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Summer Camp Nightmare (1987) sounds like one of those generic copycat slasher flicks that came out every other week in the 1980s. It’s not, though. Oh boy, how it’s not…
Rather, Summer Camp Nightmare is a coming-of-age flick that also tries to be a comedy and a political allegory all at the same time. This attempt to be something more in a lowest-common denominator genre is ambitious.
Yet, ambition comes in different forms. Elon Musk has the ambition to go to Mars. Rory McIlroy has the ambition to be a golfing champion. Luke Nichols has the ambition to make wholesome camping videos watched by millions.
You know who else has ambition? People going over Niagara Falls in barrels, double amputees running with bulls and men seeking to develop emotional connections with Bonnie Blue.
Guess what form of ambition the makers of Summer Camp Nightmare had?
I used to be in The Rifleman. What happened to me?
Summer Camp Nightmare
Summer Camp Nightmare starts like Meatballs. Kids arrive at summer camp. They are a fun-loving bunch. The main character is a pre-teen geek (Adam Carl) with a suitcase full of electronics. He narrates his thoughts into a tape recorder. Surely, they will be clever, amusing, wizen insights into the magical transition of child to adult.
Counselors are introduced. They run the gamut. You got the nice William Katt-type (Harold Pruett). The bully counselor looks like Jackie Earle Haley with a mullet (Stuart Rogers). A laid-back counselor resembles Ralph Macchio and plays guitar (Doug Toby). A cool Tom Cruise-type navigates the scene with cocky assurance (Tom Fridley), and a chubby black guy makes funny comments and raps (Michael Cramer).
Finally, you have an anarchist counselor who smiles at the possibility of a child drowning (Charlie Stratton). Who can forget that common archetype of camping comedies?
The camp is overseen by Chuck Connors. Coincidentally, I just reviewed another one of his movies. Connors is a no-nonsense camp leader. He believes in discipline and butterfly hunts. His patience is tested at the camp talent show when the bully and cool counselor perform a rock song that contains crotch grabbing and lyrics of subtle inuendo:
“My beef beef bologna!”
That sort of behavior is too much for Connors. He shuts down the talent show and puts the camp on lockdown until everyone displays more gentlemanly behavior.
This is just the beginning, guys. Someday we will star in something like The Rifleman.
Summer Camp Nightmare on Elm Street
To this point, Summer Camp Nightmare hits standard comedy beats. A scene even happens where the campers override the TV signal to receive a program that features scantily-clad women, only to have Connors walk in on the shenanigans.
Yet, Summer Camp Nightmare has ambition to be more, and it soon takes its first tentative steps into allegorical territory. The anarchist counselor stages a revolution. He imprisons Connors, names the other counselors his lieutenants, liberates the neighboring girl camp, and turns the experience into one big party.
At this point, Summer Camp Nightmare goes from Meatballs to a hackneyed version of Animal Farm. Yet, the movie is not content to remain there either. The fun and games stop, and the film takes another shift into Lord of the Flies territory as murder, rape, and an execution happen, along with a trial by fire of sorts.
When all is said and done, Summer Camp Nightmare ends up an odd chimera. It’s like three different genres jumped into Seth Brundle’s telepod, and the thing that came out the other end is about as appealing as an inside-out baboon.
Summer Camp Nightmare At 20,000 Feet
To be fair, Summer Camp Nightmare does not wander through its storyline completely aimlessly. It is based on a book called The Butterfly Revolution by William Butler. The movie is not a fully faithful adaptation, but it does follow the same basic plot.
The problem most likely lies at the director and writer levels.
Penelope Spheeris helped write the screenplay. Believe it or not, she went on to direct Wayne’s World. Yet, she loses the throughline on Summer Camp Nightmare. For example, the anarchist counselor is set up as the villain, but he is mostly forgotten through the second and third act. At that point, the villain presence gets diluted between the bully counselor and the cool counselor to the point where all antagonist power is lost.
Meanwhile, time is spent introducing pointless characters, such as a love interest for the geek character that serves absolutely zero narrative value.
The director, Bert L. Dragin, has a cool name, but he does not have the chops to deliver a film that needs to be so many things at the same time. A guy like Verhoeven could make this kind of film work. A prime Joel Schumacher could also probably manage it. Dragin simply makes the experience a drag…
What do you mean you’ve never heard of The Rifleman?
Summer Camp Nightmare Alley
Ambition can be a double-edged sword. One hates to malign effort. On the other hand, the adage “biting off more than you can chew” exists for a reason. Since Summer Camp Nightmare tries to be so many different things at once, we will let both things be true. Good try, everybody, but the final product is not a good movie.
It also doesn’t help that Summer Camp Nightmare looks about as cinematic as a VHS video your parents made of your birthday party. (Okay…maybe not quite that cinematic.) Throw in a cast of unknowns who seem to be operating according to vague suggestions rather than a plan, and Summer Camp Nightmare only got a limited release for a reason.
Oddly enough, it did get a laserdisc, though…
If you are thinking about attending this summer camp, hope for an early winter!
The post Retro Review: SUMMER CAMP NIGHTMARE (1987) appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
