Body Count (1986 film)

Body Count (Italian: Camping del terrore) is a 1986 Italian slasher film directed by Ruggero Deodato. The film is about a group of vacationing teenagers who enter an abandoned camp site that was formerly an Indian burial ground. One by one, they begin to be killed off.

Body Count
Directed byRuggero Deodato
Screenplay by
Story byAlessandro Capone
CinematographyEmilio Loffredo[1]
Edited byMario Morra[1]
Music byClaudio Simonetti[1]
Production
company
Racing Pictures[1]
Distributed byTitanus[1]
Release dates
  • 1986 (1986)
  • 15 May 1987 (1987-05-15) (Italy)
CountryItaly[2]

The film was initially to be made by Alessandro Capone, but directing was taken over by Deodato during production. The film's script was changed on set by screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti while production was troubled by weather in the Abruzzi region. Retrospective reviews of the film have commented that it was derivative of American slasher films of the era.

Plot

A gang of vacationing teenagers drive out to an abandoned campsite that was shut down years before, due to the murder of a young couple that occurred there. The area was formerly an old Indian burial ground and is believed to be haunted by the spirit of an Indian shaman. One by one, the kids are killed off in gruesome ways, whom they believe to be the Indian shaman returned to life.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in the Italian Abruzzi region for four weeks. Director Ruggero Deodato entered the films production to take over for Alessandro Capone who had written the films script. Dardano Sacchetti also entered to do re-writes for the film during production. The film was plagued by a bad production, due to the bad weather in the Abruzzo region.[3]

Release

Body Count was first released in 1986 and then released in Italy on May 15, 1987.[4][3][2] Film critic and historian Roberto Curti stated that the Italian theatrical release was very brief.[3] The film was released on home video in Australia, Holland and the United Kingdom as Body Count.[5] In Denmark, it was released on home video as Shamen.[5]

Critical reception

From retrospective reviews, Adrian Luther Smith in his book on Italian giallo found that the film had a "great cast of Italian exploitation regulars to go waste in a cynical production which should never have been made."[6] Luther Smith stated that the film score by Claudio Simonetti was "the one feature of the film everyone seems to applaud."[6] A review from the online film database Allmovie called it a "derivative slasher entry" and "one of Deodato's least interesting films."[2]

Deodato later spoke about the film, stating that "It's not bad. But perhaps it was more suited for a director like [Lamberto] Bava or Fulci."[3]

References
  1. "Camping del terrore (1987)". Archviodelcinemaitaliano.it (in Italian). Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  2. Firsching, Robert. "Camping del Terrore (1986) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie. Archived from the original on April 27, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  3. Curti 2022, p. 377.
  4. Curti 2022, p. 9.
  5. Luther Smith 1999, p. 17.
  6. Luther Smith 1999, p. 15.

Sources
  • Curti, Roberto (2022). Italian Giallo in Film and Television. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-8248-8.
  • Luther Smith, Adrian (1999). Blood & Black Lace. Stray Cat Publishing. ISBN 0-9533261-1-X.
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