''Happy Campers'' is a 2001 American
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...
film written and directed by
Daniel Waters and starring
Brad Renfro
Brad Barron Renfro (July 25, 1982 – January 15, 2008) was an American actor. He made his film debut at the age of 11 with a starring role in '' The Client'' (1994). He went on to appear in 21 feature films and won several awards.
Prior to bei ...
,
Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress and producer. She came to prominence playing the title character in Adrian Lyne's 1997 film adaptation of ''Lolita'', alongside her supporting role as Jamie Archer in John Woo's ''Fac ...
,
Jaime King,
Emily Bergl, and
Justin Long
Justin Jacob Long (born June 2, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. Long is known for his film roles, notably appearing in '' Jeepers Creepers'' (2001), ''Dodgeball'' (2004), ''Accepted'' (2006), ''Idiocracy'' (20 ...
. The film focuses on a group of college freshmen and their experiences as
summer camp
A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...
counselors at the fictional Camp Bleeding Dove. The film is collectively narrated by each of the subjective counselors. It marks Waters' directorial debut, as well as the film debut of Jaime King.
The film was screened at the 2001
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
, and was later released straight-to-DVD on June 18, 2002.
Plot
When the rule-enforcing camp director at Camp Bleeding Dove gets struck by lightning, the counselors find themselves in sole charge of their campers, and themselves. Among them are the brooding and intellectual Wichita; Wendy, who is guileless and unabashedly religious; Talia, an outcast and former college friend of Wichita's; Pixel, a waifish
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
who bathes in the camp lake; Jasper, an openly
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
man; the brutish Adam; and Donald, a nerdy and unconfident virgin.
Wichita, who initially finds himself repulsed by Wendy who is his polar opposite, begins to find himself attracted to her, and the two begin to court one another while the rest of the campers and counselors look on. An
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, Wichita begins to question his belief in God after he finds a photo of himself as a child in the background of one of Wendy's family photos at
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota ...
; however, he does not tell her about it. The two eventually admit their feelings for one another, and Wendy loses her
virginity
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
to Wichita after having an allergic reaction to a bee sting.
Meanwhile, Talia, who has feelings for Wichita, becomes disillusioned after he admits he simply wants to be friends; she later finds he and Wendy have become physically involved. Donald, urged by the rest of the counselors, attempts to court Talia, but she is resistant. Wendy, in order to test the legitimacy of Wichita's feelings for her, has Pixel attempt to seduce him in the woods. Wichita, who overheard their plan, kisses Pixel in front of her, and Wendy leaves in tears, believing he failed the test.
On the penultimate day of camp, Wichita confesses to Wendy that he had purposely failed she and Pixels' test; the same day in the woods, Adam confronts Pixel over their sexual relationship, and she rejects him, saying that their relationship was just a fling for her. At the camp mess hall, Donald and Talia incite a riot with the campers, and they all run into the woods in body paint and attack Adam, Pixel, Wichita, and Wendy with condoms fashioned into water balloons.
The next day, as Wendy and Pixel prepare to leave, Wendy notices that half of her family photo from Mount Rushmore has been torn off, which Wichita had taken and eaten to dispose of. As the campers and counselors prepare to leave, the children confess how much they meant to them. On the bus ride back, Wendy is forced to sit next to Wichita. Donald takes a photo of them with a camper in-between, asking them to smile for the photo, which appears on the cover of the following year's camp staff manual.
Cast
*
Brad Renfro
Brad Barron Renfro (July 25, 1982 – January 15, 2008) was an American actor. He made his film debut at the age of 11 with a starring role in '' The Client'' (1994). He went on to appear in 21 feature films and won several awards.
Prior to bei ...
as Wichita
*
Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress and producer. She came to prominence playing the title character in Adrian Lyne's 1997 film adaptation of ''Lolita'', alongside her supporting role as Jamie Archer in John Woo's ''Fac ...
as Wendy
*
Keram Malicki-Sanchez Keram may refer to:
Papua New Guinea
*Keram Rural LLG, East Sepik Province
*Keram languages
*Keram River
People with the name
*Keramuddin Keram (born 1956), Afghan politician
*Keram Malicki-Sánchez
Keram Malicki-Sánchez is an actor, musician ...
as Jasper
*
Emily Bergl as Talia
*
Jaime King as Pixel
*
Justin Long
Justin Jacob Long (born June 2, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. Long is known for his film roles, notably appearing in '' Jeepers Creepers'' (2001), ''Dodgeball'' (2004), ''Accepted'' (2006), ''Idiocracy'' (20 ...
as Donald
*
Jordan Bridges
Jordan Bridges (born November 13, 1973) is an American actor, best known as Frankie Rizzoli on ''Rizzoli & Isles'' (2010–2016).
Early life
Bridges was born in Los Angeles County, California, and is the son of actor Beau Bridges and Julie Brid ...
as Adam
*
Peter Stormare
Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...
as Oberon
* Ryan Adams as "Bad Boy Billy"
*
Trevor Christensen
Trevor Christensen (born 12 May 1993), known professionally as Said the Sky, is an American electronic dance music producer, DJ and musician.
Early life
At the age of 8, Christensen went for piano lessons which he had disliked. He quit the l ...
as Wes
Production
The film was shot in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
in 1999.
Release
''Happy Campers'' premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
on January 21, 2001. However, it did not receive a theatrical release; instead, it was released straight-to-DVD on June 18, 2002, by
New Line Home Entertainment
New Line Home Entertainment (formerly known as New Line Home Video) was the home entertainment distribution arm of New Line Cinema, founded in 1990. According to New Line's website, ''Misery'' was the first New Line Home Video release.
It was ...
. It is also included on streaming service,
Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service prim ...
.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 57% based on reviews from 7 critics.
Jeffrey Anderson of ''Combustible Celluloid'' gave the film a positive review, writing: "This hilarious little gem from Daniel Waters, the screenwriter of ''
Heathers
''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...
'', went straight to video because the distributor couldn't figure out exactly what to do with it. In this vicious, odd summer camp story, everyone wants to be like cool counselor Brad Renfro, every imaginable disaster comes to light, and the gorgeous James (Jaime) King frolics half-naked by the lakeside. Before long, this will be a cult favorite and people will be quoting lines at parties. Don't miss it."
Todd McCarthy of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote: "Few films have tapped into teenspeak as adroitly as ''Heathers'' did. But that was 12 years ago, and while that film's writer, Daniel Waters, still is preoccupied with teen sex and the social pecking order, he indulges his obsession with much less finesse in his scattershot directorial debut." McCarthy called it a "sporadically funny, far too self-consciously irreverent summer camp send-up".
Nathan Rabin of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' called the film a "cross between ''
Wet Hot''
'American Summer''and ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
''" and deemed it "a worthy followup to
aters'''Heathers''."
Accolades
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 0210094
''Happy Campers'' screenplay early draft (1998)
*
Cabin Fever, photographs from the set of ''Happy Campers'' (''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'', June 2000)
2001 films
2001 black comedy films
2001 directorial debut films
2001 independent films
2001 LGBT-related films
2000s coming-of-age comedy films
2000s teen comedy films
American black comedy films
American coming-of-age comedy films
American independent films
American teen comedy films
American teen LGBT-related films
2000s English-language films
Films about summer camps
Films produced by Denise Di Novi
Films scored by Rolfe Kent
Films set in forests
Films set in North Carolina
Films shot in North Carolina
LGBT-related black comedy films
Films with screenplays by Daniel Waters (screenwriter)
Films directed by Daniel Waters (screenwriter)
2000s American films