One of the most influential novels of all time, William Golding's Lord of the Flies was originally published in 1954. Since then, it's become a school reading list standard and inspired countless imitators, both in literature and film. Everything from cult flicks like Wild in the Streets, Logan's Run and Battle Royale to Y/A favorites like The Hunger Games series and TV shows like Lost and the new Netflix series The Society owes a debt to Golding's seminal novel.
You can also add to the list the novel The Butterfly Revolution, by author William Butler, which inspired this film, which was later retitled Summer Camp Nightmare, to make it sound like a teen slasher flick, which it most decidedly is not. Rather, it's the tale of a group of kids that decide to take over a summer camp when the new camp director proves to be a bit too authoritarian for their tastes. Perhaps needless to say, things don't go well, eventually bordering on total anarchy before other adults inevitably come along to stop it.
If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, you might be thinking of the goofier Camp Nowhere, another kids-take-over opus that was a popular favorite on cable in the 90's. This one, however, is a lot darker, though it's certainly not without its sillier moments, notably a talent show section which sees two teens going by the stage name of The Horn Dogs covering the amusingly vile Fear song "Beef Baloney," while another group of scantily-clad girls regale the horrified adults with a tune called "Down South," neither of which are about, respectively, food or locations on a map, lol. 😉
Movies set in camp were all the rage in the 80's in particular, with a host of them typically within the horror genre, i.e. Friday the 13th and several of its sequels, The Burning, Sleepaway Camp and its sequels and Cheerleader Camp, among others, achieving various levels of success. Factor in films like Little Darlings and the Meatballs series, and movies set in summer camp were a big hit with a younger audience.
As cool and evocative a title as The Butterfly Revolution is, it's also kind of hard to figure out, unless you're familiar with the book. As such, you can see why the filmmakers here opted to change the title to something a bit more misleading, in an effort to rope in unsuspecting viewers. While what happens in the film certainly qualifies as a Summer Camp Nightmare, this is definitely not a slasher flick or a giddy teen comedy romp, a la Meatballs, so those expecting that sort of thing are bound to be disappointed.
It also seems, as you're watching it, to be one of those cult films that weren't a huge success in theaters, but later got a lot of attention because their casts went on to bigger, if not necessarily better things, i.e. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, School Ties, or Dazed & Confused.
Many of the young actors here have a look that's vaguely familiar, such as the young hero, Chris (Harold Pruett); the revolutionary, Franklin (Charlie Stratton); the young, nerdy type, Donald (Adam Carl) that at first helps to facilitate things before having second thoughts later on; and his Kim Richards-esque love interest, Laurie (Jennifer McGrath).
However, as you might have guessed, none of them really went onto to become household names, in the strictest sense- though one came close. That would be Samantha Newark, who played Debbie, the girl who gets assaulted by one of the lunkheaded boys and takes her revenge into her own hands, with a little help from her girls, in one of the most riveting scenes.
Newark is a singer/songwriter- she's also one of the girls who belts out the aforementioned cheeky "Down South" track here- who took a brief stab at acting with this film before going into music full-time, along with the occasional voiceover work, notably in the video-games Twisted Metal: Black, Dark Cloud 2 and James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing.
Newark was also the voice of Peter Pan's mom in Hook. She's toured with Leonard Cohen and with a Pink Floyd tribute band, and her songs have been featured in the movie Crazy Six (with Burt Reynolds, Ice-T and Rob Lowe) and in TV shows like Laguna Beach, My Super Sweet 16, Teen Cribs and Ice Queens.
But her real claim to fame was voicing Jerrica Benton- aka "Jem"- on the cult fave animated series Jem and the Holograms, which later spawned a dubious live-action version, in which she had a brief cameo. So, it turns out Newark isn't just outrageous in this film- she's truly outrageous IRL. (See what I did there? 😊)
Alas, from there, there's not much to report, in spite of how familiar some of these actors seem. Of course, there's the film's lone "big" name, Chuck Connors, as the dictator-like Mr. Warren, by then on a career downswing, obviously. Connors rose to fame with lots of guest shots on various TV shows and in many B-movies, notably Hot Rod Girl and Tomahawk Trail, before hitting the big time with the much-beloved Disney tear-jerker Old Yeller.
