Product Details

• Actors: Abigail Spencer, Charlie Day, David Johansen, Jamie Lynn Sigler, John Hensley
• Directors: Andrzej Krakowski
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: IMAGE/THINKFILMS
• DVD Release Date: July 27, 2006
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006HAYS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,886 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Campfire Stories" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The others are wrong! You CAN enjoy this movie by mocking it!, January 19, 2003

By 

Monty Moonlight (TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Campfire Stories (DVD)

Heck, it even has its moments when it borders on being good! "Campfire Stories" (not to be confused with the superior "Campfire Tales") is a new horror anthology that begs to be rented at the very least. The opening could put a jolt through some people, if they`re watching it alone and in the dark, featuring a creepy talking skull introducing the movie you are about to view, but he stays on the screen too long and just becomes stupid. Actually, the only reason the thing is scary to begin with is because it makes you feel like you're about to watch one of those Traces of Death videos everyone talked about with such high respect in grade school. The story he takes you into is that of two young men driving down a deserted road and stopping suddenly at the sight of a young, female traveler (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) standing in their path who also claims to have had car trouble (though her car is nowhere to be seen). The travelers decide to team up and look for help by, of course, wandering into the woods, and this is where they encounter a very unsettling David Johansen playing an oddball character called "Ranger Bill." Ranger Bill is clearly a freak. He instructs the kids to have a seat around a campfire and listen to his stories while they wait for the tow truck to arrive.

The Ranger's first story is about a campus bully who picks on the wrong school groundskeeper. The creepy guy is actually an escaped mental patient who learned a lot about the art of inflicting pain from his even crazier doctor back before he "checked out." After the tedious flashback intro where we see the mental patient being tortured by his doctor until finally escaping, the story begins interestingly enough with the antics of the mean-spirited football players, led by the bully quarterback, causing a stir on the campus lawn and making us think maybe, despite the horrible acting, this might get interesting. Unfortunately, it really doesn't, as the rest of the story consists of the football players running through the forest trying to find the groundskeeper while he is slowly picking them off one by one. That's pretty much all of that story. No real clincher to it. I suppose the end scene in the psychotic groundskeeper's lair is supposed to be shocking, but it really isn't.

At this point I should mention that, since Ranger Bill IS narrating the stories, his voice does come in now and then and pretty much ruin any scariness that might be on the verge of being felt by the viewer. His fake backwoods accent makes it sound like you're watching an old Disney nature story every time his voice interrupts with a comment, usually spewing out something that makes absolutely no sense.

The second story is a tad more creative. Unfortunately, it drags on in the drug-use sequences. The story opens in an old diner in which it seems only the elderly come to eat, except at one table occupied by three hoodlums; two male, one female. Then, in walks an elderly Native-American man. When he leaves, the hoodlums follow, and when they find him sitting outside his trailer smoking something funny, they are dying to take part. The three set out to murder the old man, and they do so, and spend the rest of the night smoking his pipe and hanging out in his trailer. But, when the trip starts to go bad and the CGI snakes start swirling around, it's all downhill from there. The next day, we find our three hoodlums tragically altered by the bad medicine.

Finally, the last story comes around, and this one is pretty good. Okay, maybe it's just another "Scream" or "I Know What You Did Last Summer" rip-off, but I thought it was pretty creative, and it keeps you guessing throughout. The story involves a young girl living in an old house her grandmother left to her, with her very cute, but very unstable roommate. The two have been having some guy troubles and decide to turn the tables on their mischievous boyfriends. Their plan is to humiliate the boys on camera and then post the video on the internet, as they suspected the boys were planning to do to them. But, there are a lot of bad vibes flowing through the old house, and someone is up to more than public humiliation. Trying to figure out who's the real baddie isn't as easy as it seems, even if it probably should have been obvious from the start.

Now, we come to the end of the movie. Ranger Bill has told his stories, and the Tow truck is ready to go. But, of course, this film isn't going to end on a happy note, so someone in the group of weary and frightened travelers is probably not going to make it home alive.

Overall, this movie is bad, no doubt, but it CAN be fun to watch, especially with a group of friends. The acting is bad, of course, and the writing too, though I gotta say that the last story I thought was pretty okay. And, then there's the wraparound story, which I thought had a good little ending to it. No, there's nothing much in this movie that's scary, unless the punk band "The Misfits" freaks you out, but it's still good, sick fun. The only DVD extra is the trailer though, and you'd probably be better off not watching it until after seeing the movie.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty good for a few good stories, October 27, 2003

By 

CD- "Love it all" (austin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Campfire Stories (DVD)

others here have told of bad acting, i didnt find it all that terrible, i've certainly seen much worse
i thought there are many parts that are lame, but i dont think the film set out to be the most terrifying thing either, so given that, it does pretty well
like many other movies like this, it has about 4 different short stories that are strung together through the the storytelling of a park ranger
i found each of the stories a little bit too simple and easy to give them much credit in originality, but they at least held my intrest long enough, all in all i'd say worth watching and worth renting if you are looking to watch some campy scary stories, especially if there are youngsters with you, as the stories are not too scary

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Campfire Stories, August 8, 2010

By 

Carl Manes - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Campfire Stories (DVD)

After a mild berating from a poorly computerized skull, CAMPFIRE STORIES kicks off its trio of terrors with a wrap=around story involving three teens that are stranded in the forest. The kooky Ranger Bill invites them to sit by the fire and enjoy some campfire tales while they wait for their tow truck. In the first story, an insane criminal makes a bloody escape from prison, only to end up the tormented janitor at a local high school twenty years later. It isn't long before he gets revenge on his teen assailants using a variety of gardening accessories! Next up, three teens face an ancient Native American curse after killing an Indian shaman in an attempted robbery. Lastly, four young lovers are targeted by a voyeuristic killer during their drunken party games. Each of the campfire stories are unremarkable in every way possible, barely getting by with its passable acting and filmed on what looks like a hand-held digicam. The only thing that makes it worth watching is for the early performances by television stars Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos), John Hensley (Nip/Tuck), Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney (It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia), and pop culture Blogger Perez Hilton. This is otherwise a tired and empty omnibus collection riding on the popularity of late-90's Teen Slashers like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and URBAN LEGEND.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies