A group of forest rangers travel deep into the woods for a camping trip that is part work, part pleasure. But what they don't know is that many years ago a young girl was raped by her uncle in the very same woods. She told no one, fearing the consequences if her uncle, her families breadwinner, found out.
But the horrible secret drove her insane, and she was admitted to a sanitarium. There, they discovered she was pregnant. Her child was taken from her due to her mental state. But he returned, and broke her out of the sanitarium. Now she and her son haunt the very woods where the rangers are camped.
When their coworkers start to turn up dead, the rangers realize their lives are in danger and they have to escape. But when escape starts to seem impossible, they decide instead to fight back.
Campsite Massacre, also known as "The Final Terror", is a relatively standard slasher film from a time when the sub-genre was all the rage. There are some differences from the majority of slasher films in this era, however. First all, notably the gore is quite toned down in this film compared with others from the era, like the well known Halloween and Friday the 13th films. The film also lacks in the nudity department which is very unusual for 1980's slasher films.
Character development is quite weak here, as is a lot of the dialogue. It is unusual and somewhat interesting that you end up with a sizable group of survivors ultimately fighting off their attacker together rather than just one person. Unfortunately none of those individuals are all that interesting and neither are the villains especially since we don't get to see the primary one until the last couple minutes of the film.
A lot more could have been done with a story and a setting like this in the way of atmosphere, mood, and scares. Yet any creepy mood that may have been on its way to being created was pretty much blown when the protagonists decided to march in like a bunch of Boy Scouts playing Rambo and confront the villain.
Ultimately, not an awful movie, but one with too many missed opportunities and not enough of the makings of a really solid slasher film. One among hundreds.
2 heads in the outhouse out of 5
Rated R: contains violence, language.
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