Summer Camp Nightmare

Can a summer camp full of fun-loving kids be run without a proper counselor? Can the love of lawless behavior create a law of the land? Would you let the inmates run the asylum? A good lesson in replacing one leadership with a much devolved leadership is taught in this flick. It runs like an after-school special of the early 1980's and makes you wonder if anyone gave a damn about rules whoever comprised any. This makes you wish Jason Voorhees would make a cameo and show the show-offs a real reign of terror.

It is hard to understand that the citizens of this revolution could keep the party going day in and day out, not pursuing much in the ways of other camp activities. Probably because the heads of state can't afford winding up with outside influences killing their fun by killing them. This is why the only three people able to thwart this campy tyranny wind up on the most wanted and despised lists. Reality would have seen this film cut shorter after a couple of weeks of overpartying and the poor attitude over the guys running the camp. The happy yet sad ending conveys a meaning of life or a comparison to history. It will be clear what not to do if a filmmaker considers pulling up a bland film from a good premise.

Summer Camp Nightmare (1987) was a version of the book "The Butterfly Revolution". Whilst the book was a good read, the film was pure teensploitation. This movie is like totally dated dude. The haircuts, clothes and make-up put this one in 80's hell. The characters, for the most part are broadly drawn and the acting is mediocre at best. The direction is sloppy and uninspired. Just your typically 80's teen flick. The campers have enough of the puritanical rule of Camp Leader Chuck Connors and the campers revolt. The leader of the "revolution" is a charismatic young fellow who likes to read Thoreau in his spare time. Sadly, this "revolution" suffers from what all of them become prey to. Loss of

ideals, a lack of a true focus and lust for power turns the camp into something frightening.

An okay film. Chuck Connors plays his usual self, a character with something repressed beneath his grizzly haggard persona. But other than that, there's nothing to really talk about or worth mentioning. It has it's moments and a couple of scenes are quite entertaining. Like the revolution, this film's full potential is not fully realized. A pity because this one could have been good.

Okay film, slightly recommended.

C+

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Man oh man is this movie terrible. It's like watching a trainwreck, but in a totally endearing way. Playing like a Lord of the Flies with an anti-communist message, Summer Camp Nightmare has to be one of the worst movies ever made. The acting is the worst ever. Chuck "The Rifleman" Conners is so amazingly terrible as Mr. Warren, the camp director who's "lost touch with the youth." Charles Stratton plays Franklin Reilly, the "crazy anarchist" who starts the lamest revolution of all time. Tom Fridly (Cort a.k.a. the kid in tiny shorts in Friday the 13th Part IV) is Mason, the most homo-erotic rapist ever. Runk the Punk is by far the lowlight of the movie, serving both as Mason's obvious man-slave and Reilly's thug (albeit the least intimidating thug ever).

The storyline is pretty simple. Mr. Warren takes over as camp director, but is a real stickler for order. After blocking all but the "religious station" on the rec room's TV, he cancels the dance with the nearby girls' camp. Rebellion soon ensues, as Reilly falsely accuses Warren of molesting the younger boys. Soon, both the boys' and girls' camps are taken over by the regime. All order falls apart, etc. etc. etc. There really is no cohesive plot, just a lot of bad acting, some sort of moral, and the sluttiest teenage girls ever! They can't keep their hands off these weird, ugly, ambiguous guys. Kind of creeps you out.

However, with all the blatant homo-eroticism and crappy acting, it sets itself up as one of the greatest movies to mock with your friends ever. It's on a par with Plan 9 from Outer Space, but has more appeal for those who can remember torn jeans and teenage boys with feathered hair. If you do manage to snag it though, watch with friends and be prepared to laugh like hell, if Mystery Science Theater 3000 is your idea of a good time.

Summer Camp Nightmare is a pretty good camp movie. Like

the guy before me said its not a horror movie. Its more

like a drama/thriller. The movie is about a bunch of kids

who are fed up with the rules at the camp and decide to

lock up the adults and take over the camp. The leader calls the takeover a revolution. But even the revolution

has rules and a couple of people break those rules and are punished. The movie isn't great, but it delivers enough goods to entertain for 90 minutes. All in all a pretty

good camp movie. I give Summer Camp Nightmare **1/2 out of ****

My review was written in April 1987 after watching the movie at a Columbus Circle screening room.

Beneath the intentionally misleading release title "Summer Camp Nightmare" rests an uneasy mixture of teen hijinks pic and cautionary lecture for youngsters. In adapting William Butler's novel "The Butterfly Revolution" (film's original titled during its 1985 lensing), filmmaker Bert L. Dragin and co-writer Penelope Spheeris have created an all-too-obvious anti-fascist parable which is simply not entertaining in the manner of the S. E. Hinton ic or even the John Hughes comedies.

First few reels play like "Meatballs" without the laughs (nor for lack of tring, but the gags here fall flat), with the young boys at Camp North Pines dreaming of the slightly older girls at nearlby Camp South Pines. Fly in the ointment is new camp director Chuck Connors, styled as a strict disciplinarian who only allows an all-religious channel to play on the camp tv and locks misbehaving boys or counselors up in a detention cabin.

Pic takes a dark turn after 15 minutes when a counselor, played by Charles Stratton, organizes an instant revolution, lockng up Connors and his adult staff and having the kids and student counselors run the camp in military fashion. He quickly extends his control to the girls' camp, locking up all the adults there, too.

With teens and kids running the show, film gradually tries for "Lord of the Flies" commentary, as Stratton's fascist behavior leads to several deaths and the kids descend into barbarism. Unfortunately, Dragin's direction is very soft, denying the film the tough-minded points and power of such forerunners as Harold Becker's "Taps". Instead, we get an alternation of comedy and seriousness which represents a candy-coated lecture few kids will swallow.

Acting is passable, with Stratton very good indeed at suggesting a likable (on the surface yet megalomaniacal character.