Oh and it's the most star studded of the bunch too featuring very early appearances from Jason Alexander (with hair!), Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens.
The setting is Camp Blackfoot and the antagonist is Cropsy, an ex camp caretaker who was a bit of a bollix as we're told. A prank played on him goes wrong and he ends up engulfed in flames as a result. He survives but he's a melted wreck of a man with murder on his mind. 5 years later he gets out of hospital and butchers a prostitute, showing off the first of many nasty Tom Savini special effects. Then he heads back to the camp where it all began and sets about taking his revenge on the new campers. Men, women, adults, teens, all are fair game to him.
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| Baby faced Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens and Holly Hunter |
The nods to the Friday The 13th, released only the year before are glaring but in every respect this one is more enjoyable. More inventive kills, a much larger cast, believable acting, a summer camp that actually feels like a summer camp, filled with characters who look the right age, a genuinely unsettling bad guy and effects from Savini that are pretty disgusting and still mostly hold up almost 39 years later. It contains the best set-piece of all the nasties too in the scene where a canoe full of unsuspecting campers are massacred in one go, in broad daylight and in unsparing detail. Of course it's this scene that caused all it's problems. It was heavily trimmed by the MPAA to avoid an X-rating and in the UK it got butchered by the BBFC. Then the company releasing the VHS version, Thorn EMI, tried to sneak out an uncut videotape and this unabridged version got the film prosecuted for obscenity.
If not for it's place on the nasty list it would have been lost in the mire, one of the many F13 clones released in the slasher boom of the early 80's but it still has it's charms. For one it feels surprisingly European with regards to it's nudity and it's use of profanity gives it a grittier edge than the other slashers of the era. It's ending changes things up too with characters surviving who in other films would have been killed off quicksmart, Brian Backer's creepy little peeping tom character Alfred being chief among them. It's main USP is it's total disregard for one of the slasher genres most used tropes, the final girl. Nope, no Jamie Lee Curtis style heroine here, this time it's Todd, the camp counsellor who ends Cropsy's reign of terror with a well timed axe to the face. Him coming out on top adds a welcome air of unpredictability to proceedings because from his first appearance early in the film you have him pegged for dismemberment instantly.
I enjoyed revisiting this one. Cool effects, a decent cast actually capable of acting, a creepy bad guy and a couple of real jumps. What more do you need sure? Oh, I forgot the scariest thing of all. It was produced by notorious scumbag Harvey Weinstein. Look back up at the poster to see his name near the bottom. It's a pity this film had to help his entry into Hollywood.
Next up. Cannibal Apocalypse. Another fun watch before the really gruelling stuff starts to appear.
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