Campfire Tales (1997)

Fresh and Exciting

Excellent but underrated film

A Masterpiece!

Blistering performances.

Campfire Tales is a wonderfully done little jaunt through some classic horror tales. What's so great about this anthology is that it plays more on the suspense rather than jump scares. The directors really set the stage and let things gradually develop so as to play around in your imagination for a while before executing the scares. Each segment comes on strong and is very well executed, containing a little something for every viewer's tastes. The movie opens up with a short black and white segment called "The Hook." Most people know this story, so it's not really all that much of a hook *Ba-Dum-Ch! =DOn to the rest of the movie:As a group of 4 teens (3 of which were rising stars now featured in movies such as X-Men, Dodgeball, and Scary Movie) takes a winding road home from a concert, the driver's recklessness leads to them driving off a cliff. As they wait for help to arrive, they venture into the woods where they begin to share scary stories. 1. "The Honeymoon" - In this tale, a couple traveling through the mountains in their Camper is met with a frightening surprise as they become hunted by an unknown creature. This one flows so well, has ample build up to the scares, and has a great execution all around. This tale really plays on your imagination as you make your way to the gruesome ending. 2. "People Can Lick Too" - An all too real tale, this one stars a young girl who makes friends with the wrong person in an internet chat room. The suspense in this one is palpable! The camera angles in this one really lend themselves to your fear and suspense as well. Even the ending will linger in your mind making you afraid to do anything in your house before double checking first. Overall, a very chilling experience. 3. "The Locket" - When a young man wandering through the countryside encounters some mechanical troubles with his bike, he takes shelter with a beautiful, mute woman. But things aren't always as they seem, and the storm brewing outside cannot compare to the typhoon of WTF he'll experience tonight. A classic tale taken in a very refreshing way. Once again, the build up is slow but then delivers quite well at the end. 4. Finally, we reach the wrap around. I won't give anything away, but the ending is very surprising and very much worth the wait.

This movie also starts in Black and white and also start with The Hook Man yet again! A Young couple who making out in the woods and this time, Girl thinks she see something out side and then she fews time and tell her boyfriends to take her home, He didn't believe her but then he stop at the Diner and then he looks back at the car and he see there was a Hook on the car Door.This story was being told by some teens in a car and the boy who drive- ring the Car and then start messing around by going too fast and then trying to Avoid another Car and end up crashing into the bushes.As they get out of the car they go to this old Church that had been torn down and tell 4 storiesThe first story, is about a married couple in a RV, who end up getting in Stuck in the wood and soon just start to have Sex but soon catch a guy looking at them and that guy warns then about a creatures in the woods.As they go off but then the RV runs out of gas cause there was leak and soon Attack are seen but its very dark that you can't see creatures that well at all, I wish they showed more of creatures.I did not find this story creepy or scary at all, I did like the last scenes was really well doneI give this story 4 out of 10Next Story, is about young Girl, who was on Chat online, not knowing that she was talking to a Psycho, who starts to stalk her, while she is home alone and breaks in to her home.This is one was really good and it some really good creepy moment in this movie, it kind hint of the old slasher movie feel to, very well made.The last 2 minutes of this story was really good and the Psycho looks really scary 8 out of 10I called the next story The Ghost story.A man is riding a motorbike, and then soon stop near to a House, when it's rains and he enter the house, then he falls in love with a girl, soon strange things start happen in the house.He finds out the place is haunted and there another twist in the story! I thought the last story was very boring and very predicable , I thought it was the worst of the a lot.After that story was told, one of teens See Police flashing lights, which lead to a twist in the movie.i Loved that ending cause I didn't see it coming at all.Really good movie7 out of 10

Even though Glenn Quinn (the guy in the locket story) said that this was his least favorite film, I actually thought it was one of his best. Had to point it out cuz i'm a HUGE fan.On to the movie, it's not the greatest cinematic thing ever to be put on film by any means but it is well worth watching. story consists of four friends coming home from a concert who get in a car accident. While waiting for the police (which how they knew where these kids were beats me but like i said, it's not perfect) they tell each other classic scary stories to pass the time. The opening story "The Hook" of course is one that everyone knows and although it didn't really have any connectivity to the plot of the film, it just kinda gave you a heads up about what the movie was going to basically be about: urban legends that of which being the oldest. "The Honeymoon" wasn't exactly my favorite mostly because of how it ended. the guy hanging upside down on the tree with the ring scraping actually is an alternate tale from "The Hook." So i was turned off by that one. "People can lick to" was more or less just creepy especially for me because i share the girl's first name and i was about the same age when i saw the movie for the first time so usually i skipped it. "The Locket" is my favorite. Personally, that could've been made into a whole movie by its self. I really loved the ending of that story to where Quinn and Barrett's characters shared a previous life, pretty cool. The ending of the movie confused me for a while. My friends and i came up with the idea that Cliff was basically telling these stories as a way of apologizing to his friends...i don't know that's just what we came up with. Anyways, it's fun to watch, OH and keep watching a little after the credits, there's a funny ha ha moment that's quite enjoyable.

Some say this movie is a series of uninteresting, unoriginal stories. I say, some people are wrong. The movie neither contains a series of never-ending scares, nor pours on buckets of blood. What it does offer is a succession of stand-alone tales that each start out simple and slow and build to a slam-bang climax. The payoffs are worth the waits. The stories are kind of like those on the old Alfred Hitchcock Show or the Twilight Zone, or any of their modern day relatives (Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, etc.): the thrill and suspense comes from knowing that something very bad is going to happen very soon. Half the fun is in the waiting. As for unoriginal: check your dates. This movie was released before Urban Legends, so it beat them to the punch, namely the lovers in the car with a psycho on the loose segment and the people can lick segment (Urban Legends did a variation when the roommate was being raped/killed and the friend was none the wiser until she saw writing on the wall the next morning). It was also released prior to The Sixth Sense and The Others, so the ghost twist ending was not a rip-off, either. I passed over this movie when it came out because, admittedly, I tend to be leery of horror movies with no-name casts. I came across it recently at a video store, and was pleasantly surprised when I read through the cast list again. A lot of the actors who were no-name's then are somebody's now (Amy Smart, who had done Cry Baby prior, wasn't enough to do it for me, and I wasn't into Roseanne during it's original run, so the name Glenn Quinn meant nothing to me; thanks to Nick-at-Nite, I instantly recognized his name this time round). To those seeing this movie for the first time now, it probably would seem like a rip-off of the movies listed above. Just remember: it came first.