Animal Among Us

source: Animal Among Us

I read the naysayer reviews and thought they may have missed the point. This a fun twist on the camp murders. Some of the dialogue was silly. Some of the acting was overblown. But it was fun. It also had some comedic relief throughout. Overall it's not high art but it's worth a watch.

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-

Professor Roland Bumgarner (Roland Baumgarner) is married with a child and one on the way. Pretty co-eds throw themselves at him and he doesn't mind. He is best known for his fictionalized version of the Merrymaker Campground murders. Anita (Larisa Oleynik) and Poppy (Christine Donlon) Bishop are the owners of the infamous campground soon scheduled for a re-opening after a seven-year hiatus. Burl Wolf (Don Frye) is the rough step-father. There is also a Mexican woman (Whitney Davis) who was recently attacked. Jonathan Murphy plays a Bigfoot blogger like Dana Carvey as he searches for Sirquatch. What is clear is that the folks who work at the campground are hiding something. That is the only real mystery outside of some minor twists. And even with that, there are limited options. The film created great characters. At one point I" disliked" all of them because they were all rascals. The main problem was the scriptwriter (Jonathan Murphy) didn't know what to do with these characters once he spent all this time to create them. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Very good movie..loved the ending! Hats off to the cast and crew!

Just pure crappy 7th grade movie project. Don't waste your time on this laughable garbage. Not scary. Not interesting. Not worth your time. YUCK!

Overall the plot of this movie was awesome. There were a couple of holes in the story but definitely had me wondering what was going on. And the ending was definitely a surprise

Fifteen years ago, two teenage girls were murdered at Merrymaker Campgrounds. Everyone thought it was just an animal attack, the case was closed, the camp was condemned and the killer never found. But whatever or whoever it was, it still waits in the woods, ready to kill again. This film from director John Woodruff - his first full-length movie - was written by Jonathan Murphy. They had previously worked together on the project The Stalker Experiment. Larisa Oleynik plays Anita Bishop and you may remember her from 10 Things I Hate About You, Mad Men, The Secret World of Alex Mack and The Baby-Sitters Club. That's not the only person you'll recognize in this movie. Heather Tom from The Bold and the Beautiful shows up, as does Christian Oliver (Snake Oiler from the Speed Racer movie) and Don Frye. That's right - former UFC fighter and New Japan Pro Wrestling monster heel and the man who turned Yoshihiro Takayama's face into pudding, Don Frye! Seriously, this film is worth watching just for seeing Frye. He should be in The Expendables. He's a legit tough guy, after all. Oliver plays Roland Baumgarner, a writer who wrote a famous book all about the murders. He's been invited to cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the new Merrymaker Camp. That seems like a bad idea. Guess what? It is. The horror that Roland wrote about has now come back to potentially end his life.

Fast forwarded the last 45 mins. Just couldn't handle some of the cringeworthy acting.

I found this movie a reasonably good watch, the acting isn't terrible, the plot is pretty good so long as you actually watch the whole film. If you quit half way through you will have missed a big part of the story.