Cannibal Campout

Hi All-- To be honest, I am not a B-Horror Movie person, until I was involved in the making of one. If you have read this far you must be an aficionado of the Banal, the Bad, the Bs....But they are fun to watch aren't they?

I assisted Jon McBride in the direction and coordination of this made-to-video classic. This was Jon's brainchild, and he did a lot of hard work to make it all happen. I enjoyed my part behind the camera creating scenes from the screenplay with what we had to work with. Many of the death scenes I made up on the spot, going by what Jon had in mind, then using what was available to do my best. I "made up" (without spoiling) a number of the death scenes off the top of my head, and often hand-held the camera, which at first appalled my co-workers, but I got pretty steady as time went on. I felt the hand-held feel gave me more mobility and was less restrictive than being glued to a tripod. This movie was shot with a camcorder in the woods, with no budget to speak of. I think we did some pretty good work here all things considered, and to think it is important enough to have warranted a DVD release is simply amazing in a lot of ways. The cast was very dedicated and unpaid in any way. Everyone showed up faithfully , gave up weekends for most of a summer, suffered through warm clothes to maintain continuity as the temperatures rose. Most people don't realize what goes into any film project, but here on its simplest terms, many hours were spent....I recall we had 6 two hour VHS tapes of footage--12 hours that was edited down to a 90 minute running time. I always enjoyed "Bad" movies, the fact that they are bad makes them entertaining on their own level. We more or less wanted this to be enjoyed as a bad movie. We wanted viewers to scream at their TV sets telling the campers how dumb they are. We purposely borrowed from other horror genres, both as an homage and for potential viewers to groan to themselves while quietly snickering.

I could write a lot here, and felt bad I could not make the commentary filming for the DVD, but I was unavailable on short notice at the time. But in closing I want to thank Jon McBride, Amy Chludzinski, Gene Robbins, Richard Marcus, Carrie Lindell, Christopher A. Granger, Joseph Salheb and the rest of the cast and crew who all worked so hard.

I can't wait for the DVD--I will buy one myself to see all the great extras.

Best Regards to all as I am proud to stand in the company of Edward D. Wood Jr., who was an inspiration to us all....

Tom Fisher

I saw this movie when I was in High school. My friends and I still use it to gauge just how bad a movie is. It looks as though a couple of friends got together with a video camera and did a school project. That's the quality of the piece of crap. It's very funny, only because it's so stupid. You can actually see someone off scene(supposed to be off scene) throw blood at a sign when one of the female "actresses" gets killed. Its great to watch with a few beers and some friends for good laughs... that's about it.

I'm an avid lover of low budget and even some trash and that's why I decided to give a chance to "Cannibal Campout".

I won't get into the plot because you've seen it before. It deals with the typical group of friends who get lost in a road and guess what? end up being victimized by a group of American cannibals in the woods.

The movie was shot on a handycam obviously but that doesn't means that it's something bad because the direction has an edge and even tries "different" angles. Some humor is involuntary I might add.

Sure, the gore is cheap and the acting atrocious but the movie has a heart and even tries too hard to impress the audience. The American cannibal sub-genre isn't very explored and this is a prime example of how independend and low budget at least tries...

Watch it only if you are a fan of ultra low budget and trash overall.

Everyone I know that is collecting horror wants this one in his collection as I have. It's a low budget flick clearly made by friends and it's bad no-one can deny that but it's the effects that made its fame.

To be clear, the effects aren't all that good but wisely done and by doing so it looks all nasty and gory.. And that's the reason people are hunting this one down.

The acting and story is of poor quality and in fact 90% of the actors only appeared ones and that is in this flick.

It's out there for the gorhounds or the lovers of low budget flicks. Honestly, it's slow and some situations are really cheesy and conversations are doubtedly numb. One to see with your geeky frinds and starting off with a lot of brewskies.

Gore 2,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

I admit I watch a lot of bad movies and there even are some that I champion, but Cannibal Campout is not a title I recommend even for people who like to watch crappy movies. Cannibal Campout has its share of gore sure, but its mostly a bore and hard to watch. The plot is nothing any horror fan has'nt seen before(and done better), a trio of hicks hang out in the woods and stalk, kill and eat vacationers camping nearby. Production value, artistry and acting are non existent in this homegrown, hand-held horror film. That dosn't bother me though, what does is that it is slow paced and boring when there is no gore happening on screen. I'm sure this was a labor of love for those involved with this production, but for those of us outside their freindship circle, it is painful to watch.