Campfires, Creepy Doctors, Goosebumps for Grown-Ups & One Hell of a S'more

There is something rather refreshing about the way ToyRobot Video has approached its opening slate.

We've gone from a 1994 rubber-suited Japanese-American superhero sequel with Guyver: Dark Hero, through the glorious genre schizophrenia of 1981's Roaring Fire, and now we're suddenly staring at a 2025 American indie horror film.

And that is probably the point.

ToyRobot doesn't appear to be interested in simply rummaging around the cinematic attic looking for things that have been forgotten for thirty years. The curation seems broader than that… films that deserve reappraisal, films that slipped through the cracks, films that perhaps didn't get the audience they deserved and, occasionally, films that are recent enough that they haven't even had time to become cult movies yet.

Marshmallow is very much in that latter category.

I actually saw Daniel DelPurgatorio's feature debut last year and came away intrigued. There was clearly something going on underneath what initially looked like another “kids at summer camp/spooky story/ mysterious killer” proposition.

Coming back to it now, that feeling has only strengthened, because Marshmallow is one of those films where the less you know going in, the better.

And if that sounds like I'm avoiding talking about the movie...I absolutely am, because Marshmallow has a secret….And I'm not telling you what it is.

CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE CALLED...

For decades, the summer camp has been one of horror's most reliable holiday destinations.

You know the drill.

Take a bunch of teenagers.
Put them somewhere isolated.
Add a lake.
Give them an irresponsible adult supervisor.
Tell them a story about something horrible that happened there years ago.
Then wait approximately seventeen minutes for somebody to make a terrible decision.

From Friday the 13th through Sleepaway Camp, The Burning and the countless VHS-era imitators that followed, the summer camp became one of horror's most recognisable playgrounds.

Marshmallow knows all of this. In fact, it knows it very well, but rather than simply reheating the formula and serving it with a slightly different mask, writer Andy Greskoviak uses those familiar ingredients as a starting point.

We get the secluded camp.
We get the campfire story.
We get the outsider kid.
We get the bullies.
We get the ragtag group of children who eventually find friendship.
We get the mysterious figure in the woods.
We get nightmares.
We get adults who clearly know more than they're letting on.

And we get that wonderful horror-movie question… “Hang on... is this actually happening?”

The clever part is that Marshmallow keeps changing what it thinks the question is.

MORGAN

At the centre of all this is Morgan, played by Kue Lawrence. Morgan is twelve years old, shy, introverted and struggling to deal with a traumatic experience involving his grandfather.

This is important because Marshmallow isn't really interested in presenting childhood as the carefree, sunshine-and-marshmallows experience the title initially suggests.

Morgan is vulnerable before he even arrives at Camp Almar. He's anxious. He's isolated. He's dealing with grief, and he doesn't exactly stroll into camp radiating confidence.

Instead, he arrives carrying all the emotional baggage you'd expect from a much more adult drama.

That's one of the things I think the film gets surprisingly right. It understands that childhood horror isn't necessarily about being scared of monsters. Sometimes it's about being scared because you're twelve years old and you don't understand what's happening around you.

And that is a much scarier proposition.

WELCOME TO CAMP ALMAR

Camp Almar is initially everything you expect. There are counsellors, cabins, cliques, bullies, outsiders, friendships being formed and, naturally, there is a story about a mysterious figure known as The Doctor.

It's practically impossible not to start mentally ticking boxes.

Summer camp? Check.
Campfire legend? Check.
Creepy woods? Check.
Children behaving like children? Check.
Something horrible lurking nearby? Check.

The genius of the film is that it deliberately allows you to become comfortable with those conventions before beginning to pull the carpet out from underneath them.

And that's where Marshmallow starts becoming something much more interesting than a standard camp slasher.

THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW

The central campfire story is deliberately constructed like the kind of tale you might have heard at a sleepover when you were ten. You know the ones.

Someone says they know someone whose cousin's friend's brother went into the woods and...never came back.

Except in Marshmallow, the legend starts to feel increasingly real. The mysterious figure isn't simply there to provide a few jump scares. The Doctor becomes part of the film's larger mystery. And this is where DelPurgatorio demonstrates one of his biggest strengths.

