Gather 'round the campfire...but beware! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most memorable and popular horror movies set in youth camps, particularly summer camp.
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00:00Jason was my son, and today is his birthday.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most memorable and
00:10popular horror movies set in youth camps, particularly Summer Camp.
00:14I know what's going to go down at this camp, and it's not pretty.
00:20Number 10.
00:21Fear Street Part II, 1978 Possession, Serial Killers, Summer Camp?
00:27Oh my.
00:28This movie has it all.
00:35In 1978, Ziggy and her friends accidentally set in motion events hundreds of years in
00:41the making.
00:50With dynamic performances by Sadie Sink and Emily Rudd, this movie is a standout in the
00:55Fear Street trilogy.
00:56There's truly something for everyone.
00:58If you're a boomer, you'll get nostalgic for the 70s setting.
01:01If you're a millennial, you'll get nostalgic for the R.L.
01:04Stein of it.
01:05It also pays homage to classic slashers, making it an instant classic itself.
01:19Number 9.
01:20Summer Camp.
01:27This one is kind of a cross between Cabin Fever and a zombie flick.
01:30At Summer Camp, rather than your usual slasher, the counselors at this camp are afflicted
01:34with a deadly virus that turns its victims into zombie-like creatures.
01:43While putting a new spin on the Summer Camp horror flick, it also calls back to some classic
01:47horror movie tropes.
01:49How about no phone service?
01:51The line is sketchy and calls aren't going to save anybody.
01:54Then there's the no way out.
01:55They are all trapped in the setting.
01:57And of course, there's the bad thing that ends up inciting the entire plot.
02:01A character getting bitten by a seemingly rabid dog, and then acts like it's no biggie.
02:05Yeah, that bodes well.
02:13Number 8.
02:14Cheerleader Camp
02:15Like many mystery whodunit flicks, but unlike quite a few slasher flicks, in this one you
02:30don't know who the killer is from the get-go.
02:33If you're watching a movie in the very famous slasher franchises, you are, well, usually
02:38– more on that later – in the know that the killer is, say, Michael, Freddy, or Jason.
02:43Here, at Cheerleader Camp, the suspense comes at the audience fast and furious.
02:53It's kind of an Agatha Christie meets Scream vibe.
02:56A slasher murder mystery complete with nightmares, double crosses, and lots of sexy time.
03:01So the fear not only comes from the deaths themselves, but from the uncertainty of who
03:04the bad guy is.
03:06The suspense will kill you.
03:08Are we right?
03:15Number 7.
03:16Mad Man This one essentially combines several big horror
03:19movie themes.
03:20It's a summer camp movie, an urban legend film, and a slasher flick all in one.
03:32While gathered around the campfire, a group of campers and counselors are telling scary
03:42stories.
03:43Max tells the story of Mad Man Mars, an urban legend who supposedly killed his family with
03:48an axe.
03:49Unbeknownst to Max, by telling the story, he summons, you guessed it, the Mad Man.
03:56Interestingly, though scarily enough, even though the tale of the Mad Man is a fictional
04:03urban legend for the movie, it is based on the New York legend of the Cropsey, who turned
04:08out to be a terrible and terrifying real-life killer.
04:21Number 6.
04:22They Them This isn't a typical summer camp film at
04:24all and deals with very contemporary themes.
04:28It takes place at an LGBTQIA plus conversion camp.
04:44As monstrously scary as the killer roaming around in the woods, of course there's a
04:48killer in the woods, are the tactics used by the camp in their conversion efforts.
04:53This includes subjecting campers to a variety of terrible, torturous treatments.
04:57And then, in addition to all that, is that aforementioned lurking masked killer, who
05:02is slowly killing off camp counselors and workers.
05:05That's a lot of horror all around.
05:19Number 5.
05:20The Burning
05:21We previously mentioned the Cropsey legend.
05:23This is another film loosely based on that legend that came out around the same time
05:27as our earlier selection, Mad Man.
05:29However, in this movie, the only connection to the original urban legend is the borrowed
05:33name of the villain and the fact that it takes place in New York.
05:50In this film, the caretaker of Camp Blackfoot is the victim of a vicious prank by the campers
05:55that leaves him horribly burned.
05:57He then takes out his revenge on future campers by going after them with pruning shears.
06:08The film is pretty brutal and also has some seriously impressive visual effects work for
06:13the time.
06:20Number 4.
06:21Stage Fright
06:33This movie is really interesting.
06:34It combines various genres to create a musical-slash-comedy-slash-horror extravaganza.
06:40emphasis on the slash.
06:56The campers at a theater camp are hunted by the Opera Ghost, a not-so-thinly-veiled reference
07:01to the Phantom of the Opera.
07:03As opening day approaches, the bodies pile up, and the show itself is an absolute bloodbath.
07:09But the audience thinks it's all part of the show.
07:16The songs are funny and well-written, and the over-the-top premise expertly rides the
07:20line between believable absurdity and unbelievable ridiculousness.
07:37Number 3.
07:38The Final Girls
07:39You want more tropey than pretty much any other homage film?
07:42Or even more meta than Scream?
07:44Well, then you might want to grab some popcorn and enjoy a viewing of The Final Girls.
07:57The title itself basically lets you know that the film isn't just leaning into the horror
08:01movie tropes, it's turning them up to eleven.
08:11Max and her group of friends find themselves trapped in the slasher film that her mother
08:15starred in back in the 80s, Camp Bloodbath.
08:18To survive the film, the group will have to use their knowledge of horror movie rules
08:22and tropes to outsmart the masked baddie.
08:30Number 2.
08:32Sleepaway Camp
08:42This one was commercially unsuccessful when it was first released, but it was definitely
08:46underrated.
08:47People seem to think it ripped off Friday the 13th, but hey, how can you not pay homage
08:51to the classic?
08:52But even though this movie didn't do well originally, it's grown a significant cult
08:57following over the years.
09:04Admittedly it is fairly similar in premise to Friday the 13th, but the deaths in this
09:09one are really creative, if equally brutal.
09:12And the mystery goes further than who the killer is.
09:15At first, the characters think they are just the victims of some crazy accidents.
09:19When they finally realize they are at the mercy of a killer, well, it's scary.
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09:491.
09:50Friday the 13th
09:51Oh, did we mention Friday the 13th?
09:53You just can't beat the classics.
10:04This is the film that basically jumpstarted the overall summer camp slasher craze.
10:08While all the sequels focus on Jason Voorhees exacting his revenge on the residents of Camp
10:13Crystal Lake, this first one is essentially also a murder mystery.
10:17As the counselors take advantage of some alone time on the lake before the campers
10:21arrive, they are slowly taken out by an unknown killer.
10:34The mystery part of this first installment adds an extra element to the scare factor
10:38of this one.
10:39You try to figure out who the killer could be as the suspects get added to the body count.
10:43Hey, maybe they should make some sequels.
10:55What's your favorite summer camp horror movie?
10:58Let us know in the comments.
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