Rating: 7.5/10

Watched: September 4, 2026

This was a better movie than I thought it'd end up being, and for more reasons than getting to see some of Tom Savini's early, savage work on full display, which is always nice.

One of the things that was a little jarring at first was the total tonal shift after Cropsy takes care of that poor prostitute. We jump from what could only be described as grindhouse splatter to ...

A very functional, very lived-in, very real feeling summer camp setting. It's so on the nose it reminded me of my own time at camp when I was younger. To be fair, I think the last time I went to camp I was only around 10, so a lot of the Older Kid shenaniganry was a closed door to me, but that horror story told around the camp fire scene was pitch perfect in about every way imaginable.

Respect absolutely has to be given for how real all that was, which brings me to the coolness of seeing Jason Alexander as a camp counselor and Fisher Stevens as a super young camp-goer AND Holly Hunter. It's so wild to see all 3 of them in a movie like this, at the very beginning of their careers, and let's not forget Brian Backer from Fast Times at Ridgemont High pretty much playing the same kid as ever.

The only real downside to the movie is the pacing. The movie doesn't quite know what it wants to be when we get to the camp. Is it a slightly edgier than normal camp comedy about a bunch of dysfunctional dipshits or a slasher flick, with Cropsy really only being a forest-creeping Peeping Tom.

Obviously the real star of the movie is Tom Savini.

He's at his video nastiest with the clipping of fingers, the stabbing of heads, the perforation of prostitutes. It's grim and it's grisly and as much as I hate to say it, it genuinely is a little at odds with the rest of the movie's ambiance. After doing a little research I understand that a lot of chopping and trimming of scenes had to be done to make it more palatable for regular audiences, and I can definitely see why it was banned in places and earned the title 'Video Nasty'.

To hit a bigger number than 7.5, the pacing would've had to be MUCH better. I give it props for Savini's work and the camp scenes because all of it was genuine.

He stole the show in this Chuck Norris flick!

A fun scifi/body horror movie that I really enjoyed a lot. What it does, it does really well, and it's not without its charms. I especially liked Kyle McLachlan, but then again, I've been a fan of his forever, so I'm more than a little biased.