Camp Slaughter, also released as Camp Daze is a 2005 horror film where four young adults, Angela, Jen, Mario, and Vade, traveling along a back road shortcut on their way to Boston in 2005, find themselves somehow transported into a time loop at Camp Hiawatha, where two campers were killed August 26th, 1981. Every day, the campers are picked off one by one by the killer, and every morning, they're alive again, seemingly unaware of what's going on. Only two people in the camp, counselors Daniel and Ivan, seem to be aware of the loop, albeit not able to act much outside of their characters, and enlist the quartet to put things right. Except, some of the camp members are hiding their own secrets...
This film exhibits the following tropes:
- The '80s: The camp is trapped in the 80s, including many of the somewhat regrettable fashion choices such as most of the male counselors wearing cutoff shirts and booty shorts.
- Annoying Arrows: Averted, although possibly in part because the arrows are shown to be broadhead arrows, and they generally impale vital areas like eyes and necks.
- Blade Enthusiast: Michelle, one of the campers, has a hobby of making weaponry ranging from arrows to spears to crossbows. They're also used as props for the camp play. And by the killer. That's because Daniel and Ivan recruited them.
- Booby Trap: An unusual case in that none are set up to kill the person setting them off, but rather the action of setting them off killing someone else.
- Daydream Surprise: Mario watches as the drama teacher gets frustrated by the poor performance of the campers and begins slaughtering them... only to wake up with the rehearsal ending with everyone alive.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Camp Hiawatha is stuck in loop of the day of the massacre.
- Hanging Around: This method of killing shows up several times, often in the form of a death trap where another camper's action causes the death by knocking their support out from under them.
- Head Crushing: One of the campers manages to twist out of a belt looped over a tree and across his neck, only to be killed as the killer progressively tightens the belt, now caught around his head, until he's dead.
- Hooks and Crooks: One of the weapons the killer uses repeatedly is a billhook.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Repeatedly. With machetes, with spears, with pitchforks...
- Red Herring: The killer is shown to be wearing the same yellow work gloves as Lou, the groundskeeper, but they're innocent. In fact, he killed Daniel, Ivan, Ruben, and Michelle the first time.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Daniel and Ivan remember the events of each loop. As does Lou the groundskeeper, who feels responsible for not stopping them the first time.
- Unnaturally Looping Location: When the quartet attempt to walk away, they find themselves right back at the entrance to the camp.