He knows when not to explain something.

The film gives you pieces, imagery, dreams, strange conversations, little clues and then it waits.

That patience is important because Marshmallow is ultimately built around a huge shift in perspective.

Not a cheap “BOO! It was a ghost!” twist.

Something considerably more ambitious.

GOOSEBUMPS AFTER DARK

If I had to describe Marshmallow in one sentence without spoiling it, I'd probably call it (and I’m not coining something that hasnt already been said) “Goosebumps for people who have mortgages.”

And I mean that as an enormous compliment.

There is a genuine affection for children's horror literature running through the film. It has the sense of discovery you get from a good Goosebumps or Point Horror story. The feeling that you're entering a world where something is fundamentally wrong, but the adults aren't necessarily going to tell you what that thing is.

Except Marshmallow isn't really a children's movie…Not even close.

This is a film that uses children to tell a much more adult story and that contrast is one of its greatest strengths.

The film can look like a nostalgic trip back to childhood horror while quietly discussing some surprisingly mature ideas about grief, fear, knowledge, authority, reality and the things adults choose to hide from children.

It's considerably more grown-up than the premise initially suggests.

And considerably stranger.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE IS CALLING

There's a point where Marshmallow stops being a conventional summer camp horror film and starts wandering into Twilight Zone territory.

I'm deliberately not going any further. No spoilers. No explanation. No YouTube-thumbnail-sized picture of the ending with a big red arrow saying “THEY'RE ACTUALLY—”. (there is a special place in hell for that sorta content)

So…Nope…You're on your own, but the film's final stretch fundamentally changes the context of what you've been watching and I really admire that.

Because there are plenty of modern horror films that advertise themselves as having a huge twist and then deliver something that feels like the writer has simply shuffled the deck and moved three cards around.

Marshmallow at least earns the right to surprise you. It lays groundwork, plays with your assumptions, understands that the audience has seen a lot of horror films and rather than pretending we haven't, it uses that knowledge against us.

That's smart genre filmmaking.

ANDY GRESKOVIAK: FROM BLACK FRIDAY TO CAMP ALMAR

The screenplay comes from Andy Greskoviak, who previously wrote the very fun 2021 horror-comedy Black Friday.

That gives Marshmallow an interesting pedigree because Greskoviak clearly understands how to take recognisable genre ingredients and start bending them into something slightly stranger.

Black Friday was a creature-feature comedy built around retail workers trapped in a shopping centre during a monster outbreak.

So, naturally, his next move was, “Children. Summer camp. Existential horror.” and that makes perfect sense.

Greskoviak has a knack for taking a familiar genre framework and asking what else can be done with it and the script's greatest success is that it doesn't treat the audience like idiots.

It knows you're going to recognise the tropes and wants you to recognise them.

Because then it can start messing with them.

DANIEL DELPURGATORIO

For director Daniel DelPurgatorio, this is a hell of a calling card as Marshmallow is his feature directorial debut, following a body of short-form work that includes Other, Body(s), Third Wheel and Bug Bites!.

He also worked as a visual-effects artist, including work on projects such as Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter, The Stylist and Black Friday.

That background makes a lot of sense when watching Marshmallow as there is a strong visual confidence here.

The film knows how to create atmosphere without constantly throwing money at the screen.

More importantly, DelPurgatorio seems to understand that suggestion is often more effective than explanation. His short-film background is also apparent in the film's economy.

At only 93 minutes, Marshmallow doesn't hang around waiting for you to admire its cleverness.

It gets in.
Sets up its characters.
Establishes its world.
Begins moving the pieces.
And gets out.

For a film carrying as much thematic and narrative material as this, that's impressive.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

One of the biggest risks here is the young cast. Put a bunch of twelve-year-olds in a horror movie and there is always the possibility that the whole thing will collapse under the weight of performances that make you want to shout “Has anyone seen the adult actors?”

Thankfully, that doesn't happen, Kue Lawrence carries a lot of the film as Morgan and does an impressive job of conveying vulnerability without turning the character into a walking sadness machine.

