Some kids went to summer camp; some children dreamed of going to summer camp. If you belong to the latter group (or even the former), you probably have many of your ideas about what summer camp was (or should be) from the movies (or Salute your shorts).
The more idyllic 1950s-style images of summer camps featured smart little uniforms, crafts, canoe excursions, and friends you'd be pen pals with for the rest of your life. By the 1980s, it was becoming increasingly likely that a serial killer was lurking behind the cabins. Nowadays we even have some documentaries that give us a glimpse into real camps. Whether you're nostalgic for camp songs or glad you never have to go back, make some s'mores and settle into one of these camp classics.
10 Indian Summer (1993, Camp Tamakwa)
Starting right away with the nostalgia, late summer is all about the nostalgia of summer camp. Alan Arkin is about to retire as a long-time summer camp director and invites a bunch of his favorite former campers for a reunion. Ex-campers include Diane Lane, Bill Paxton, Kevin Pollak, Elizabeth Perkins, and even Sam Raimi (a childhood friend of writer/director Mike Binder) who are all now in their thirties and experiencing the life complications that come with it. It's kind of like The great cold took place at a summer camp reunion rather than after a funeral, with all the wistful vibes late summer can bring.
9 Moonrise Kingdom (2012, Camp Ivanhoe)
Summer camp isn't for everyone, especially not for Sam, at least not after he meets Suzy, who lives with her family on the same New England island as Camp Ivanhoe. They become pen pals and over the course of a year work out an elaborate plan, which will be carried out when Sam is back on the island for another summer at Camp Ivanhoe. Moonrise Kingdom is full of Wes Anderson's usual pastiche of kitsch, nostalgia and quirky cast (this one includes Jason Schwarzman, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, with endearing performances from Jared Gilman as Sam and Kara Hayward as Suzy), and it's a style that fits well with summer camp in New England in the '60s.
8 Camp (2003, Camp Ovation)
This is the movie for the kids who did theater and show choir and would have loved nothing more than an entire summer to do that. Based on stories from a real life performing arts camp called Stagedoor Manor, and is a place where a bunch of kids who are considered nerdy, anxious misfits at school can sing and dance and act and just be themselves (including Anna Kendrick in her film debut). There is a lot of singing. The crux of the film is the big benefit concert, and it turns out that composer Stephen Sondheim will actually be there (Sondheim himself will show up) and tensions run high as every camper wants to be the star of the show, some resorting to sabotage to make that possible. But it's a musical about summer camp, and at the end everyone is friends again after a successful concert.
7 Jesus Camp (2006, Kids on Fire School of Ministry)
This documentary is a very, very different take on summer camp. Now that the evangelical right has grown into a huge force in America, you may be wondering what the kids are like and how they got this way. This gives you a pretty good idea. The camp is located in North Dakota, and the campers are largely homeschooled kids from conservative families who attend charismatic churches, and the kids aren't there to have fun; they are there to learn how to share the gospel. Common topics of conversation in the cafeteria include how Harry Potter is evil, the pro-life movement, and praying for the wisdom of then-President George W. Bush. It would be easy to say that the kids are pushed into their radical positions, but the movie is much more nuanced than that, showing kids who actually believe in their powers to change the world, whether or not you agree are with their attitude.
6 Ernest Goes to Camp (1987, Camp Kikakee)
Jim Varney rose from a humble acting career to play the bumbling Ernest P. Worrell in a series of local Nashville TV spots, saying silly things to his neighbor Vern, who is never seen on camera. He managed to turn this into a Saturday morning sketch show that won him a Daytime Emmy, and a string of Ernest movies followed. Ernest Goes to Camp sees our hero working maintenance but dreams of becoming a Camp Kikakee counselor, which eventually happens after a particularly unfriendly counselor is unable to deal with a group of juvenile delinquents. As in many '80s children's comedies, there's a plot by an evil mining company to give the camp's owner, Chief St. Cloud, the camp for their nefarious purposes, but Ernest and the feisty delinquents fight back. Bonus: Ernest sings a very moving song called "Gee I'm Glad It's Raining."
