Terror at Tenkiller

First off i love this film and i don't know why so many negative reviews. I grew up with this film being a huge part of my child hood. The story is simple but does have character development and back ground. The lead actors are good actors and over all the setting is very atmospheric. the film revolves around two friends Jana and Leslie, Leslie being the one with boyfriend problems. Jana talks Leslie to going to her family's cabin for the summer and getting a break from Josh, her boyfriend who seems to be controlling and cheating.While at the Lake Jana takes Leslie to a local diner and gets her a summer job. Once there someone takes an interest in Leslie and starts to kill to get to her. over all the kill scenes are really good and the special FX are very realistic (especially the throat slicing scene and the arm cutting. But over all its a very calm setting and when you watch it has 80s synth music throughout the whole film which worked really well for this film. I use to rent this film every weekend with The Last Slumber Party it was two of my favorite films as a kid and then once it came to DVD the funny thing is that they both were released on a double feature. so please give it a chance and check the film out its an 80s gem.

....only cuz I once lived around where it was filmed. I went to the university you see in the beginning. After watching it one evening...my friends and I sat out on a day of finding where it was filmed. It was not filmed at Lake Tenkiller. Anyway...on to the film..

It was bad....but not *that* bad. Like someone said before, I have seen worse. I consider myself a horror movie nut, and this is as cheesy as most of the other films to come out of the 80s.

I don't know if I'd recommend this movie to anyone outside of Oklahoma...but I do recommend it to my friends who have lived or live in the Tahlequah area... 5/10

I don't know the first thing to say about Terror at Tenkiller. Despite it being one of the most placid and mundane slasher films I've ever seen, I weirdly wasn't ever bored. That has to count for something, right?

Tenkiller focuses on two college students (though one looks about old enough to have college aged children herself) who head out to secluded lakehouse to escape from one of their abusive boyfriends. They talk, take in some of the local color, and attract the attention of another angry man, except this one is much more dangerous.

Unlike a lot of slashers, there's no mystery or whodunit aspect here. The only mystery is trying to decided what's going on in most of the night scenes (my DVD appears to be sourced from the world's oldest VHS tape).

There's a slight attempt at character development with the two leads, but they never rise above dim-witted bimbo who can't leave an abusive man and sassy, no nonsense best friend cliches.

If you're expecting tons of nudity or gore, you'll be disappointed, too, since Tenkiller didn't seem very interested in supplying any which leaves the film in a weird place - not thoughtful/suspenseful/scary/character driven enough for serious horror fans and not enough blood or nudity for the gore and skin fans. Who was this even made for?

A college girl in Tulsa escapes her toxic boyfriend by going to a girlfriend's cabin at Tenkiller Lake southeast of there. Their vacation turns to horror as people mysteriously end-up dead.

"Terror at Tenkiller" (1986) is a slasher of the cabin-in-the-woods variety, but it's more laid-back than most since the drama focuses on the two friends seeking quiet sanctuary at the remote lake. The two protagonists are attractive in a girl-next-door way (Stacey Logan as Leslie and Michele Merchant as Janna), along with the waitress at the restaurant (Debbie Killian), and the director tastefully captures their beauty.

Critics call it "Tedium at Tenkiller," but I appreciate how it's a non-Hollywood slasher that only cost about $40,000. The set-up smacks of real-life and you get to know the characters as the film takes its time. There's a sense of Southern hospitality in the everyday mundaneness, similar to that of "Death Screams," "Squirm" and "The Funhouse." It's like visiting rural northeast Oklahoma. "Camp Cold Brook" (2018) is a modern example, shot just north of Oklahoma City.

While this is perhaps the least of these movies, it has its points of interest. Unlike most slashers, the killer is revealed early on and doesn't wear an eye-rolling mask. Speaking of which, formidable Michael Shamus Wiles is the only member of the cast who went on to regular acting work, including parts in major films like "Fight Club," "Pearl Harbor," "Rock Star," "The Lords of Salem" and "Iron Man 3."

Despite its 1986 copyright, this was actually shot prior to 1983 and after "Friday 13th Part 2," which means 1982 or possibly even the late Summer of 1981.

The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot about an hour's drive southeast of Tulsa at Fort Gibson Lake (the dam and Hulbert), which is 30 minutes northwest of the real Tenkiller Ferry Lake.

GRADE: B-/C+

Say what you will about movies like Death Promise and Samurai Cop, but they are actually watchable and entertaining in their own ways even without riffing! I watched both of them on their own after seeing them riffed, and I was still entertained. They aren't what you'd call "well made," but they actually DO something. Death Promise has a very clear PLOT that PROGRESSES, and it had likeable, earnest heroes. Samurai Cop had enjoyable heroes who had questionable approaches to their work but never got to the point where you hated them. (Samurai Cop's sequel is ATROCIOUS, however.) The aforementioned films also had villains whose motives you understood, but this film has none of that.

The "heroines" aren't really likable, as one is weak with constant whiny face and the other is basically only a support system for her (and otherwise vague). The location is boring and not beautiful like they claimed, they showed us who the killer is right away, killing any possible mystery-based tension more effectively than any person was killed. And there's no real arc despite what happens. There are countless ways they could have played this, but they played it in the worst way possible because it's a slasher that tells us who the killer is instantly, lacks any mystery or tension, has basic kills, and is absolutely not one iota scary. WHAT WAS THE POINT? Might as well made it a drama about a girl having the power to leave an abusive boyfriend, but they would have messed that up too if what they produced was any indication. Just awful.