DVD Review: Scream Park

By Brad Henderson

It seems like there are four to five low-budget horror films hitting DVD every week lately, and most of them are not very good. I admire the work and effort that the individuals put into these projects, but at the end of the day you have to ask: Is the film good? Unfortunately, the answer is “no” the majority of the time, but we do get some kickass ones like Scream Park.

Scream Park looks and feels like something we have seen countless times in the past 15 years but it took me by surprise. It was partially funded by contributors of a failed Indiegogo campaign as well as a successful Kickstarter project and it’s also the first feature brought to us by an obvious fan of your typical ’80s horror flick, Cary Hill.

Of course, Scream Park has its issues, but for a low-budget slasher that is made in the same vein as its predecessors I think they did one hell of a job. The problems with the film will hopefully provide a learning curve for the director as he brings us more goodies. Most of the problems can be overlooked because they really don’t affect the film to the point where you want to give up on it.

Right from the beginning of Scream Park there are tributes to notorious films such as Friday The 13th (first movie and Part 3), Halloween, Scream, Final Exam, Return Of The Living Dead, The Last House On The Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and many others. That is another reason why I enjoyed this flick: it has a little more to offer to us hardcore horror fans and pleases us in a few more ways than just one. Horror throwbacks are continually being released now and honestly, it’s getting a bit old. Every once in a while we get a nice little piece of cinema and Scream Park is in that pile.

One thing I was little upset about was that they didn’t use very original artwork for the DVD cover. In many cases, that can help set the tone before we even watch the film. Instead the Scream Park DVD has most generic artwork possible. It looks horrible but I imagine that isn’t the filmmakers’ fault.

If you do seek out Scream Park DO NOT READ the synopsis. I read the back of the DVD and it gave away the surprise, which was incredibly irritating. Just go into the film knowing it is a slasher in a theme park and you will be happy.

Scream Park was released on DVD on April 22 by Wild Eye Releasing.