‘Marshmallow’ Review: The Kids Are Not All Right in Sinister Summer Camp Slasher [Panic Fest 2025]

Matt Konopka   |  

Apr 2, 2025

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Some would say one of the best parts about being a kid is not knowing. To a certain degree, it’s a gift not to know. Because when we do start to understand and leave behind our innocence like discarded snakeskin…that’s when things get scary. But that doesn’t mean that we should lie to kids, either. What some adults see as “protecting” youth is often robbing them of knowledge they deserve to have. Daniel DelPurgatorio’s feature debut, Marshmallow, tells a coming-of-age campfire tale that’s all about the horror of discovery, as well as the ways adults keep secrets from children. Convoluted and absurd as this grim summer camp slasher meets Goosebumps story becomes, it nonetheless resonates at a time when one too many adolescents aren’t being told the truth about the society they exist in.

Bullied boy Morgan (Kue Lawrence) has just lost his grandfather (Corbin Bernsen) to a heart attack. Believing that summer camp will do everyone some good, Morgan’s parents drop him off at Camp Almar, where kids “come to grow”. Part of that growth apparently comes in the guise of a scary story, as campers are told the tale of “The Doctor”, a local crazed surgeon who murdered his wife and two children, then sewed them together to become the perfect family. Late one night, Morgan believes he sees the Doctor roaming outside his cabin. But, as a frightened kid who suffers from nightmares, no one believes him. Is it all in Morgan’s head, or is there really a madman out there, roaming the woods?

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I’m not going to tell you the answer (I’m not a monster). What I will say is that Marshmallow is not your average summer camp slasher. Not even close. This isn’t Friday the 13^th, or The Burning, or Madman. Sure, there are some promiscuous counselors, and drugs, and a masked villain that will remind some of My Bloody Valentine’s Miner with the glowing headlamp that they were. But this is much more of a psychological horror film that subverts expectations and peers into the murky lake of childhood.

DelPurgatorio’s debut is like an R.L. Stine Goosebumps novel, akin to Welcome to Camp Nightmare or The Horror at Camp Jellyjam. Kids go missing. Adults don’t seem trustworthy. There’s a sinister strangeness percolating in the misty air. And through it all, Morgan experiences the awkward trials and tribulations of adolescence, including developing a sweet crush on fellow camper Pilar (Kai Cech). She gives him candy to show she likes him, and let me tell you, it is adorable.

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Now, you might be thinking this sounds like fun gateway horror. Not so fast. DelPurgatorio and writer Andy Greskoviak (Black Friday) strap this story with an insidious tone accompanied by gruesome imagery. The very first scene shows a nightmare in which Morgan’s belly is split, water erupting from his stomach like a volcano. His grandfather dies a minute later. One kid is beaten to a bloody pulp. Children are shocked with a cattle prod. There are even a few images that would be at home in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses. Think something like Sleepaway Camp, where the death of kids is by no means off the table, and there’s a sensation of grimy nastiness emanating from the screen.

For some audiences, that sort of taboo-breaking adds to the horror with the knowledge that anything can happen. For others, it’s just unpleasant. Add in Morgan’s constant nightmares of granddad shouting at him like a belligerent Freddy Krueger, and you have a movie that makes for a difficult watch, depending on your stomach for the above.

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The difficulty is the point, though. This is not some inspirational tale about the kid who finds his inner strength and overcomes bullying. It’s about the way the adult world picks on kids by gaslighting them. By not listening to them. By ignoring their personal wants and needs. Parents think they’re doing right by, say, banning books with ideas they don’t want their kids reading about. But that’s just an attempt to mold their children into who they want them to be instead of allowing them to be who they are. Marshmallow slices through the concept of shielding kids “for their own good”. Granted, the latter half of Greskoviak’s script stumbles over some pacing issues while unveiling plot points that are more head-scratching than shocking, but the overall message resonates regardless.

Atmospheric. Sinister. Featuring a talented cast of youths, Marshmallow isn’t the summer camp slasher you might expect. It’s an encouraging debut from DelPurgatorio that, at the very least, shows he’s a director unafraid to take risks. The violence against children will most certainly be a turn-off for some, but I can’t say it isn’t effective in upsetting the audience in the way the filmmakers intend by expressing the pain and confusion real-world kids are feeling. Marshmallow is a frustrated film that acts as a timely reminder that the kids are not all right. Some adults may like to think of them as soft, moldable beings, but keeping them away from the truth roasts all of us over the campfire in the end.