Early slasher flick falls into the sub-genre of "campers in the woods getting killed by a deformed killer" as we open with forest fire footage (that has screams playing over top) as a gypsy child escapes the blaze badly burnt and hiding out in the woods. Years later, three couples head off on a camping trip only to start getting killed off in various ways by the now psychotic and grown fire victim (the stalking scenes work okay with the killer's heartbeat on the soundtrack).

This gets down to business quickly with a double axe killing but then nothing much happens for quite some time as there's plenty of "nature" footage to pad it out, lots of constantly mumbling dialogue moments (this is quite annoying as they'll have a bunch of people talking at once and we can't make out much at all) and a paper-thin plot. Throw in the fact that this is pretty ineptly made, there's a pointless "banjo interlude" (a guy who has nothing to do with the plot is seem strumming away smoking a pipe) and there's lots of wandering about by the characters and you'd expect this to suck - but oddly enough it manages to be somewhat watchable and not as dull as it should've turned out.

This one marked the first effects work for John Carl Buechler (who'd go on to do effects for tons of genre flicks and even direct the seventh Friday The 13th film) and manages to rip-off the "slow motion" finish of the first Friday The 13th movie during its quite lousy finish (that doesn't have any real conclusion). (Chris Hartley, 3/5/04)

Directed By: Edwin Scott Brown.
Written By: Edwin Scott Brown, Summer Brown.

Starring: Debbie Thureson, Steve Bond, Lori Lethin, Robert Wald.