Camp Fear (1991)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

An archeology professor (Vincent Van Patten) takes four female students (including Betsy Russell, Van Patten's wife at the time) up to Mystic Mountain for a weekend of fun surveying. What they don't expect is to run afoul of some rowdy bikers (with Nels Van Patten, Vincent's bro, in their ranks), who try to rape them. Oh, and there is some 7' mutant Druid priest (Tiny Ron) wandering around looking for sacrifices for some millennium celebration ritual. Ah, jeez, this is some rough stuff here folks. I'll never understand how filmmakers can pull together enough money for a low budget horror flick and then make something so routine and dull. Does it stem from cynicism ("Eh, the public will watch anything") or just plain ineptness? About the only impressive things in this picture are huge Tiny Ron as the monster and George "Buck" Flower as a wino. The producers obviously knew it was lacking as they hired Fred Olen Ray to shoot a new opening where 7 sorority sisters (including Monique Gabrielle and porn star Savannah) walk around topless for about 5 minutes. It isn't enough to save the film. Perhaps it is worth seeing for laughs, mostly provided by the terrible performance by Playboy Playmate Peggy McIntaggart (aka Peggy Sands) as one of the students. And, no, she doesn't get naked. This was originally shot as H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE HOWLER, but I'm guessing the producers thought even the most naive horror fan wouldn't be too pleased with that as it has no Lovecraft mentions and now howling.

Many people like to say this is the sequel to Cheerleader Camp. For a long time there were rumors of a Cheerleader Camp 2 existing, featuring a young Uma Thurman, but being basically impossible to find. I even own a movie review book that came out about 5 years ago that has a synopsis of the alleged Cheeleader Camp 2. I don't have any idea how that review came to be because there is no sequel. The fact of the matter is, is that this film began shooting as Cheerleader Camp 2, but when a different production company took over filming, the title and story was changed. The finished product now stand as it's own film, and was actually originally released as The Millennium Countdown. That whole story is more interesting than anything the finished product has to offer. The movie starts out right with featuring plenty of T and A, hinting at a possibly good B horror movie. The story is about college girls who go with their professor to a remote lake to search for Indian artifacts. They find themselves terrorized by a biker gang, a giant demon, and a monster in a lake. The low-rank production is hampered with bad dialog, wooden acting, and a lack of terror and violence, something that usually makes a low-budget horror film work. The film's big finale is hokey and inane and there are no real special effects to even mention. The steady pace is the only thing to keep the un-demanding viewer watching, but in the end they will probably be disappointed. The movie moves along fine with all it's flaws, there just isn't anything else in this to recommend. For some reason this movie reminded me of Sorority Girls And The Creature From Hell. Very average B-movie viewing. Two Stars.

If this movie was made two years earlier it could have been a lot better. But unfortunately, it was made in the decade that had no idea about how a horror movie was supposed to look or act. When I first heard about this movie, people on IMDb were classifying it as the sequel to Cheerleader Camp. Oh how wrong they were. Yes, Betsy Russell was in it but Uma Thurman sure wasn't. I'd really like to find the person who started that whole sequel rumor. I'm sure a lot of us would though. I'm not gonna give anything away because frankly I don't remember how this movie even ends! I'm just gonna tell you to watch a real camp horror movie... The Burning starring Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, Holly Hunter & the geek from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A word to the wise - Just because a horror movie has the word camp in the title, doesn't mean its gonna be worth watching. Oh, and another thing, ANY HORROR FLICK MADE IN THE EARLY TO MID 90's WAS EVER CONSIDERED EVEN REMOTELY GOOD!

A handful of nubile young college sorority sisters decide to go camping with a professor. A giant druid want to sacrifice them to prevent the apocalypse come the year 2000, they also have to contend with bikers, an Indian and a loch ness monster type thing. Worth watching for only 3 reasons, George 'Buck' Flower (a sadly unsung B-movie staple) is on hand as a hobo and the other 2 belong to the stunning Savannah (in one of only 3 non-porn roles she had). Both have very small roles. Too bad everything else in the movie is horrendously bad.My Grade: D- Retromedia DVD Extras: Original Trailer Eye Candy: 4 pairs of breasts, 2 asses