SCREAM PARK

  2012/18/81m

“Death is the new attraction.”

Director/Writer: Cary Hill / Cast: Wendy Wygant, Steve Rudzinski, Alicia Marie Marcucci, Kyle Riordan, Tyler Kale, Kailey Marie Harris, Dean Jacobs, Doug Bradley, Nicole Beattie, Brian McDaniel, Ian Lemmon.

Body Count: 10

Laughter Lines: “Sometimes, when I’m here at work, I just fantasize about being crushed in the gears of a ride.”

Be not fooled by that artwork, this cheapo production is littered with issues that plague low-budget filmmaking, but is at least worth a look at for fans of the early, grainy Friday the 13th instalments, which appear to have influenced a fair whack of its aesthetic. Spoilers ensue.

The youthful employees at Fright Land work their final shift before the closure of the park for good, due to low ticket sales. They decide to stick around and have a party, which is soon crashed by a pair of masked lunatics who waste no time in hanging, slashing, and deep-frying them one by one. This is one of the few films where the black guy literally does die first.

Obvious final girl Jennifer is concerned about where her missing boyfriend might be, while dragging the dead weight of the wimpy park manager around everywhere she goes, eventually finding out that the park owner (Hellraiser‘s Doug Bradley) has decided to try and turn around their bad fortunes by staging ‘an incident’ that will drag in the crowds.

Mucho dialogue of the “quit screwing around” variety ensues, and the rather dilapidated look of the park pleasantly echoes Camp Crystal Lake’s grubby, rundown cabins. However, there are sound and visual problems throughout, debuting with the frankly bizarre pagination-from-hell title card:

I mean… why???

Scream Park isn’t a good film, but beyond the low-end presentation and amateur-night performances (the survivor is interviewed by a cop, who finishes talking with her by saying “Thanks – take it easy.” Dude, she just saw eight people die!) there’s some fun to be had – and it’s great to finally see someone go for the eyes after years of shouting at the screen for them to do it!

Blurb-of-interest: Doug Bradley was in Wrong Turn 5.