Freeform joins the increasing tendency of networks that are offering horror shows, with this new series that has a mix of 80’s pop culture, old campy horror movies, and a good deal of secrets and mistery.
Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis and Ian Goldberg having under their belt shows like Lost or Once Upon a Time, bring into the first episode flashbacks and the mistery that plagued Lost and made the place, where everything happens, feel like another character. Camp Stillwater has an agenda of its own, as much as the director or the new counselors.
The episode starts with a flashback where we see a man playing the piano and a, pretty much, amateur army, avenging the alleged deaths this man has committed. The camera pans out of the cabin where the man is found, and bodies start surfacing on the lake where the water becomes bloody. It continues to introduce the counselors, a group of teenagers finishing high school that look and speak as archetypes, but as the episodes continues, little by little, the audience discovers the secrets they have, or glimpses into what they’re hiding.
When the counselors arrive to the camp they’re greeted by the Director, Deb Carpenter (played by Elizabeth Mitchell) she gives a cheerful speech of what the camp means to her and how it’s a safe place where everyone can be what they want to be, but it’s interrupted by a little mouse falling into a trap, and after one of the teens, Amy, saves the little animal, Dave, the creepy gardener makes his appearance. The whole sequence settles that the High School Musical, or Wet Hot American Summer (sans the satire) vibe is not the style of the show, but the eerie kind and suspense will be the leading theme of it.
Between campfires and games the episode progresses and weird things start happening. First they find a deer dead with its guts open, then Dave’s corpse is floating in the lake, third, when the deputy and Amy are investigating Dave's cabin, it “magically” sets on fire and finally the man we see in the first flashback, is hunting the place as seen on Joel's video camera. Adding a node to The Blair Witch Project or found-footage genre too. Also, some ghosts make an appearance.
Meanwhile as the mystery develops the camp owner, is not what she seems to be. Elizabeth Mitchell is definitely in her element, playing the type of character whose cheerfulness and seemingly kindness hides a dark agenda. If there’s an actress that can play sketchiness and just this whole spectrum of emotions through her eyes is her and she does it wonderfully. If you have watched Lost you might be struggling, like me, to understand if she’s really evil, or her character is like Juliet Burke, doing everything to survive. As it was said before, Camp Stillwater has a purpose on its own, just like the Island.
Lost parallels aside, Dead of Summer is a show between the lines of what it could be and what it is; the perfect mix of horror movies lead by teenagers with a good cast and crew, and the mix of genres and dialogues that are borderline clichés that were sometimes present in the pilot. The rest of the season, and as the mystery moves forward, will settle its tone; the show definitely has potential, especially because of the more than wonderful cast.
What did you think?
What did you think?