5 Little Darlings (1980, Camp Little Wolf)
Starring Tatum O'Neal, Kristy McNichol, Armand Assante, and Matt Dillon, this 1980s cult classic features the somewhat scandalous premise of a bunch of Atlanta teenage girls heading to summer camp, two of them for the express purpose of lose their virginity. . This becomes a camp obsession, with bets placed on whether Angel or Ferris will be the winner. Ferris plans to woo the sexy older camp counselor and fall madly in love, while Angel focuses on a boy from the camp across the lake, who is more out to get things done. This isn't to say that the movie is all sex talk (there are some more routine camp activities, team sports, and staying up late at your cabin talking), but there is a lot of sex talk. The good news is that by the end of the movie, both girls are happy with the choices they made and have become best friends.
4 Crip Camp (2020, Camp Jened)
Barack and Michelle Obama served as executive producers for this Oscar-nominated documentary about a camp for teens with disabilities in New York. The camp was established in 1951 and a number of former campers have become activists in the disability rights movement. The documentary is set in the 1970s, when the camp was heavily influenced by an unstructured, "hippie" feel that gave these teens (who often faced stigma, loneliness, and frustration at home) a freer, more independent environment. where they could just be regular teenagers, experiment with romantic relationships and marijuana. The film has an intensely personal film and was co-directed by James LeBrecht, a disability advocate and former camper who integrated some of the film footage he shot there as a fifteen-year-old camper. Acclaim was universal, nominations and wins were numerous, with a critic for The Guardianpraised the film for shining "a light on a forgotten struggle for equality".
3 The Parent Trap (1961, Miss Inch's Girls' Summer Camp; 1998, Camp Walden)
The last thing we want is to be divisive, so we're not going to play favorites between the 1961 and 1998 versions of The parent trap, both classics in their own right. In both films, legions of little girls scanned their camping cabins to see if there might not be another camper just like them. Hayley Mills did double duty as Susan and Sharon, and Lindsay Lohan as Hallie and Annie, twins separated by their divorced parents until they were sent to the same camp. At first, the girls hate each other, and the camp environment provides plenty of opportunities for pranks and shenanigans. In true twin style, they plan to simultaneously teach their parents a lesson and try to get the family back together, making a trade once camp is over. It's a charming plot that would probably fail miserably in real life, but that's what makes both movies so much fun.
2 Friday the 13th (1980, Camp Crystal Lake)
It's the movie that spawned a franchise (and a thousand tropes) when two counselors sneak out to have sex at Camp Silver Lake in the '50s, only to be killed by an unknown killer. Fast-forward twenty years and a young counselor is on his way to the newly opened camp, warned by a truck driver that a child drowned there years ago. The young counselor (of course) takes no notice and is killed upon her arrival. It's a classic slasher of teens ignoring one of the obvious red flags frantically waved everywhere, and counselors are handpicked one by one until the killer is revealed to be a certain Mrs. Voorhees, who's had it. out to camp counselors since the horny couple snuck away in the 1950s instead of keeping an eye on her son Jason, who was the drowning victim. Friday the 13th is campy in both senses of the word, and always fun to go back to the origins of a franchise to see who started it all.
1 Wet Hot American Summer (2001, Camp Firewood)
Now take every bit of camp memorabilia from the previous movies, add a bunch of comedians and you've got the best camp movie out there. Michael Showalter, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black and more, are a bunch of horny camp counselors, who don't care too much about their charges on the last day of camp in 1981. There's a talent show to enter. put on , losing virginity on a strict schedule; a camper that absolutely needs a bath before going home, and a piece of Skylab hurtling toward camp that could ruin everything. It's absolutely ridiculous, and we haven't even gotten to the Vietnam veteran/camp chief who gets his self-esteem out of a can of vegetables. That talks. It was a complete flop upon release and has since achieved triumphant cult status.
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