Top 5 Movie Camps

We pitched a tent, doused ourselves in mosquito spray and began pondering our favourite movie camps over a tin of re-heated beans.

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4.Camp North Star – Meatballs

A mullet-haired, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing Bill Murray provides the giggles at this summer camp – not least because of his teeny tiny red shorts. He’s also endearingly anarchic, tearing up the camp rules and dissing the little ones (“all they know how to do is eat and wet the beds”). Then there’s that terrific motivational speech. “Even if we play so far above our heads that our noses bleed for a week to ten days; even if God in Heaven above comes down and points his hand at our side of the field; even if every man woman and child held hands together and prayed for us to win… It just doesn't matter if we win or we lose. IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!”

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3. Sleepaway Camp – The Sleepaway Camp franchise

A transparent attempt to jump on the Friday The 13th bandwagon, the Sleepaway Camp franchise remains an entertainingly B-grade slash-fest with its own blood-soused camp. Who’s doing the hacking now? We won’t give it away for those not yet subjected to the horrifying denouement, but the hilariously OTT crimes speak for themselves – one guy has a beehive dropped on his head, while a particularly vacuous cheerleader has hot curling irons shoved into a very intimate crevice. It’s enough to give you nightmares.

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2. Camp Chippewa – Addams Family Values

That’s the perfect name for this singularly chipper camp, as it happens – especially where it concerns manically chirpy camp leaders Christine Baranski and Peter MacNicol (both on fine pearly-white-flashing form). Forcing their own out-dated pastimes on the kiddies (lanyards! A thanksgiving musical!), this place is pure Hell for anybody with a brain. It’s also the scene of Wednesday Addams’ first ever smile – a lip-twitching Christina Ricci pulling the moment off beautifully. “But… it’s Disney…”

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5. Space Camp – SpaceCamp

Not exactly the best movie you’ll ever see (kitsch ‘80s charm aside), but easily one of the coolest camps out there. Hell, you actually get to go out into space (and with Lea Thompson to boot)! If that wasn’t enough, there’s Joaquin Phoenix appearing under abandoned stage name Leaf (easy there, Joaquin), a NASA astronaut WHO’S A WOMAN (the ‘80s were so progressive), and a robot called Jinx who-talks-like-a-Dalek. “Friends… forever.” Awesome.

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1. Camp Crystal Lake – The Friday The 13th franchise

Otherwise known as ‘Camp Blood’ because of its gore-soaked history, this idyllic locale has seen more than its share of grisly murders. See, this is the stalking ground of a certain Jason Voorhees, who has a machete-wielding disdain for frolicsome teenagers and their promiscuous activities. Notable victims include Kevin Bacon (speared through the neck by Jason’s teeth-gnashing maven of a mother in the first Friday The 13th) and Goonies alumnus Corey Feldman in Part IV, who temporarily put the kibosh on Jason before his revival in Part VI: Jason Lives. A good man never stays down.