Campfire Tales (1997 film)

This article is about 1997 horror film. For the 1991 horror film of the same name, see Campfire Tales.
Campfire Tales

VHS cover art
Directed by Martin Kunert
David Semel
Matt Cooper
Produced by Eric Manes
Larry Weinberg
Lori Miller
Written by Martin Kunert
Eric Manes
Matt Cooper
Starring James Marsden
Amy Smart
Ron Livingston
Christine Taylor
Glenn Quinn
Jacinda Barrett
Music by Andrew Rose
Edited by Luis Colina
Rick Fields
Steven Nevius
Production
company
Campfire LLC
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release dates
  • September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)
Running time
 88 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Campfire Tales is a 1997 American anthology horror film directed by Matt Cooper, Martin Kunert, and David Semel. The film is made up of three individual short segments that are presented in an overarching narrative, told by a group of friends around a fire after they crash their car in the woods. It stars James Marsden, Christine Taylor, Amy Smart, and Ron Livingston. The film was released direct to video in 1998 through New Line Cinema.[1]

Plot

In the 1950s, Jenny (Amy Smart) and Eddie (James Marsden) are kissing in a car at a viewpoint. Jenny becomes nervous that someone is watching them after they hear a radio broadcast of a madman on the loose in the area. She forces Eddie to drive them back to town, thinking she sees someone lurking in the woods. They arrive at a drive-in, and Eddie walks to the window to order a milkshake. When he returns toward the car, he sees a hook hanging from the car's passenger door.

In the present day, Cliff (Jay R. Ferguson), his girlfriend Lauren (Christine Taylor), and her little brother Eric (Christopher Masterson) and friend Alex (Kim Murphy) are driving home from a concert. Cliff, drunk and driving erratically, crashes the car in the woods. They light flares and discover an abandoned church foundation nearby, where they start a fire. To pass the time, they begin telling a series of campfire tales.

In the first story, Rick (Ron Livingston) and Valerie (Jennifer Macdonald) are on their honeymoon driving through Nevada. They take a detour to visit caverns, and park their RV in a rural area. They are disturbed by a local man (Hawthorne James) who warns them not to spend the night there, insisting they park elsewhere. They ignore him. As they have sex in the RV, a creature watches through the window. Rick leaves to walk to a gas station nearby, and Valerie is attacked through the sunroof of the RV and terrorized by it before passing out. She awakens to a police officer knocking on the door of the RV. As she exits the RV, she hears a screeching noise; she looks back, and sees Rick's eviscerated corpse hanging upside down from a tree, his wedding ring scratching across the metal rooftop.

In the second story, twelve-year-old Amanda (Alex McKenna) is in an online chat room talking to a girl named Jessica, who is actually an online predator posing as a young girl. Amanda's birthday is coming up, and she is hoping her parents get her a new bicycle. One night, her parents go out and rely on her teenage sister Katherine (Devon Odessa) to stay with her. Katherine leaves to go meet her boyfriend, leaving Amanda alone. Amanda plays soccer in the backyard while talking on the phone, and accidentally kicks the ball into the bushes. As she tries to retrieve it, a man's hand brushes over her hair. While searching the garage to look for the bicycle she's hoping to get as a gift, she becomes anxious and feels as though there is someone else in her house. She locks herself in her bedroom and holds her hand at the edge of the bed, looking for her dog. She feels the dog lick her hand, and she falls asleep. The following morning, Katherine enters Amanda's room and sees the phrase "People can lick too" in blood on her mirror, and finds the corpse of the family dog underneath Amanda's bed.

In the third story, Scott (Glenn Quinn) is riding his motorcycle through the country. He notices a rural farmhouse and seeks shelter there during a rainstorm. Inside is a beautiful mute woman named Heather (Jacinda Barrett); she communicates with Scott by writing on a handheld chalkboard, and invites him to stay the night. During the night, they are disturbed when her father, a rancher, arrives. Scott hears a commotion downstairs, and runs to the kitchen, where he sees two bloodied bodies, and witnesses Heather's father throwing a woman's severed head into the well outside. He finds Heather unharmed, and she insists they leave the house. On the chalkboard, she writes that there are ghosts there. Suddenly, they are confronted by her father, who attacks Scott with an axe. They flee from the house, and as they leave, he passes by Heather's father, who walks toward the front door and enters the house, as if in a time loop. Scott and Heather ride away on his motorcycle, and spend the night under a willow tree. In the morning, he removes the locket from her neck and opens it; inside are a photo of him and her, dressed in oldfashioned clothing. As Heather awakens, a slash wound appears across her neck, and her head falls into his lap.

After each of the friends have told a story, Cliff decides to return to the road to see if anyone has stopped at the site of their car accident. Suddenly, Lauren, Eric, and Alex vanish, and their campfire has disappeared from the church. When Cliff returns to the road, he sees himself near the wreckage of his car and an RV, surrounded by paramedics who are attempting to revive him. Lauren, Eric, and Alex are lying dead on stretchers. The RV drivers are Rick and Valerie from the first story; Scott, from the third, is a paramedic attempting to revive Cliff. The attempts to resuscitate him fail, and Cliff dies. Later on, as the paramedics clean up, a car approaches the scene of the accident, with a hook emerging from the open window.

Cast

The Hook
The Campfire
The Honeymoon
People Can Lick Too
The Locket

References

  1. ↑ De Vos, Gail (2012). What Happens Next? Contemporary Urban Legends and Popular Culture. Libraries Unlimited. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9781598846331.
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