SPIRIT CAMP slashes DVD; actress talks

By Michael Gingold

Kerry Beyer, writer/producer/director of the cheerleader-slasher opus SPIRIT CAMP, has made the film available for on-line DVD purchase, and sent along the disc specs. And just ’cause we can’t get enough of sexy actress Julin, who co-stars in it (and previously discussed her roles in BOGGY CREEK and THE FINAL with us), we’ve got a few comments from her about the movie as well.

The disc presents the movie in 16x9-enhanced widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and includes the following extras:

• Audio commentary by Beyer

• Production featurette

• Theatrical trailer

It’s available from the SPIRIT CAMP official website, and if you place your order by March 1, you can get it for the discount price of $19.95 instead of the regular cost of $26.95. And for $29.95, you can get a special limited edition that comes with an autographed print and signed pair of panties!

SPIRIT CAMP is set at a cheerleader camp where a Goth chick named Nikki (Roxy Vandiver) is sent after spending time in a juvenile correctional facility, and where she immediately gets on the bad side of the squad’s leader, Rachel (Julin). Soon all the girls confront a new enemy, however: a mysterious killer bent on bumping them all off. Brandon Smith, Megan Moser, Amy Morris and Jon Paul Burkhart also star.

The Houston, TX-based Julin, who got her screen start on TV’s TEXAS LIVE SHOW, tells Fango, “SPIRIT CAMP was my first audition, and I was recommended to the director by my acting teacher at the time. I was going to try out for the head cheerleader, Missy, because I thought that was more of a lead role, but then I went in and Kerry was like, ‘Why don’t you read for Rachel?’, who was more of a crazy bitch. So I went in there totally psycho, and he said, ‘Yes, you got it.’ And then it turned out that Rachel was an even bigger part than Missy.”

Getting “stuck in the woods for a couple of weeks” with a largely female cast for the SPIRIT CAMP shoot was a kick for the up-and-coming actress. “We had all the food we wanted in our cabin, and we would just wake up, have our breakfast and go exploring, because most of the shoot was at night,” she recalls. “It was really cool, I loved it. We were a bunch of perverts, so we always made sick jokes just to keep the energy up. Kerry was great; he’s a photographer, so he knew how to light. He’s also an actor, so he cast the right people for the right roles and he could just say a couple of words to get us in the zone.”

Beyer also served as movie’s cinematographer, editor and score composer, “which is why it took three years for the movie to come out!” Julin laughs. “It’s pretty awesome; he did a terrific job, though he said for his next one, he’s definitely going to have more of a team on board.” And the actress wants to be part of that team. “After SPIRIT CAMP was over,” she recalls, “I was like, ‘Man, I want to do this over and over.’ We were all like, ‘Sob. When are we gonna do it again?’ ” You can visit SPIRIT CAMP’s Facebook page here.