Camp Blood is a 1999 American direct-to-videoslasher film, written and directed by Brad Sykes. It was followed by seven official sequels, one official spin-off entitled "Ghost of Camp Blood" and one unofficial film entitled Within the Woods. Camp Blood stars Jennifer Ritchkoff as a young woman who travels to a deserted camp with her friends, only to find themselves at the mercies of a killer clown. The film had a home video release on April 4, 2000 and was released to DVD in 2002.
Plot
A guide and a tourist are birdwatching in the shades of Camp Blackwood. They are suddenly attacked by a man wearing a boiler suit and clown mask with a machete. Two hunters come and discover the guide still alive. The clown then appears and murders all of them. The story then focuses on four campers, who are planning a trip to Camp Blackwood. On the way, they meet the madcap Bromley Thatcher. After a brief exchange that includes a warning from Thatcher - "I'm not talking about a ghost here boy, I'm talking about a man, a REAL man, and he's in those woods!" - the group head into Camp Blackwood, now known to the audience as 'Camp Blood'. In the woods, they meet their guide, a butch lesbian known as 'Harris'. After spending the day doing menial tasks such as collecting firewood and setting up camp, the group settle down into their respective tents to enjoy a session of late-night love making. The group awake in the morning to find the burnt-out carcass of Harris on the campfire. The majority of the plot then revolves around the clown chasing the various characters through the woods and brutally murdering all of them but Tricia, who manages to run away from the clown. In attempting to escape the murderous clown, Tricia runs to her deceased boyfriend's automobile. At this point, she meets Thatcher, who attempts to aid the clown by hindering Tricia's escape. In the ensuing melee, Tricia hacks Thatcher to death with the clown's machete, and enters the car and runs over the clown, who is revealed to be Harris. Just as Tricia is driving away safely, the clown appears in the back seat and strangles Tricia into unconsciousness. When Tricia regains consciousness, she is in a mental asylum. After giving Tricia an injection, the 'doctors' depart from the room. It is at this point that Tricia hallucinates the clown entering the room.
Ivonne Armant's character shares a name with the ghostly slasher Mary Lou Maloney from ' and '. However, since Armant's character seems strictly mortal in nature, it is presumed that the two characters are not meant to be one and the same.
Reception
Digital Retribution gave the film a mixed score of one out of five, calling it "a fairly typical slasher", and criticized the film's acting, script, and poor gore effects.
Sequels
Sykes quickly followed up his 1999 release of Camp Blood with a sequel, Camp Blood 2, in October 2000. A third film, Within the Woods, was released in 2005. Sykes wrote and directed both sequels, and actress Jennifer Ritchkoff reprised her role as Tricia Young for Camp Blood 2, but did not return for the third film. A fourth film was released at the beginning 2014 entitled Camp Blood First Slaughter, which was written and directed by Mark Polonia. Three more films were released in 2016: Camp Blood 4, Camp Blood 5, and Camp Blood 666. These were followed by Camp Blood 7 in 2017, The Ghost of Camp Blood in 2018 and Camp Blood 8: Revelations In 2019. These films do not take into account the third movie created by Brad Sykes in the Camp Blood series, Within the Woods.
