Underrated summer camp mystery/slasher
A summer camp in the northeastern USA is reopening after it was shutdown 15 years earlier due to the mysterious deaths of a couple girls. The author of the book that made the camp famous is invited out for the celebration (Christian Oliver), but people start dying again. Larisa Oleynik & Christine Donlon run the camp while Don Frye plays their stepfather. Erin Daniels appears as the author’s wife.
"Animal Among Us" (2019) is an Indie horror in the summer camp murder mold à la “Madman” (1981) and, of course, the 80’s “Friday the 13th” flicks. Unlike those movies, however, it’s less of a slasher and the last act is twistier, which some criticize as “convoluted.”
The average rating on the internet is excessively low and simply not accurate. This is a well-made low-budget camp slasher with defined characters, an atmospheric score, a fairly compelling mystery and all-around proficient filmmaking for what it is. There’s a bit o’ humor, mostly surrounding the campy Bigfoot-hunter, but otherwise it’s a relatively serious murder mystery taking place at a summer camp.
On the feminine front, Christine Donlon has a striking face & eyes while Whitney Davis is an alluring Latina. Jasmine Dustin, Camryn Molnar and Gracie Young are also on hand (the latter two in very brief roles) but more coulda been done with them.
The film runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in Lebanon, Ohio, about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati, with some scenes done in Los Angeles.
GRADE: B-
