''Cannibal Campout'' is a 1988
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
written and directed by
Jon McBride, and co-directed by Tom Fisher.
Plot
While out for a jog in the community of Redston, a woman named Nancy is hacked to death with an felling axe by a man wearing a
fighter pilot
A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...
helmet. Later, two couples consisting of Jon and Carrie, and Amy and Chris, head to Redston to camp out for the weekend, but on the way there they encounter a pair of
hillbillies named Rich and Gene, who attack them.
After the encounter with the backwoods duo (revealed to be the brothers of the fighter helmet-wearing man, Joe) the quartet set up near some abandoned cabins, while the hillbillies murder would-be pranksters John and Ray. After wandering off alone to get her cigarettes, Carrie is killed by Gene and Joe, and her friends are captured while looking for her. Jon is knocked out in a fight with Joe, and
disemboweled
Disembowelment or evisceration is the removal of some or all of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract (the bowels, or viscera), usually through a horizontal incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment may result from an accident ...
and eaten by the brothers, who
force feed the other captives some of his innards. When Gene and Joe leave with Jon's body, Rich butchers Chris, and tries to
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
Amy, but is stabbed with his own knife, and left for dead.
Traversing the wilderness, Amy encounters Joe, and during the ensuing scuffle pulls off his helmet, revealing his disfigured face. After Joe runs off, Gene and the recovered Rich recapture Amy, and cut out and eat her unborn child. An unknown amount of time later, the brothers are shown partaking in an unsuccessful hunt, and when Rich suggests they merely get
fast food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...
, Gene scolds him, reminding him that they promised their mother they would never eat those chemical-soaked foods. When Rich continues to complain, Gene and Joe become annoyed, and seemingly decide to eat him.
Cast
*
Jon McBride as Jon
* Amy Chludzinski as Amy
* Christopher A. Granger as Chris
* Richard Marcus as Rich
* Gene Robbins as Gene
* Carrie Lindell as Carrie
* Joseph Salhab as Joe
* Nancy Sciarra as Nancy
* Ray Angelic as Ray
* John Farrell as John
Reception
A three out of five was awarded by
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
, which stated "The joy of this film is in the sheer audacity of the filmmakers who managed to get this project on the shelves of
mom and pop shops all over the country".
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...
said that while ''Cannibal Campout'' was bad, it was enjoyable due to the gore, and "the lovable cheapness of the whole thing".
DVD Talk gave the film a one and half out of five, writing "Cheap and chintzy is one thing. Low-end and insipid is another, but what's on display here is simply too stupid to believe" and "McBride makes his villains so garishly weird, stupid and gross that it seems he's going for sort of a ''
Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' tone, but the actors are so rotten, and the gore is so blatantly stupid-looking, that any sense of dread or discomfort is replaced by feelings of exasperated incredulity".
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=0125031, title=Cannibal Campout
1988 films
1988 horror films
1980s American films
1980s English-language films
1980s slasher films
1980s teen horror films
American independent films
American serial killer films
American slasher films
American splatter films
American teen horror films
Camcorder films
Direct-to-video horror films
English-language horror films
Films about cannibalism
Films set in New Jersey
Films shot in New Jersey