Deer Camp '86

On a hunting trip in Michigan, a group of friends celebrating the start of hunting season stumble upon a series of strange deaths triggered by the murder of a Native American woman in a long series of similar incidents unleashing an avenging Native American spirit now targeting them.

This was a fairly solid and likable genre effort. One of the main aspects found here is the strong build-up to the general storyline where everything here comes together quite nicely. The initial setup of the group coming to the area to enjoy the hunting afforded by the area only to come upon a series of attacks on Native American women in the city which pulls them into its sphere due to the involvement of the latest victim being a bartender they befriended who becomes the latest victim in a series of violent outbursts in the area. This idea of merging the two stories together by making the group become the new victims of the hunter once they arrive in the woods after being caught up in the rampage makes this a rather solid setup with a fantastic touch on the treatment of indigenous tribes with how that sets everything in motion here. The other enjoyable factor with this one is the series of antics on display with the use of the supernatural killer coming to life and taking out those responsible for taking out other Native American women. Given a fantastic motivation for the rampage, the whole thing taking place out in the woods where it can use its powers and manipulation of the environment to provide a slew of intriguing sequences of it appearing to take down the hunters one by one. Attacking the couple by the lake, the big ambush on the main cabin, and the traps laid out in the woods to stop it have a lot to like keeping the action frantic and furious with the series of attacks present her involving the great kills on display with the impressive look of the killer also coming together to all provide the film with a lot to like. There are some issues to be had with this one. Among the main drawbacks to be had with this one is the immensely disproportionate pacing present here where its rather bizarre tempo leaves this one quite uneasy and uneven. There's way too much time spent on the stereotypical racist town of backwoods rednecks with their treatment of the Native Americans in the town setting up the idea of what's going on but going way beyond the point of it being as useful as it should with how mow time is spent on it, while other scenes involving the team being stalked in the woods by the creature or it taunting the others with it which leaves this to make the encounters fun if immensely quick in comparison. It also leaves little time for explanations about everything as we get to know very little about the creature hunting them as a result so it's powers are cool if entirely unexplained as well as it's backstory, which along with a completely lacking sense of humor bring this down.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Given the synopsis ("In the fall of 1986 six knuckleheads from Detroit ..."), you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a horror comedy. It isn't. There's some funny banter among said knuckleheads, especially in the early going, but ultimately this movie is trying to be a fairly straightforward survival/supernatural horror. Sort of Predator with a group of drunken quippy idiots instead of an elite special forces unit. There are also references to missing and exploited indigenous women that seem like they're trying to be genuinely profound. It wasn't boring but the tone was an odd mix of silly dialogue, earnest social commentary and horror imagery that didn't ever fully coalesce.

Well now, this 2022 horror movie titled "Deer Camp '86" turned out to be an enjoyable movie. Sure, I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down and watching it, but with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance. I am, after all, a huge fan of the horror genre.

Writers Bo Hansen and Riley Taurus put together an enjoyable script and storyline, which felt like it was a combination of 1980s slasher horror mixed in with some creature feature elements, and sprinkled with a supernatural topping. I will flat out say that I was enjoying this, because it was like watching the horror movies that I grew up watching back in 1980s. So there was some sense of nostalgia to this movie for me.

I was actually not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, but they had a good ensemble of talents for the movie. And the acting performances in the movie were good. I also found the character gallery in the movie to be well-written one, and that definitely added something good to the overall impression of the movie.

Visually then "Deer Camp '86" was good. There was a sufficient amount of blood, gore and mutilation in the movie to keep an old gorehound such as myself happy.

If you enjoy horror movies, then I would definitely recommend you checking out director L. Van Dyke Siboutszen's 2022 movie "Deer Camp '86". I was genuinely and wholly entertained throughout the course of the 85 minutes that the movie ran for.

My rating of "Deer Camp '86" lands on a well-deserved six out of ten stars.

This is one of those movies that has everything going for it except for a few problems in the writing. The performances are good, it's well-shot and edited, the cast and crew seemed to be having fun (bloopers are scattered throughout the end credits), there are impressive practical FX, the music compliments the visuals, and there are a few creepy moments.

On the writing end, issues begin with the characters, who are one-dimensional. There's a cop who's only there to spout exposition, the mean fat guy and the loser whom he bullies, the psycho war veteran, the token black guy, a bland redneck, and a blander final boy. This is a low-budget horror movie, and I can forgive the character shortcomings, so let's move on... It wants to be a comedy, but it's really not that funny, and the pacing is off. There's one particular scene that only exists to make viewers squirm - they try to frame it in a supernatural way, but it doesn't work and feels like it belongs in a Jack Black movie or something. But my biggest problem is with the twist, which I won't spoil because it comes totally out of the blue. After the credits rolled, I immediately started the movie over, expecting to find some foreshadowing that I'd missed, but it just ain't there. I did enjoy the movie more the second time, though.

Deer Camp '86 works as a throwback (although it feels more early-'90s than mid-'80s), and it's definitely better than the crap mainstream Hollywood has been churning out lately, but it's neither the masterpiece nor the disaster that other reviewers have claimed. I'd imagine it works best with an audience and intoxicants.

Fun chill watch, seriously campy. You can't take it too seriously, that's not the point. Kept thinking it took place in the 90s instead of the 80s but it didn't really impact the story at all. A bunch of one liners had us cracking up. The storyline is somewhat predictable, but there were a few points that we were sitting back going "wait, that doesn't make sense" before it corrected itself 10 minutes later.

Really loved that the characters were like caricatures of people you know. We had our favorites immediately, and the one you were encouraged to hate had really good reasons to hate them. Made you root for them to get their slashing.