That eventually led to a leading role on the TV series The Rifleman, which ran for six years. Other roles in big movies followed, including the titular role of Geronimo, and roles in the hits Flipper, Move Over Darling, Soylent Green, Nightmare in Badham County and the TV show Police Story. However, he's probably best-known to genre fans as the creepy star of the cult favorite Tourist Trap and one of the leads on the cult TV series Werewolf.
Beyond that, things get kind of sketchy, which is too bad, as there are glimmers of real talent here. Notably, there's leading man Charlie Stratton, as the Thoreau-loving revolutionary, Franklin, with a copy of Civil Disobedience at the ready at all times. Stratton did eventually land a leading role in the TV spin-off of the movie Dirty Dancing (which also featured a young Paul Feig!), but the show was short-lived.
Stratton later went into producing and directing, with a career that continues to this day, so he's achieved some level of success off-screen. Notable credits include directing episodes of Everwood, Revenge, The Fosters and Chasing Life, producing the show The Beautiful Life, as well as directing the feature film In Secret, starring the legendary Jessica Lange, as well as Elizabeth Olsen and Oscar Isaac. Not too shabby, but I'm surprised he wasn't a bigger star.
Faring slightly better in front of the camera was co-star Harold Pruett, who did quite a bit of TV and the occasional feature film. He made his debut in the critically-acclaimed TV miniseries thriller Sybil, before making his big-screen debut in this film just over ten years later, with lots of guest spots on TV shows like Night Court and 21 Jump Street in between. The following year, he was in the horror flick Spellcaster, starring rocker Adam Ant.
In 1990, he took over the Tom Cruise role in the short-lived TV series version of The Outsiders, alongside a decent cast of up-and-comers that also included David Arquette and Billy Bob Thornton. That same year, he was in the well-received TV miniseries Lucky Chances, with a young Nicollette Sheridan and Sandra Bullock.
Other notable projects include TV's Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Party of Five, the TV movies The Perfect Daughter (with Growing Pains star Tracey Gold) and Divas, and the movies Precious Find (with Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen), The Right Way and the Skinemax fave Embrace of the Vampire, with a skintastic Alyssa Milano.
If the narrator and master electrician Donald, played by Adam Carl, looks familiar, then chances are you're a big fan of the cult favorite The Monster Squad, in which he cropped up as Derek the same year as this film. Carl was all over TV in the 80's, notably in recurring roles on Who's the Boss?, Life Goes On and Designing Women.
He also provided the voice of Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Carl later went behind the camera, serving as a director and producer, notably producing the popular VH1 series Pop Up Video and writing, producing, directing and starring in the movie Waiting for Ophelia.
Tom Fridley, who played one half of the notorious Horn Dogs, the ill-fated John Mason, had a decent run of 80's favorites that included Max Dugan Returns, The Karate Kid, Iron Eagle and Dangerously Close, but is probably best-known to horror fans for his also ill-fated turns in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge. His career petered off in the 90's, but he did snag small roles in two John Travolta favorites: Phenomenon and Face/Off.
Rick Fitts, who played camp counselor Ed Heinz, was another TV regular, cropping up in Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, T.J. Hooker, Knight Rider, Hunter, Moonlighting, The A-Team and lots more. He's probably best-known for the movies The Hanoi Hilton, Rescue Me, Something New and Naked, but Star Trek fans may know him best for playing Dr. Martin on The Next Generation and Zahl on Voyager. He also voiced Martin on Hey Arnold!
Others worth a mention are: Melissa Reeves, who played the high-haired Heather, Chris' love interest, is a soap opera star who's been a regular on Days of our Lives for ages; Stuart Rogers, who plays Runk "the Punk," the other half of the Horn Dogs, also crops up in the cult fave Vamp, Shattered Illusions and an adaptation of Othello starring Ted Lange (of "The Love Boat") in the title role (!); Shawn McLemore, aka Hammond, was in the gang drama Colors; and Michael Cramer, who played Jerome, was in Weird Science and wrote, produced and directed the apocalyptic thriller The Virus.
