Campfire Stories

Everyones giving this movie bad reviews. I for one thought it was allright. I mean its not going to win an oscar, but its not the worst thing Ive ever seen. The girls in it were hot, the acting was decent, and it was a little bit scary. I think this movie and all others should quit being disected and just enjoyed.

Campfire Stories is what's usually called an "Anthology" or "Portmanteaux" movie - in other words, a movie that tells a number of stories. Amicus made a number of very successful movies in this vein in the 60's and 70's, adapting EC Comic's most famous titles, including The Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt, to produce some classics of the "twist ending" genre and it's this style Campfire Stories emulates, even going so far as being based upon a horror comicbook (which I'd personally never heard of...)

The strength of the Anthology movie is that - because the writer has such a short time to develop his story - the plots are usually much tighter and concentrated than in a regular movie, with the focus being more on delivering the macabre or ironic twist.

Unfortunately, nobody told this to the writers of Campfire Stories. The three tales on offer are predictable, limp and - at times - lacking in logic. Supposedly they're tales of ghostly/otherworldly revenge, but in reality, the movie's central message seems to be "Teenagers are bad and deserve to die for being teenagers," a motif that runs through the entire movie.

Even the most ardent collector of Anthology-style movies should avoid giving this movie space in his collection.

If you want to see how it should be done, watch the Amicus classics Asylum, From Beyond the Grave, Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The House That Dripped Blood and Dr. Terror's House of Horror.

Upon going to the local video store with a 2-for-1 rental deal, I decided to rent Campfire Stories as my free one. Well, I probably should have known what I was in for when I saw "Starring Jamie-Lynn Sigler of the Sopranos!" as its publicity.

Basically, two guys on their way to a bangin' woods party get a flat tire and pick up a random hot girl on the way. They go into the woods, and hear three cute sweet tales told by an over-sized boy scout. The first story is one of revenge--four football players are killed by a criminally insane janitor who escaped from a mental institution that conducted "pain threshold" experiments. Yeah. Death by croquet mallet--nothing is better.

Honestly, I didn't really watch the second story. The third story has a bit of a twist--two girls decide to get even with their boyfriend at one girl's crazy-dead-grandmother's house. Chaos and death ensues! The ending that ties it all together is 'eh' at best.

I did not expect much. I really didn't. I love campy humor, but even this tried me. I would recommend this movie for twelve-year-old slumber parties and/or bad horror movie marathons.

I didn't have much faith in this movie when I bought the dvd, but it was cheap and I figured it had to contain at least a couple of scares. After the first few minutes I thought I was wrong, this movie was going to suck but as it progressed it did get better.

The wrap around story is easily the worst of the bunch, the acting and production is amateurish at times. While it does contain some humor David Johansens hammy acting takes away any suspense that could possibly be being produced. The whole plot of the wrap around story is pretty flimsy as well and seems very forced, as if the producers just needed to get the film to the point where the stories are told. The resolution that comes at the end is just as forced and is pretty pathetic.

The first story, about a group of jocks picking on a school handyman, doesn't fair much better in it's acting or production values. Once it gets going there is a level of creepiness to it but the whole set up before the climax is so poorly done that you find yourself caring very little about what happens.

Aside from some poor special effects (well good in a high school class project sort of way) the second story involving three troublemakers looking to profit from the murder of a native man, fails to really grab the viewer. There isn't much wrong with the story it just doesn't do much until the twist ending. At that point everything registers and the story makes sense, unfortunately it's not much fun getting to that point.

The final, and best, story is a nice little "who-done-it". While the story, of four friends getting together for a night of "passion" which ends in murder, doesn't really set itself up as well as it could, it does contain the most suspense of the 4 stories. This entry contains the best of everything in the movie, best story, acting and suspense. The topper is that is also contains the best ending as you continue to guess who the culpret is.

I could almost recommend this movie if it had a better wrap around story to hold the rest of the movie together. Also, if you want a professional type horror movie it is best to stay clear of Campfire Stories. I realize I'm probably going very easy on this film but I did like it much more then I thought I would, it's a guilty pleasure that's worth 90 minutes of mindless enjoyment if you can find it for the right (read VERY LOW) price. Mind you, I would recommend 1997's Campfire Tales over this film any day. Campfire Stories rates a 4 out of 10.

then this one is definitely for you. Just don't expect to be frightened or wake up screaming in the middle of the night. And don't expect anything extraordinary. This film wasn't meant to be any of those things. It sticks to the classic "B" horror movie genre with it's cheesy classic monster movie special effects and over acting to make it seem scary. It plays more like an hour and a half long episode of Tales From the Crypt. But is amusing in its own fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting back, relaxing, and just letting this movie be exactly what it is: a corny "B" style horror movie made because they had the budget to make it. And as long as you enjoy movies like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, you can probably appreciate this movie as well. But if you are expecting an edge of your seat thriller, that makes you think, sends chills up your spine, and is guaranteed to give you nightmares, then look elsewhere.