it had a story that had centered around the mind of the killer instead of all the useless ham fisted “character building” it could have been an interesting, albeit, cliché slasher film. It just missed the mark completely.
Robin Thompson
The Horror Show Menu.