By Geno McGahee
I typically really enjoy anthologies. It’s difficult to miss with them. You are usually presented with three to five tales and there’s probably one that will click with the viewer. There are several movies called “CAMPFIRE TALES”, but I never knew that one of them featured Leatherface, Gunner Hansen. That wasn’t a good sign. Any time that get a notable horror actor in a low budget flick to sell it, it is usually trying to supplement the lack of quality, but I was actually really impressed for the most part.
CAMPFIRE TALES starts with an unoriginal tale called “THE HOOK.” A young couple start making out and they hear about a killer that has escaped the nut house and is now on a killing spree. The girl goes home and finds a bloody pumpkin and then the killer appears and attacks. She barely escapes and kills him. There wasn’t much to this one. I loved the look of this movie and that was part of this that I really enjoyed. Even though this tale wasn’t that notable, the look was pretty nice and there were some cool visuals. THE HOOK gets a 5/10.
Up next was “OVERTOKE,” and this was a great tale. Two stoners are looking to get some drugs and they meet up with what appears to be a meth head. He has these marks all over his face and hands but he assures the two stoners that he can lead them to some good drugs. They let him into the car and drive over to an apartment where they meet a dude that looks like my aunt. My aunt’s doppelganger gives them some drugs and they are immediately hooked, but they start breaking out and then as they take more, they begin to resemble zombies. They eventually totally melt away and die. This is a really great tale with some great gore. OVERTOKE gets 7/10.
FRIGHT BEFORE XMAS is about a jerk that is upset that he is unsuccessful. He goes to see his mother and she notes that she gave him a great deal of money to start a business, which enrages him. He tells her it wasn’t enough and then, to get her life insurance, throws her down the stairs and kills her. He ends up at the house of his niece and nephew and is a dick to them too, but that’s when he learns of “Satan Claus,” another Christmas entity that actually kills the really bad kids. He laughs it off and goes home and that’s when he finds coal in his stocking and a giant man with an axe standing in his living room. It is Satan Claus and he looks great. It’s sort of creepy and is, by far, the best tale. FRIGHT BEFORE XMAS gets a 8/10.
SKULL AND CROSSBONES is the final tale and maybe I’m not the right guy to review this one because I’m not a fan of pirates. We have a pirate that is on an island, looking for treasure and he ends up encountering zombies. This tale is incredibly slow moving and dull, but there are some very neat visuals. At one point, the zombies rise out of the water and I loved the shots they used, but this tale was pretty poor. They should have saved the Xmas one for last. SKULL AND CROSSBONES gets a 2/10.
The wraparound tale has Gunner Hansen encountering some children that are camping. He’s the one that tells the stories and no matter what the kid has, he has a tale for it. He ends up terrifying the children and then revealing that he has a hook at the end, which is supposed to be the shocking conclusion. I actually did like this part of the film also. I give the wraparound a 7/10.
CAMPFIRE TALES is a decent anthology, featuring some notable tales and some not so notable ones, but it is certainly worth a watch. I recommend it.
Rating…let’s do the math: 5+7+8+2+7=29/50 = 6/10