Kai Cech is equally effective as Pilar, Morgan's friend and one of the people who helps him begin to come out of his shell. Then there's Giorgia Whigham, who horror fans may recognise from Scream, alongside Pierson Fodé, Paul Soter and, because apparently the movie needed somebody to wander in from another generation of cult entertainment...

Corbin Bernsen….Yes, The Dentist himself.

Bernsen plays Roy, Morgan's grandfather, and his presence adds some welcome veteran weight to the cast.

There's also Alysia Reiner, alongside a large ensemble of young performers and the really impressive thing is that the kids don't feel like cardboard horror-movie archetypes.

They feel like kids. Which makes the film's darker moments considerably more effective.

THE HORROR ISN'T JUST ABOUT THE MONSTER

This is probably the aspect of Marshmallow I appreciated more on a second viewing. The film is fundamentally interested in fear as an experience, not simply the fear of being killed.

The fear of being alone, of not fitting in, of losing someone, that the adults around you aren't telling you the truth and that perhaps you're not in control of your own story.

That's pretty heavy material for a film that initially presents itself as “Kids go camping and meet a spooky doctor.”

But the movie doesn't labour the point, it trusts the story to carry the ideas and that is another reason why the relatively short runtime works.

There simply isn't enough time for the film to drown itself in its own themes. It makes its point and moves on.

THE CRITICAL CONSENSUS

And this brings us to the strange position Marshmallow occupies. Critically, the film has done rather well and at the time of writing, it sits at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes from 12 critics, with reviews repeatedly highlighting its clever subversion of familiar material, its performances and its unusual blend of horror and science fiction.

Kat Hughes at The Hollywood News called it a “new spin on an old classic” and praised its combination of gross-out horror, bloodshed and a cerebral coming-of-age story and that's where my own response lands.

I'm not quite at the level of some of the more enthusiastic reviews… Gruesome Magazine, for example, went all the way to 5/5, but I absolutely understand why the film has developed such a positive critical reputation.

What is surprising is how little cultural noise the film seems to have generated as this feels like one of those movies that people who have seen it tend to recommend and I imagine the problem is getting people to see it in the first place.

Which makes ToyRobot's decision to put it on a UK Blu-ray rather interesting as this isn't some forgotten 1980s VHS oddity….It's a film from last year.

And already it's being given an opportunity to find an audience that perhaps missed it the first time around.

That's exactly the sort of curation I want from a label like this.

THE TOYROBOT EXTRAS

The extras are strong, but here's where I'm going to give them a slightly different assessment from the previous ToyRobot releases.

The audio commentary with Daniel DelPurgatorio, Kue Lawrence and Kai Cech sounds like precisely the sort of commentary this movie benefits from. Getting the director and two of the central young actors together gives us the opportunity to hear about the production from multiple perspectives.

Then we've got:

Deleted Scene
Filming the Dream Sequence
Two DelPurgatorio short films: Other (2012) and Body(s) (2015)
Storyboards
Video Podcast interviews
Behind-the-scenes stills gallery
Script pages

And I particularly like the inclusion of the short films, for a director making his feature debut, that's genuinely useful contextual material as it allows you to see where DelPurgatorio came from and how some of his visual and storytelling ideas developed before Marshmallow.

The dream-sequence featurette is another obvious highlight because those sequences are among the film's most visually interesting material.

But here's the thing.

Unlike Roaring Fire, where you're digging through decades of history and trying to understand how a bizarre Japanese production came together, Marshmallow is too recent to have accumulated a mountain of secrets.

There isn't necessarily going to be some enormous “HOLY SHIT! THEY DID WHAT?” revelation waiting in the extras.

And that's okay…They're cool…They're worthwhile…They're informative.

But the film is simply too young to have the historical distance that can make a really great boutique release explode with new discoveries.

So I'm keeping the score exactly where the movie lands.

FINAL VERDICT

I came into Marshmallow already liking it and coming back to it, I like it more. Not because I think it is some flawless modern horror masterpiece, it isn't.

There are moments where the film's ambitions slightly outrun its execution, and the journey towards the big narrative shift can test your patience, but the destination is worthwhile.

