Camp Fear (1991 Video) User Reviews

Had potential, but turned into a mess.

[gtc83 · 3/10 · 7 March 2007]

This movie starts out the way every movie should start out, with a bunch of hot babes in a dorm walking around in their undies and/or topless. A couple of them take showers. I'm liking it so far! Unfortunately, we then meet or main characters. They're just not particularly likable. Usually in these movies, the actresses aren't really acting, they give very "natural" performances, and they're quite sympathetic, fun, and likable. Not here. They don't have much of any personality and I didn't care for them much.

Some of the girls go on a camping trip for school. On the way they stop at a backwoods gas station and meet a biker gang. The biker gang should really have been left out of the movie - it was cheesy before, but now it's just plain stupid. The head biker looks like a middle aged guy dressed up as John Bon Jovi for Halloween. The girls go out to the woods and later the biker gang follows them.

I don't really know what the heck happens after that. There's a bunch of stuff about the world ending because it's the end of the millennium, then some of the bikers get killed by a mysterious Indian dude who keeps disappearing. Somebody gets eaten by a cheesy Lock Ness Monster thing as he's swimming across a lake. Some guy in silly makeup is apparently a Druid, and he needs to sacrifice some of the girls in order to forestall the end of the world. Or maybe cause the end of the world, I'm afraid I wasn't paying much attention. First he dresses the girls up in animal skin lingerie.

It could have been a really fun cheesy movie, but the biker gang kind of ruined the atmosphere and the plot was so scatterbrained that it didn't even live up to my grade Z schlock expectations. They really should have eliminated half the plot elements and just focused on one or two things. Instead it's all over the place. Overall, if you're looking for late '80 schlock, I imagine you could do worse. If you tried really hard. There's plenty of nudity at the beginning, but the characters are kind of crummy and the plot is too nonsensical to be even the least bit satisfying.

A Real Midnight Movie

[Moviguy · 5/10 · 1 March 2006]

I know my rating seems a little high, but... well, I actually enjoyed this movie. I was drunk at the time, and that might explain why.

Camp Fear has very little nudity, and almost no blood. What it does have is a surprisingly well written script being performed by actors who have no idea that what they are reading is a comedy. Yes, this movie is a comedy. The director and the actors play it totally straight, and guess what, it's even funnier because of it. Now, this is a "so bad it's good" funny.

*Spoilers from here on out* Let us go through the highlights off this movie. You have two random shower scenes (one with Michelle Bauer and one with porn star Savanna). Both girls have a total of about five lines, show their breasts, and then vanish. Next you have a random song and dance number. I'm not joking. For a good five minutes this movie goes musical with a full lambada. It's hilarious. The song is terrible. The dancing is decent. Well, except for Tiffany, who looks like she's having a seizure. After this you get a half decent women in danger movie. This part actually worked. The bikers that attack the girls are silly, but there are a few scenes where they are actually menacing. It stays like this for a while until... a giant rubber looking lake monster (well... a sea monster in the lake) eats one of the bikers. You see this head float towards the guy, open it's mouth, and then the guy goes under water. You never see the monster again. Right after that we are introduced to his servant, the Giant Druid. This guy had me laughing the entire movie. It's all so random, that I just kind of stopped caring about the plot and enjoyed the silliness. So, apparently the thing in the lake needs four female virgin sacrifices. Well... the thing in the lake eats two bikers and a homeless man, and then Tiffany is sacrificed (more on this later). So I guess they all were secretly young, female virgins. Oh well...

Oh, and why do they have to be sacrificed? To stop the end of the world of course. Well, kind of. You see, the movie takes place in 1990, and the end of the world happens at the end of the second millennium. So... the druid and lake/sea monster thingy are getting a head start.

Now, did I mention there is no blood in this movie? There really isn't. The most extreme violence is during Tiffany's death. This is the reason I have th spoiler warning people. She gets her throat cut. When she does this huge geyser of red paint floods out of her neck... kind of. It more or less comes out next to her neck, and then runs over her face. And the entire time... Tiffany is laughing. Yes, she is laughing. Oh what acting.

So, is Camp Fear a good movie? NO! It's terrible. It's from RetroMedia people. They put out bad movies on purpose. This is a classic midnight movie. Camp Fear is a funny movie. Get a few beers, a few friends, and pop this baby in. You'll have a blast. Trust me.

Millennium countdown

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 2 October 2021]

Man, there are movies where I feel like I have reached the absolute Mariana Trench of bad films and this would be one of those times. What would make me watch a film like this?

Well, the cast. There are some stories here.

