8 Summer Camp Horror Movies

Summer camp movies became a subgenre onto themselves in the late 70s, continued vigorously throughout the 80s, and stretched into the early 90s before the genre waned. After Ivan Reitman’s Meatballs (1979) and Ron Maxwell’s Little Darlings (1980) struck box office gold, genre filmmakers set their suspicious eyes on sprawling campgrounds quiet lakes, and sinister tree lines, transforming bastions of youthful serenity into the sites of countless killing sprees and angst-y rebellions.

Sean Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980) is the first slasher to wear a woodsy summer camp setting, but that franchise casts a long shadow and can easily be the subject of its own list. Because everyone knows the saga of Camp Crystal Lake, Shock decided to focus this list on a mixture of lesser known films and one-off summer camp horror. And to avoid future duplication, we’ve excluded any films covered this month in our previous 10 Camping Nightmares article.

After all, there’s plenty of carnage around the campfire.   

Matt Serafini writes horror fiction and spends much of his free time tracking down obscure slasher movies, ranting about them to whoever will listen. He also likes scotch, and, as such, hopes to find himself embroiled in a real-life giallo one day. Find him on Twitter @MattFini.

Movie News
Marvel and DC
X