Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 20% of 10 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.80/10. [17]
Darren Lucas of moviesreview101.com wrote, "The slasher subgenre has struggled in recent years and after decades of franchises dominating, could we have a new addition? Well, if you are a slasher fan, you are going to have a lot of fun with this movie." [18]
Matt Donato of Bloody Disgusting wrote, "Worse still, the film's slasher elements might be squirting red juices like sprinklers full of Kool-Aid, but the working mechanics that keep the killer slicing and dicing are a mess. There's nothing exceptional about Camp Pleasant Lake despite dialogue that tries to cheekily serve up "epic" sequences of violence — a garden-variety masked and hooded murderer stabs victims with sharp objects who drop to the floor immediately dead." [19]
Jeremy Werner of Moviehole wrote, "All-in-all, "Camp Pleasant Lake" is empty on laughs, empty on suspense, and sometimes empty on gore despite the killer slashing his way through 30 people throughout its runtime. It's really unfortunate because the idea behind the film is fantastic, the look of the killer is great for being low budget, and the killer's origin story could easily be built into a franchise, but it never blossoms." [20]
In B-Sides & Badlands, Bee Delores wrote, "Camp Pleasant Lake knocks off Friday the 13th & Stream - and it's a blast." A staged murder weekend bursts into a nightmarish wasteland worth of any of the Sleepaway Camp sequels." [21]
Michael Gingold of Rue Morgue wrote, "There's no visual invention or stylistic ambition to compensate for the microbudget look and slapdash plotting, which includes a revelation of the killer's identity that's obvious from about the 10-minute mark. Once the malefactor claims victims two separate times right in front of the other characters, and also takes out a bunch of other people in a very conspicuous (if poorly staged) way, and no one ever acknowledges, addresses or discusses these actual slayings, Camp Pleasant Lake has descended from tedious and grating to downright insulting to the intelligence. Even the most die-hard of slasher fans are advised to take their vacation elsewhere." [22]
John Soltes of Hollywood Soapbox wrote, "The acting in the movie, which is written and directed by Thomas Walton, doesn't add up to much, although there are some sinister delights from The Nun's Bonnie Aarons. The jokes don't land, and the horror is never terrifying enough for the audience to care too much. The kills are gratuitous and not terribly original." [23]
In Spectrum Culture, Miyako Pleines wrote, "There is so much tonal dissonance in this film that it becomes totally unwatchable after a point. Nothing is surprising to the viewer, and it's obvious from the very first scene who the real killers are. Basically, the story is the sort of movie you expect a seventh-grader to turn in for her English class. The only difference is that it might actually be more interesting to read that seventh-grader's story than it is to watch this film. Camp Pleasant Lake is a movie that makes you realize that it's actually truly hard to, well, make a movie. Not just anyone can do it. These people certainly can't." [24]
J Hurtado of Screen Anarchy wrote, "There's nothing new in Camp Pleasant Lake, and the things that are familiar aren't even executed well, leaving the audience to wonder what exactly is the point? The film attempts to place itself in the universe of meta horrors, acknowledging the bloodthirsty nature of many fans of the genre, the idea that the context of the bloodletting is inconsequential just as long as it doesn't stop flowing. And there is something to that idea, but the film has no interest in investigating this mindset, rather it mocks these fans as they are gleefully picked off, one by one. " [25]
In Scare Value, Bryan Staebell wrote, "The story of Camp Pleasant Lake is one of concept vs. execution. Unfortunately, the latter wins out too often. There is a fundamentally great idea at the core. When the movie is able to take advantage of it...the movie hits some nice highs. There is also a fun performance by Jonathan Lipnicki. In the end, however, there it's trying to serve too many masters." [26]