One of the "dorm girls" is Shannon Michelle Wilsey, who was only on our planet for 23 years and for two years or so of that time, she was known as Savannah, one of the Vivid girls of the early 90s that took women once thought of as too beautiful for adult films and transformed them into gigantic stars. For a variety of reasons, Wilsey didn't last - drugs, attitude, depression, bad financial choices, dating Gregg Allman before she was old enough to drive - in adult films. And before she had a chance to even learn who she was in life, a car accident and face injury sent her into such a depression that she killed herself. The band Okkervil River recorded two songs about her, but the lyrics to "(Shannon Wilsey on the) Starry Stairs" are the saddest:

"So here's goodbye From the part that stays behind To the part that has to leave To the sublime lips that were never spoiled By lying to the face inside the being Who wasn't me Who wasn't me She's not me"

The other "dorm girl" is Michelle Bauer, whose career took her from adult (where she used the name Pia Snow, appearing in one of the last mainstream crossover films, Cafe Flesh) to a long career as a scream queen in movies like Reform School Girls, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama and many, many more.

And hey! That's George "Buck" Flower as the wino character!

Finally, Betsy Russell is absolutely wasted in this film. I've often wondered why she didn't go further after Avenging Angel and Tomboy, but I guess being in multiple Saw girls and remaining a working actress is doing well enough.

This film is actually Cheerleader Camp 2, but for some reason it ended up being about a biker gang and some druids and sat on the shelf until 2000 when it was released as Millenium Countdown. There's also a Loch Ness Monster, laser beams and a poster that completely rips off Ruggero Deodato's Body Count, which may be one of the only times that an Italian filmmaker is the one getting things stolen from them.

This was directed and written by Thom Edward Keith - one and done - with the opening being lensed by Fred Olen Ray. And man, I nearly forgot to mention that Vincent Van Patten is on hand. I wonder if he looked back with fondness on better times, back when he was in Hell Night, a night and day better slasher?

What the?

[hip_school_preppie · 1/10 · 8 June 2007]

Oh my. Started out with such great potential - a bunch of cute sorority girls walking around practically naked, check. Then off to a bar where the 80's cheese gets turned up a notch, check. Off to a woodsy state park the next morning, check. A bunch of girls and their professor, rowdy bikers, a General store guy, and that dood from They Live acting as the local drunk - makes for a nice body count, check (and speaking of body count, notice the strong resemblance on the DVD cover to the foreign horror flick - Body Count! aka Camping del Terrore). A whacky Indian in the woods doing some sort of ritual, hmmm, OK I'll let it slide, check. And then, oh brother, all downhill from there. Terrible. The Lochness monster head in the pond had me cracking up though.

Bad, just bad.

[bmorris206 · 1/10 · 6 April 2005]

This movie is so irredeemably bad, NOTHING about it makes it worth seeing. NO effects, no suspense and poor dialogue poorly delivered. Oh, and neither a CAMP or any FEAR does it contain. Do yourself a favor and go see the original Friday the 13th or (preferably) Sleepaway Camp, but what ever you do, DO NOT see this movie.

Even Michele Bauer's appearance at the very beginning can't save it. Usually, in these kinds of films you expect violence, suspense, and a little gore and some T&A. The violence was poorly executed, the "suspense" was laughable, there was NO gore, and the T&A is plentiful IN THE FIRST 5 MINUTES, then, NOTHING. At least one of these things, properly done would have at least made it watchable.

To say at least one nice thing about it, Buck Flower is great, he seems to be the only one who understands they are making schlock and rightly hams it up. If everyone else had fit that tone it would have been campy fun, no pun intended.

almost worthless

[movieman_kev · 2/10 · 7 June 2005]

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

How do you make something so dull?

[udar55 · 2/10 · 6 May 2012]

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.

Standard B Horror.

[drhackenstine · 26 December 2005]

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.

It Has Been Proved! God Does Exist!

[MonolithicJudge · 1/10 · 29 January 2006]

