Josh Irpacido
It's the Woodsman. Not the Woodsman. Anything, but the Woodsman. As you can tell, this is the scariest movie I've ever seen in my life. Well no, but it did scared me when I was 8 or 10. It's also the Scooby- Doo movie, and one of many movies in general, to have left an impact on my life. I like Alien Invaders, but I like Camp Scare even more. Most people like to praise Zombie Island as the best Scooby- Doo movie, but Camp Scare comes at a close second. If there is anything that Scooby-Doo never has, it's the all around sense of danger, terror, and horror. Believe me, this movie is nightmare fuel for the kiddies. This scared me so much a few years ago, that I would actually stayed awake at nights thinking of the haunting visuals of the Fishman, Woodsman, and Spectre. Even the campfire stories on the DVD scared me. The Woodsman deserves to get his own spin-off slasher movie. In fact, I'll do it myself. Back on topic, what's the plot? Scooby and the gang sign up to be camp counselors at Fred's old camp, Camp Little Moose. When they arrive, they find no campers and Fred's old counselor Burt talking to the police about a campfire story they used to tell. That story was The Woodsman. Before this moment, The Woodsman, who is a green man sporting bandages and Cropsey's clothes from The Burning, had come and blown up the boathouse. I do not know why that happened, but it was probably explained sometime later in the movie. They're closing up camp, which upsets Fred. That is until a few parents and a bus driver didn't get the memo, and we're introduced to 3 new characters, Robin, Raven, and Luke Skywalker. Oh I mean, Luke, Trudy, and Deacon. Understandably, Burt is confused and angry, while Fred is joyous. Unfortunately, the CG bus drives away before Burt can put them back on it and the kids are now stuck at Little Moose. For the first day, they go zip-lining which will have you believe that zip-lining is actually fun, but South Park would tell you otherwise. I'm just joking, it's probably invigorating. After that they prepare for dinner. Shaggy is cooking his five alarm hole in the bowl chili, and asks Scooby to get some more firewood. It is there that Scooby first meets the Woodsman. He runs back and just forgets about it as they eat dinner with the Woodsman watching them closely through a window. The next day, Fred awakens the campers and counselors much to their dismay to go swimming in Little Moose's extremely dirt lake. They say screw it to Fred, and instead go up to Big Moose Lake, the rival camp's lake. There they have a fun time, and the movie decides to show off some fanservice. Fred meets a counselor from Big Moose named Jessica. After that, the gang, Luke, and Trudy have an encounter with the Fishman and nearly fall to their deaths! Wow, this is actually pretty serious. The scene ends with them sliding into the mess hall to be greeted by Deacon eating ice cream. In Camp Scare, not only is there a fun little mystery, there's also some homages to certain slasher movies. I watched The Burning years after this. I didn't notice it, but Cropsey and the Woodsman's story are very similar. A bunch of young kids f*** with an unlikable a**hole, he gets disfigured, and those campers aren't the ones targeted for death. The slasher angle is also what makes this movie good, exciting, and scary. This is in stark contrast with other slasher movies, but with Scooby-Doo, it works. It's like Zombie Island 2.0. The only difference between this and ZI, is that it's the second movie and the monsters are fake as s***. Other than that, this is a surprisingly mature Scooby-Doo movie worthy of the title masterpiece. This and Abracadabra-Doo really help to show that Scooby-Doo is still an exciting franchise. Even if CS is a cash in nearly 3 decades too late. The voice acting is amazing. The voice actors really bring the story to life. These feel like real characters, and not just some limited animation Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The animation is some of the best in the Scooby franchise. Every frame of this movie looks great. Especially, the Woodsman attack, the explosion of the dam, and the climax. The characters are interesting and they shine out as some of the best supporting characters in Scooby-Doo. They were enjoyable, likable, entertaining, and, like Crystal and Amber from Alien Invaders, deserve more screen time. I really like the music. The opening credits song is one of the catchiest tunes you will ever hear in Scooby history. The summertime song is pretty catchy and really uplifting. In the sequence itself, there wasn't a lot of summer fun going on, but the music did help in making it seem like you were actually there having fun in the summertime. I have got to say that this is one of the only movies that made me feel like going to camp, with or without a psycho ax murderer on the loose. The villains are some of the scariest in Scooby history. Ranger Knudsen is a guy who was chucking axes, pushing boats off of dams (psychics everybody), and crashing through windshields. No one actually dies as a result, but it's still pretty terrifying to think about the what ifs. It still sends shivers down my spine to hear the shrieks of Shadow Canyon. Overall, this was a Scooby-Doo masterpiece, with lot's of scares, thrills, chills, and humor. I give it an 8/10.
