Verdict
Summary
An easy enough formula that has been tried and true for decades in simple slasher films should have worked perfectly for Deer Camp ’86, but right from the start, the movie gets off on the wrong foot with truly unappealing characters and not enough women in the cast to even out the heavy handed “dude-bro” blowhards who permeate the movie. Unpleasant dialogue, racist, sexist, and generally idiotic characters fill the movie to the brim, and it’s never scary enough because it spends way too much time on this group of jackass characters who never felt like they belonged in 1986 but in some lameass YouTube prankster video. The design of the killer is cool, but we never see it enough, and I was honestly rooting for the killer by the end. This should’ve been a slamdunk, but instead is all air ball.
Plot:
Some guys drive up to a wilderness area to go hunting for the weekend, but instead find that THEY are the ones being hunted.
Review:
Six Detroit dudes carpool to a remote hunting ground to bag some venison over the weekend, stopping first at a last-chance bar along the way. They get drunk, make passes at the local bar maids, and something awful happens: A local Native American woman is raped and murdered in the parking lot before they move along. It can’t be one of these six guys (or can it?) because they all stuck together, but when they land at the cabin in the woods to begin their weekend of hunting, a local sheriff stops by to grill them over the dead woman in the parking lot where they were all seen. Since they all seem to have alibis and protest their innocence, the sheriff moves on, but then the six buddies start seeing a masked figure in the woods, and it’s not just a vision, no, it’s a malevolent stalker that begins killing them off one by one. Before the other guys can figure out what’s going on, the truth begins to manifest: A vengeful Native American spirit is after them for a grave misdeed …
An easy enough formula that has been tried and true for decades in simple slasher films should have worked perfectly for Deer Camp ’86, but right from the start, the movie gets off on the wrong foot with truly unappealing characters and not enough women in the cast to even out the heavy handed “dude-bro” blowhards who permeate the movie. Unpleasant dialogue, racist, sexist, and generally idiotic characters fill the movie to the brim, and it’s never scary enough because it spends way too much time on this group of jackass characters who never felt like they belonged in 1986 but in some lameass YouTube prankster video. The design of the killer is cool, but we never see it enough, and I was honestly rooting for the killer by the end. This should’ve been a slamdunk, but instead is all air ball. From director L Van Dyke Siboutszen.
Mill Creek has just released a Blu-ray and a DVD for Deer Camp ’86, which follows a brief one-week theatrical run. The disc doesn’t offer any notable special features, but the package is affordably priced to own.