Why you ask does this man claim to have the truth behind the existence of the almighty? Well its deductive logic my friends, you see I know God exists because Satan does, how else would my poor eyes have been soiled on such a horrendous film? Yes there is no doubt about it, on a cold Friday in the year 2006 Satan possessed me and forced me to watch this film. He what? You wonder; the devil makes little girls spit up vomit and climb ceilings, why would he waste his time in making you watch this film? My only conclusion to that query is that Satan believes watching Camp Fear is the worst form of mortal punishment, not gouging out your eyes or making you speak in tongues, instead making you sit mindlessly through one and half hours of the most awful film making ever. Can this film be as terrible as he says? Yes my friend watching this film is the equivalent of getting kicked in the sack about fifty million times, maybe more. But maybe I am being too harsh, this film does have a few moments in it, the beginning for example, starts in a sorority house with a lot of topless girls; now never being in a sorority I am unsure if girls really do this, but hey one can always pray. Now after the five minutes of boobs and butt cheeks has ended we are presented with a scene on campus at an all girls college; the girls themselves (about eight in all) are in an archaeological class, where they discuss virgin sacrifices and ancient mounds. Flash forward the professor of the class (who happens to be the only male at this girls college apparently) takes a handful of his nubile students, plus girlfriend, to a remote lake in the mountains, their quests, to find ancient Indian artifacts; yeah right professor, we know what angle your pitching. Now this is where the movie gets going, the group of five, four girls, one guy stops at a gas station to get some directions, but lo and behold a biker gang pulls up and harasses the girls, only to eventually leave them alone and go their separate ways. Moving on they get to a "campsite" consisting of four logs and some trees and then things start to go horribly wrong. First the prof. and his girlfriend go wandering away to have some alone time when one of the girls takes it upon herself to find them, only to be captured by some unknown force. Continuing on the other two girls begin searching for the missing girl when the bikers, plus one drunk guy, come looking for them, their plan, to rape the girls and do horrible things to them. The movie goes on with something about a druid needing four virgins for a sacrifice to save the world from some kind of water monster before the year two thousand; but their is a hitch to this plan Mr. Druid, one of the girls is devirginized right before us, so away goes that plan. Now since I said there would be spoilers I'll go ahead and ruin the end of the movie for you, the four girls get taken, drugged with some green goo and then are ready to be sacrificed, after one of them is killed the two remaining bikers and the prof. come to save them; they stand upon a ledge where the not lead biker says, "I think I can make it down there!" only to leap down and break his leg. The prof. runs at the guy and gets subdued only leaving the once rape-minded-now-heroic biker left to fend off the 6'3" giant druid. First he makes a pathetic attempt with a stick then pulls a knife, the knife reflects some lazer beam within a gold snakes mouth and lights the druid on fire instantaneously. Afterwords they carry the wounded away via emergency stick stretchers and ponder if everything is really over, only to have the lake bubble showing the monster within it still lives. In a nutshell that is the film and this is my review, which unfortunately will go unread by most eyes since this is only the fifth posted review for a film that has been out for fifteen years. Thankfully Satan can only get to some of us and not all. The Judge would like to make one heartfelt apology to the poor girl at Circuit City I am going to let borrow this movie; "I'm sorry Sheila, please don't hate me for letting you watch this."

If this movie was made two years earlier...

[fanqarm · 2/10 · 4 September 2005]

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!

Mystic Mountain? Camp Fear? Yes!

[hammerheadcases · 4/10 · 29 April 2023]

I fell asleep watching a movie on Tubi and when I woke up Mystic Mountain, AKA, Camp Fear had just started. The movie starts out with a bunch of topless sorority sisters heading to and from the shower. Not a bad way to wake up from a nap, but the movie quickly devolves to low grade schlock!

Vince Van Patten start along with his then wife Betsy Russell, of SAW fame, and his brother Nehls, call it a family affair if you like. Van Patten actually does a fairly decent acting job here and looks like an oscar winner compared to the rest of the cast!

The movie was shot in 1991, but the film quality, acting and "Special" effects look like a late 70's motorcycle movie. When I say "Special", the fight scenes are terrible and the styrofoam lake monster push it from a B-Movie to a clear C-.

Saying all that the movie does have some redeeming qualities like George "Buck" Flower, a regular in John Carpenter movies, playing the town drunk. When he sees the ghost of an Indian chief Buck Delivers the line of the movie when he proclaims "I need a beer, I don't wanna die with an empty bladder!"

Betsy Russell is her normal gorgeous self, but the love seen with Van Patten is one of the weirdest I've seen. We see Van Patten's hand on her hip inside her underwear, then they pan away and pan back to the same shot, pan away back to the same shot and then they are dressed and gone.

I really feel like this was one of the titular movies designed to suck boys and young men in with the open nude scenes because they had nothing else. Changing the name seemed like it was only done to suck in a whole new crop of the same audience.

More fun than many seem to give it credit for.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 3 February 2013]

Thus far, this one seems to have received almost unanimously scathing reviews here on IMDb but I don't understand all the hate: although the film is undeniably cheap, poorly written and technically shoddy, it sure as hell entertains, offering up delightfully daft B-movie 'cheeze' by the bucket-load.

The first five minutes alone qualify Camp Fear as satisfyingly trashy fun, the film opening in a sorority house where every dorm girl is a big breasted babe and it seems mandatory to wander around either naked from the waist up or in sexy underwear. The film starts proper when four such college hotties—anthropology students with impressive IQs and bodies to match—decide to take a camping trip with their professor to study ancient Indian relics at a remote backwoods location.

Unfortunately for our swotty sexpots and their lucky teacher, not only do they have to contend with horny drunken bikers who want to party with the girls, but they must try and avoid being sacrificed to an ancient god by a giant Indian druid (played by ex-basketball player Tiny Ron) who believes that their deaths will ensure the survival of the human race for another millennium.

Betsy 'Tomboy' Russell as Professor Hamilton's girlfriend Jamie; George 'Buck' Flower playing yet another wino; a massive papier mache crocodile monster; a rare non-porn performance from tragic XXX legend Savannah; a hilarious lambada dance routine to a crap pop song; an over-use of smoke and coloured lighting; our four sexy students being forced to wear revealing animal skin outfits; buxom blonde student Tiffany having her throat cut (resulting in a gush of bright red paint): for the right kind of viewer, Camp Fear should prove to be more fun than many give it credit for (especially if you play my Camp Fear drinking game: take a shot every time Buck Flower talks about 'demons and devils'!!!).

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.