Today I saw the horror anthology Campfire Tales (1997) on TV. It aired last night around midnight and I recorded it to watch the next day. I heard about it through a best friend of mine on Instagram and she highly recommended it and that’s how I found out about this movie. The trailer looked pretty good and the cast is amazing. I ended up really liking Campfire Tales even with its share of flaws.
The opening segment (“The Hook”) starts good but didn’t last long enough to really leave an impression. I loved Amy Smart and James Marsden in it but it needed to be longer! I was impressed with the black-and-white style however. The second segment (“The Honeymoon”) was suspenseful, creepy and unpredictable! I loved the comedic dark tone to it. I loved Ron Livingston in this segment. Definitely a great segment all by all, especially well crafted. The third segment (“People Can Lick, Too”) was my favorite of the four. Not only is it very original, I also loved how eerie and twisted it got. The characters were fun and the suspense was great. The end of this segment is downright creepy. The fourth and last segment (“The Locket”) was really bland and confusing. I don’t get the approach or the idea behind the story. It did very little to me and it felt flat. While it ends surprising enough its too late. I like the wraparound story of “The Campfire”. Fun characters, amusing jokes and overall a very unexpected twist at the end! Which blew me away, don’t let anyone spoil it for you, its a goodie!
Campfire Tales is a fun and well made horror anthology with half good and half bad segments, a great cast and a terrific plot twist at the end! Its not perfect, the acting isn’t always good but its a recommendation to fans of the horror genre! Definitely getting it on DVD!
–Ferdi Akkulak