Deer Camp '86

Better than average for the budget. It has something it wanted to say and did it moderately well.

It is pseudo 80s. But doesn't really matter. It has some humor though most of the jokes are a bit bland. A nice change of pace with some enjoyable Northern Michigan fall foliage.

Suburban kids go to the country to hunt. Terrible use of and stereotypical depiction of local country folk. The suburban kids are barely given much better to work with. They eventually get to the cabin and start to go hunting. Then some stuff happens and things build to the finish.

A bit of a slow going. Eventually it gets moving along. With a rushed ending. It has decent practical effect, some moderate cgi and some not great cgi. A little heavy handed on being against hunting.

Overall I am not upset I watched it. Though I am not sure when or if I would ever watch it again. It does wrap up in a reasonable way. Which is too bad, because with some tweaks and changes this could have been really entertaining. Instead it an okay way to pass your time when you are in a mood for a horror flick.

A bit of gore and a bit of language. In a movie that could have been good and ended up just mediocre.

The "hunters" looked like they were outfitted by Todd Snyder. No actual hunter would wear clothing this nice. The actors seemed miscast. And the exaggerated stereo types of small town people was unnecessary (racist, homophobic, etc).

The movie took place in 1986. Besides the "Simon" game, nothing by way of set design or costume made you think "yeah this is the '80s." One highlight was the beautiful Michigan autumn scenery. I've never been to Michigan but I'm now interested.

The acting was decent. And again, the scenery is gorgeous. It was as though it was from the Michigan tourism department!!!!

Given the synopsis ("In the fall of 1986 six knuckleheads from Detroit ..."), you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a horror comedy. It isn't. There's some funny banter among said knuckleheads, especially in the early going, but ultimately this movie is trying to be a fairly straightforward survival/supernatural horror. Sort of Predator with a group of drunken quippy idiots instead of an elite special forces unit. There are also references to missing and exploited indigenous women that seem like they're trying to be genuinely profound. It wasn't boring but the tone was an odd mix of silly dialogue, earnest social commentary and horror imagery that didn't ever fully coalesce.

The overall story was good, although the pacing could have been tightened up a bit. The special effects were well done, especially considering the obvious budget constraints. However, the movie lost 5 stars due to a common issue in today's film industry...incredibly unlikeable characters. What I assume was intended to be what the writers imagined "guy talk" at deer camp would sound like was just awful. Basically just guys, who were supposed to be good friends, calling each other b***h and getting in actual fights nearly the entire run time. Trying to force this in is what killed the pacing of the film. Some interesting stuff happened, and then a long stretch of irritating bickering that made me root against nearly all of them, followed by a rushed but ultimately fun and interesting climax that wrapped the story up much better than most films in this budget range. I'm not mad that I watched it, but a little disappointed because it was so close to being much better.

Well now, this 2022 horror movie titled "Deer Camp '86" turned out to be an enjoyable movie. Sure, I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down and watching it, but with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance. I am, after all, a huge fan of the horror genre.

Writers Bo Hansen and Riley Taurus put together an enjoyable script and storyline, which felt like it was a combination of 1980s slasher horror mixed in with some creature feature elements, and sprinkled with a supernatural topping. I will flat out say that I was enjoying this, because it was like watching the horror movies that I grew up watching back in 1980s. So there was some sense of nostalgia to this movie for me.

I was actually not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, but they had a good ensemble of talents for the movie. And the acting performances in the movie were good. I also found the character gallery in the movie to be well-written one, and that definitely added something good to the overall impression of the movie.

Visually then "Deer Camp '86" was good. There was a sufficient amount of blood, gore and mutilation in the movie to keep an old gorehound such as myself happy.

If you enjoy horror movies, then I would definitely recommend you checking out director L. Van Dyke Siboutszen's 2022 movie "Deer Camp '86". I was genuinely and wholly entertained throughout the course of the 85 minutes that the movie ran for.

My rating of "Deer Camp '86" lands on a well-deserved six out of ten stars.