If there is one thing Horror movies have taught me, it’s that summer camps are the safest places on Earth. Nothing bad has ever happened at a summer camp in Horror movies. And in keeping with the grand tradition of high security, murder-free summer camps filmmaker Daniel DelPurgatorio makes his feature debut with the genre-bending, kid-killing, (award-winning!) Marshmallow. Celebrating its World Premiere at Panic Fest 2025, where it also took home Best Feature and Best Director, Marshmallow is a choose-your-own-adventure style Horror flick that plays on your expectations and remixes the classic Spooky Summer Camp template in clever and unpredictable ways.
If you’ve seen a handful of movies in a specific subgenre, the worry about spending time on a new one is that you’ve been there, seen that. Marshmallow knows that you’ve seen Sleepaway Camp and The Burning and Friday The 13th, and cleverly plays into those films tropes without giving away exactly what kind of movie it really is right away. Similar to Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever or Drew Goddard’s Cabin in The Woods, the groundwork for 11 different shades of Horror is built before the film eventually shows its true colors.
“If there is one thing Horror movies have taught me, it’s that summer camps are the safest places on earth.”
…Which makes a movie like Marshmallow a little hard to talk about without giving away its best kept secrets. That said, the exact subgenre director Daniel DelPurgatorio and writer Andy Greskoviak (Black Friday) eventual choose is not something you typically see, and makes for a lot of great Horror fun. Again, specificity is a little difficult here but like Jazz music, it’s more of a film language conversation about what the film isn’t, than what it ultimately is. Counselors, Bullies, Campfire Stories- these are all key components in a Summer Camp Horror, but how Marshmallow uses these building blocks to construct something new is the reason for the season.
The premise buried behind red herrings and misdirects is really clever and one that I wish they had more time to explore. The finale of the movie is a great prologue for (I think) an even more interesting story, and it is always a little frustrating to watch a 90-minute trailer for another idea. But to it’s credit, Marshmallow is full of good ideas, boasts a surprisingly talented cast of young folks (as well as a fun supporting performance from Club Dread‘s Paul Soter), and works overtime to subvert your expectations.
“The premise buried behind red herrings and misdirects is really clever and one that I wish they had more time to explore.”
Daniel DelPurgatorio’s Marshmallow celebrated its World Premiere at Panic Fest 2025, where the film won Best Feature and Best Director! Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival and let us know all about the scary campfire stories you heard at camp over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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