The movie takes a subgenre we've seen approximately 4,738 times, recognises practically every convention associated with it and then starts pulling those conventions apart. It feels like Friday the 13th wandered into The Twilight Zone. Then Goosebumps turned up. Then Black Mirror arrived late and asked what everyone was doing. And somehow they all ended up sitting around a campfire.

That's Marshmallow.

A coming-of-age story disguised as a slasher, science-fiction story disguised as a campfire tale, surprisingly mature film disguised as something that initially looks like a nostalgic throwback and, most importantly, a film that understands the joy of not knowing what's coming next.

At 93 minutes, it also understands something that far too many modern genre movies have forgotten…You don't have to be two hours long to have something to say.

ToyRobot Video has therefore picked an interesting title for its third release. It's not old, not exactly obscure anymore and critically, it has already received plenty of love.

What it hasn't quite received is the audience it deserves. So perhaps this is where ToyRobot's philosophy starts to make sense.

Sometimes you don't need to rescue a film from history. Sometimes you just need to give people another bloody good reason to notice it.

I'm glad I finally got to revisit Marshmallow.

I'm even more glad that, after seeing it last year, ToyRobot has decided that this is one worth bringing to a wider UK audience. Just don't read anything about the ending before you watch it.

Seriously. Don't be that person.

Put the phone down.
Go camping.
Listen to the story.

And when somebody asks whether you know what Marshmallow is really about...KEEP YOUR DAMN MOUTH SHUT.

THE TOYROBOT SCORE

Marshmallow – The Movie: ★★★½ / 5

Special Features: ★★★½ / 5

Overall Release Score: ★★★½ / 5

A strong modern horror film with genuine ambition, excellent young performances and considerably more going on beneath the surface than its summer-camp premise suggests.

The special features are good and add value, but because Marshmallow is such a recent film, they don't quite provide the same sense of historical discovery that some older cult titles can offer.

Still...3½ out of 5 marshmallows.

And absolutely worth your time.

BLURAY INFORMATION FROM PR:

ToyRobot Video – TR002-UK

MARSHMALLOW

Director: Daniel DelPurgatorio
Cast: Kue Lawrence, Giorgia Whigham, Corbin Bernsen, Pierson Fode, Paul Soter, Kai Cech
Country: USA
Genre: Horror / Sci-Fi
Release Date: 14 September 2026
Format: Blu-ray
Discs: 1
BBFC: 15
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: DTS-HD 5.1, DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Runtime: 93 mins

THE FILM

Camp Almar – Where Hearts, Bodies and Minds Come to Grow

Sent off to a secluded summer camp, shy and introverted 12-year-old Morgan (Kue Lawrence, SKETCH) is thrust into a living nightmare when a campfire tale about a psychotic doctor becomes real.

As a mysterious figure begins stalking the camp, Morgan and his newfound friends, including a girl called Pilar (Kai Cech), must embark on a perilous journey — one that will force them to confront their deepest fears and question the very nature of their existence.

Daniel DelPurgatorio's smart and stylish feature debut, which also stars Corbin Bernsen (THE DENTIST), delivers an atmospheric modern-day twist on the summer camp slasher movie that will keep you guessing right through to its shocking final reveal.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio commentary with director Daniel DelPurgatorio and actors Kue Lawrence and Kai Cech
Deleted Scene
Filming the Dream Sequence
Two short films directed by Daniel DelPurgatorio:
- Other (2012, 15 mins)
- Body(s) (2015, 18 mins)
Storyboards
Video Podcast interviews
Behind-the-scenes stills gallery
Script Pages

KEY TALENT

Director: Daniel DelPurgatorio

Cast: Kue Lawrence, Giorgia Whigham, Corbin Bernsen, Pierson Fode, Paul Soter, Kai Cech

BLURAY INFORMATION

Distributor: Toy Robot Video
Release date: 14th September, 2026
Catalogue code: TR003-UK
Format: Blu-ray
Discs: 1
BBFC: 15
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: DTS-HD 5.1, DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Runtime: 93 mins

TOYROBOT VIDEO REVIEW #003 - MARSHMALLOW (2025) - Released 14th September 2026