For many genre film enthusiasts in the UK, the mythic and beloved all-American horror setting of the summer camp is something akin to an alien world, and while similar experiences exist for young people here, they’re often provided through schools or organisations like the Scouts or Guides. This is why there’s often a certain level of detachment between British viewers and horror films that attempt to put a sinister spin on childhood memories of bunking in log cabins and kayaking with friends.
The summer camp slasher is a slightly strange and fascinating phenomenon as very few examples of the subgenre actually take place at an active camp. The directors of many ‘80s stalk-and-slash favourites considered the idea of casting or endangering child characters a step too far. Instead they opted for the familiar and successful victim formula of camp counsellors, depicting many of them engaging in a variety of illicit activities while neglecting their pre-seasonal duties. A handful of notable exceptions exist such as Joe Giannone’s Madman (1981), Robert Hiltzik’s infamous Sleepaway Camp (1983), and now Daniel DelPurgatorio’s Marshmallow (2025) – a new addition to this small yet valuable canon. With its UK premiere at this year’s FrightFest in London, this nostalgia-fuelled curiosity takes viewers on a trip back to summer camp, and from early in the film it’s a place that DelPurgatorio suggests is inherently a little odd.
With its charming, spooky tale of kids banding together to fight back against the monsters that lurk in the dark, Marshmallow is a summer camp nightmare that lies somewhere between Fear Street: 1978 (2021), and The Black Phone (2022).
Marshmallow follows Morgan (Kue Lawrence), an introverted 12-year-old boy who, after the the recent passing of his beloved grandpa, Roy (Corbin Bernsen – best known to horror fans as the titular malpractitioner in 1996’s The Dentist), is reluctantly sent to Camp Almar by his parents. They hope it will be will be a welcome distraction for the boy, and things start off relatively smoothly as Morgan quickly befriends several of his fellow campers. Things change when one of the counsellors tells a particularly nasty campfire-story involving a mad doctor, who supposedly performed gruesome surgical experiments on the land where the camp now stands. Already plagued by recurring nightmares, grief, and a crippling fear of water, Morgan starts seeing a mysterious figure in medical garb walking amongst the cabins at night, but is our nervous young lead seeing things, or is the mad doctor more than just a campfire legend?
With its charming, spooky tale of kids banding together to fight back against the monsters that lurk in the dark, Marshmallow is a summer camp nightmare that lies somewhere between Fear Street: 1978 (2021), and The Black Phone (2022). Over the past decade we’ve seen plenty of “kids on bikes” films that play on older viewers’ nostalgia with ‘80s media homages and synth soundtracks, but Marshmallow manages to avoid feeling tired thanks to DelPurgatorio’s strong direction and ability to craft atmosphere – an impressive feat given that this is his feature directorial debut. The director knows that the material is familiar, and he plays to the strengths of its tried-and-tested genre tropes, making Marshmallow fairly comfortable and enjoyable genre viewing. This is backed by a handful of strong performances from the film’s young leads, which make the slasher set-pieces and chase sequences of the latter half feel all the more tense.
Of course, that isn’t to say that there aren’t any surprises as some of the revelations inform so much of what makes this film interesting – to the point where I risk underselling Marshmallow as a surprisingly unique and haunting work of young-adult horror. To say any more would be to give the game away, and as Grandpa Roy notes during one of the film’s opening scenes, “surprises can be a wonderful thing” – so why not take a little trip to Camp Almar? You’ll never forget it.
