capkronos More ambitious low-budget filmmakers try to overcome their limitations, while the rest simply embrace them. This is definitely a case of the latter, where the director and cast pretty much know they're making a piece of silly crud and decide to have a little fun with it. It almost reminded me a bit of DON'T GO IN THE WOODS, a film whose "plot" basically consisted of a bunch of random people wandering into the woods just long enough to get killed by some maniac. Of course this one has zombies instead of a maniac, and an even lower budget if you can imagine that, but it's surprisingly similar in many ways; starting with four poorly-defined people going camping, then introducing a bunch of insignificant characters who exist just to die. Bunny (Misty Orman), her boyfriend Steve (John M. Davis), her best friend Tammy (Tiffany Black) and Steve's friend Trevor (Jeremy Schwab), who is being set up on a blind date with Tammy, decide to spend their weekend camping out near a lake. There they set up camp, sit around talking, make out (while some terrible song goes "Yeah... Oh yeah... So Nice..." in a deep Isaac Hayes like voice) and run into four bikini-clad girls who invite them to a party the next day. After about a half-hour of pointless filler that will bore most viewers into a coma, a meteor shower erupts and fragments hit a nearby graveyard, bringing the dead to life. The badly made-up zombies then go on a rampage around the campground, killing off and eating whoever crosses their path. Make no mistake, this movie is completely and utterly awful. I cannot think of any redeeming qualities it has from a technical standpoint; direction, acting, script, zombie makeups, editing, sound and cinematography are all the pits. There are also several instances of atrocious CGI that make the effects in Sci-Fi Channel flicks look Oscar worthy by comparison. However, this movie did make me laugh a lot. I'll admit it. I kind of enjoyed watching it. Whether it be the horribly delivered lines of dialogue or the fact that every single female cast member who wandered into frame was dressed in a bikini top and cut off jean shorts, this one had plenty to amuse bad movie fans. Strangely, there's no nudity aside from a two second shot of the top of an ass when a zombie girl's towel falls off. In fact, this movie makes a running gag out of the fact the director obviously couldn't afford to pay any of the ladies to take their tops off. The two female leads change into their bikins UNDER the top they already have on. Another who is changing into a bikini is hidden behind a tree branch that keeps MOVING up and down to make sure nothing is seen. That had to be intentional, right? I hope that was intentional...My absolute favorite scene in the whole movie, which I had to rewind and watch like five times because it was so hilarious, involved a pair of lesbian characters who get killed. One has her throat ripped out and sprays an exaggerated amount of blood on the other big-breasted girl who's wearing a flimsy white top. Then that girl tries to run away, but gets ambushed by more zombies, who grab her and rip both of her arms off. Well, they rip the arms off an obvious mannequin torso. Then the armless girl keeps on a running, trips over a tree limb and then falls down and smacks her head off a rock. That's the highlight (or is that lowlight?) of this particular flick.After a painfully slow first half, this became a bit livelier toward the end, with more cheap gore effects, more cheap action and more cheap scenes of screaming girls in bikinis being pulled to the ground by three or four zombies. It's all stupid and amateurish as can be, but I had a bit of fun watching it and reveling in its stupidity. One thing that I absolutely hated were snippets of dialogue making references to it just being a stupid zombie film, as well as characters looking directly into the camera and mugging. Is that EVER funny? These movies, bad or not, always play better without being so obvious.

Mitch Rogers A bit disjointed at moments but overall a great religious allegory. From some of the other reviews it is obvious that many people didn't "get it". The zombie motif is a brilliant metaphor for the ham-fisted efforts of the L.D.S. religion. The zombies symbolize the persistent evangelical (and often mindless)efforts of its missionaries. The story seems to be designed to be entertaining yet not overly preachy in its critique of Mormon and other evangelical religious cultures.I found the abortive use of (almost) nudity to represent the sexual repression at play within the evangelical community at large. The director seems to be throwing Mormon hypocrisy at us, forcing us to examine our own conflicted values.Today's current religious climate has made films such as Zombie Campout necessary. Here in the bible belt it is increasingly difficult to engage in constructive dialogs regarding religion. It appears that the writer chose the L.D.S. community for this metaphor as it seems to be the most glaringly obvious match for the analogy. I am sure that it took some amazing courage to produce this film and to find funding for something so critical of a mainstream religion.Though some may find the religious overtones too subtle to grapple with I think this film will stand the test of time as the zombie novelty wears off. This film will go a long way to further religious diversity and tolerance.

justjammin HA!! This movie is so bad!! BUT I LOVED IT!!!So the director shares a birthday with Ed Wood (of Plan 9 fame) it's obvious that it's his first movie. But you know what, it made me laugh, seriously, through and through. I mean, they had to have no budget for this film, but considering it's finished, and the DVD quality is great, I'm really impressed.So I picked up the DVD at the Fango convention, and met the beautiful Misty Orman in person, she was super nice too. (And even more attractive in person.) She told me I would laugh, she was right I did laugh, and I laughed a lot!Anyway, these other reviews below say pretty much the same thing I was going to say. It has some rough spots, but overall, it's pretty great. I'm seriously looking forward to the next project these guys put out!!Bottom line, if you only like big budget stuff, and can't appreciate ultra low budget, very in your face funny, then stay away. But, if you have any ounce of intelligence and are up for a good hearty laugh, then go buy this DVD. IT'S TOTALLY WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!

ajservo2 It doesn't really know what it wants to be. If Zombie Campout is trying for Evil Dead funny, it's not quite fast enough or jump out of your seat enough. If it's aiming for Dawn of the dead, it's not horrific enough. As it is, the movie plays out like a big reflexive horror movie about movies. It's just kinda scattershot as to where it wants to be at the end of the day.This is looks to be Mr. Smith's first effort, and by the look of the credits, it's obvious he poured alot of his own sweat and effort into this film. The film has it's share of flubs (texas lic. plates everywhere, and the comet lands in northern Mexico) but it's really all in the details, and this film doesn't need to mess with it. There's no mics in frame, or crew members in the shot (well, maybe one...)It's got some good laughs, the cast looks like they had fun (smiling zombies tell all) making it, and has really nice gore FX for a budget like this. I did spot a rubber baseball bat, otherwise everything was appropriately nasty looking when it needed to be. There aren't any FX where someone's passing off cow liver as a victim's stomach (like Romero's done...) so big ups on originality in the gore. One of the victims looked like she was really missing her arms...I'd recommend it to someone who likes a good laugh, or anyone wanting to stage a MST3K-eque show. Better than Manos: the hands of fate or Red Zone Cuba, but maybe not some of the later Police Academy movies. I eagerly await whatever Mr. Smith does next.