Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a camping trip goes south after a group of young friends are terrorized by a deranged killer. It’s a premise that’ll be familiar to any level of horror fan. We’ve seen variations of it for decades. The filmmakers of the new low-budget slasher “Killher” understand that. In fact, director Robyn August and screenwriter Tom Kiesche rely on their audience’s familiarity. What better way to appreciate the fun they’re having with this well-traveled sub-genre.

Unfortunately “Killher” doesn’t have enough in its tank to keep us onboard for the duration. Even at under 90 minutes, the movie runs out of gas well before the finish. It takes well-worn slasher tropes and wrings everything it can out of them. But it’s too strapped for original ideas to fill in the gaps. Even worse, the woeful final act zaps what remains of our goodwill and ends things on a really sour note.

With her wedding day approaching, Mattie (Jenna Z. Alvarez) celebrates by setting out on a camping trip planned and put together by her best friend Eddie (M.C. Huff), a notorious prankster and horror movie enthusiast. Much to Eddie’s chagrin, Mattie invites two of her stuffier friends, Jess (Emily Hall) and Rae (Nicole Lovince), to come along. So the four embark on a supposed fun-filled weekend getaway.

The group drives deep into the forest and sets up camp next to a tent that Eddie claims belongs to (SURPRISE) Mattie’s fiancé, Jagger (Jack Schumacher). But they discover it actually belongs to a burly loner named Ed Rogers (Tom Kiesche). Mr. Rogers tries to keep to himself. But the girls, led by Eddie, are obnoxious to the point that a conflict is inevitable. To make matters worse, cracks begin to form in their “friendships” with each hour they stay in the woods.

Without going into detail, we soon learn there is a killer in the woods (you’ll figure out who it is within the first half-hour). It’s supposed to lead to an entertaining hack’em-up final act but what we get isn’t nearly as fun as it tries to be. In the last 30 minutes the campiness wears off, the characters become dull and tiresome, and the dialogue turns incredibly hokey. Worst of all is the actual killer whose desperate and vain attempts at being maniacal grows more annoying by the minute.

I don’t want to come down too hard on “Killher” as it can only do so much within its noticeable budget constraints. And I’ll go as far as to say that August deserves a lot of credit for delivering beyond the limitations he faces, specifically in the film’s first half.

But once we hit the midway point things unravel pretty fast. By sloppily telegraphing the killer’s identity we’re left with no tension whatsoever. And the killer’s grating over-the-top performance helps turn the movie into an endurance test rather than the fun-filled genre romp that it could have been. And sadly no amount of cool practical effects or gnarly makeup can make up for the second half frustrations which end up burying this well-intended misfire. “Killher” opens October 20th in select theaters and on VOD.