Doug Toby, who played Manuel (in the pic with Reeves above with the bandana), was "Aardvark" in the original Red Dawn and was in the crime drama Walking the Edge and the B-movie homage Dragstrip Girl; Scott Curtis, who played Peter (the one who may or may not have been manhandled by Mr. Warren), was the titular Cameron, in the horror flick Cameron's Closet; John Louie, who played Paul Indian, was the Chinese boy at the beginning of the classic Gremlins; Brad Kesten, who played GoGo, was in the horror flick Monster in the Closet, the teen comedy She's Out of Control (mmm Ami Dolenz) and was the ongoing voice of Charlie Brown, of "Peanuts" fame, throughout the 80's, including You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show.
Finally, on the adult end, Chris Hubbell, who played Jack Caldwell, was in the slasher spoof Class Reunion (written by John Hughes!) and the horror-comedy My Mom's a Werewolf, but fared better as a writer, working on the likes of the 80's revival of The Twilight Zone, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan & The Pirates and the animated RoboCop series, Alpha Commando.
And Shirley Mitchell, who played the elder girls' supervisor Ms. Knute, had a recurring character on I Love Lucy back in the day, and was all over TV in the 50's and 60's (Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, etc.) before slowing down considerably in the 70's. This was one of her last films, along with roles in Big Business and The War of the Roses, her final film.
Director and co-writer Bert L. Dragin only made one more film, but it was a fun one: Twice Dead, with Jill Whitlow (Night of the Creeps) and Todd "Diff'rent Strokes" Bridges. He also worked on the cult flick Suburbia, which brings me to his co-writer here, Penelope Spheeris, who, Chuck Connors notwithstanding, was far and away the biggest star associated with this film and was the director of Suburbia.
Spheeris got her start as a writer chronicling the punk scene, later helming the seminal documentary on the subject, The Decline of the Western Civilization, and its more metal-focused follow-up. Other punk-centric ventures followed, including the aforementioned Suburbia and the challenging flicks The Boys Next Door and Dudes. She hit the big time directing the SNL skit spin-off Wayne's World, wisely avoiding the sequel.
Oddly, she then directed several other TV-centric flicks, including big-screen versions of The Beverly Hillbillies and The Little Rascals. She also directed the fan favorite Black Sheep, starring the late Chris Farley and David Spade, the Marlon Wayans vehicle Senseless, all the while continuing to do music-centric docs on the side (including a third entry in the Decline series in 1998) and the occasional music video.
Her last few movies, The Kid & I and Balls to the Wall were nothing to write home about, but I'll just bet she has one or two more good flicks left in her, especially if she returns to her more radical roots. I'd love to see her do a down-and-dirty punk rock-themed flick again, something like a better version of SLC Punk!
Summer Camp Nightmare is a lot of fun, but it also makes you think, like the best movies tend to do. What would you do in this situation? Would you party down, damn the consequences? Or would you stand up to the unruly mob, like Chris, and eventually Donald, do? Was the kids' initial rebellion justified? Did Mr. Warren deserve to die? (It's hinted he was a pedophile, but later on, one of the kids says it wasn't true... but they could have been lying.) Did the rapist get what was coming to him? And so on.
There are no easy answers to these questions, but it's interesting to think about. As such, Nightmare is a film that lends itself well to re-watches. I think it'd be way more well-known had there been bigger stars in it, obviously, but as it stands, it's still a worthwhile watch, especially if you ever wondered what Jem and Charlie Brown looked like IRL, lol.
Sadly, the film has never had an official DVD release, much less a Blu-Ray one, though you can find a DVD copy on Amazon and eBay and the like. It appears to be a straight-up VHS dub, though. As much as I'd love to see that happen, it's actually one of those oldies that suits VHS, really. (That may just be me, though- what can I say, I'm getting old!)
As of this writing, it's available to watch on YouTube. You can check it out here. It's a pretty clean copy, so those worrying about crappy quality should know it's pretty decent, visually. The downloader (shout out to Anthony d'Ercole!) really went the extra mile to clean it up as much as possible. Until someone gets the rights to release it in higher quality, that's the best version out there at the moment, so by all means, check it out! 😃
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