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‘There was this one time, in band camp…’
Camping in TV and the movies tends to fall into one of two categories. Either the whole scene is wholesome, white-toothed and Brady Bunch-esq, a la The Parent Trap and, well, The Brady Bunch, or the camping is a mere background for chase, murder, monsters and unexplained horrors, a la The Blair Witch Project and Deliverance. (We’d take ‘monsters and unexplained horrors’ any day over cross-eyed Southern yokels, but that’s just us.)
Whether it’s a film, a TV series or just an episode in a long-running season, camping is the perfect setting for all things fictional. The characters are away from the familiar and forced to spend time with each other without the comforts of home or Nintendo, which will either lead to a tearful bonding session as they realise they’re not that different really, or a bloodthirsty murder session as they realise they really are. Alone, in the dark, in a tent, with beasties and savages approaching closer and closer…or spending time with Lindsay Lohan – what a choice.
Here is a rundown of the best camping moments captured on celluloid…
Tacky, dated and possibly illegal in places through a 21st century lens, the Carry on films are now officially cool in a, like, retro style way. ‘Let’s go camping!’ Sid and Bernie say to their supposedly virginal girlfriends Joan and Anthea, promising fun under canvas, campfires and all sorts of jolly innocence. Little do the girls know that the boys are planning on taking them to a nudist camp, in the hope that the al-fresco atmosphere will loosen Joan and Anthea’s morals faster than you can say ‘My tent’s erected’. Ah, those days of innocence.
The original and certainly the best on TV, in our humble opinion. From Gladys and her xylophone, to the snobbish Stuart-Hargreaves, to poor chalet maid Peggy’s endless quest to be a yellow coat, the trials of the staff at Maplin’s holiday camp in the 50s and 60s are a cracking look at class differences, scams and snobbery. And it was only when I was about 20 that I realised what a ‘shallay’ was.
Sniff. A lovely film that is unusual in being probably the only Stephen-King-based movie that’s as good as the book (the short story The Body). Four twelve-year-old boys dodge the local bullies in order to be the first ones to see a dead body in the woods. As you do. Some great scenes, including running from the train and The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan, but my absolute favourite is the leeches. Although there was no need to have Chris die as an adult, Stephen and Rob. No need at all.
Shudder. My favourite camping film ever, even if it is ruddy terrifying as the three student characters blunder around lost in the woods, knowing that every night they don’t get out is the one they could find themselves butchered by the Blair Witch. Supposedly based on real footage found a year after three student filmmakers get lost in the Maryland woods, The Blair Witch Project doesn’t show scary monsters or butchery, which makes it all the more scary. Love it.
Where the idea of mental ‘locals’ took hold, long before Royston Valley. Inbred hill folk and demented banjo-playing children combine to add to a creepier and creepier atmosphere in a canoeing and camping trip in the Georgia wilderness. A genuinely disturbing film which will make you never want to admit to being a ‘city boy’ anywhere in the world.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfX8JpYyvp0
Plenty of (very long) camping scenes here as the fearless trio go on the run to try and defeat Lord Voldemort. Sadly tents in the real world do not work as they do in the wizarding world, magically expanding to include bunks, tables, chairs and a kettle, but at least we Muggles can get a weekend away without fearing death and mayhem. Usually.
Nowhere near as good as the first film, American Pie 2 is nevertheless worth including as finally we get to see the famous band camp made immortal by Michelle in American Pie. Sadly we do not see her flute trick, and the Jim-as-Petey scenes are a little cringeworthy, but, well, it’s band camp.
This looks good, my travelling companion said as we prepared to buy a campervan in Australia and head off into the outback for a few weeks. Well. Never since watching Salem’s Lot as a seven-year-old and having to tape a crucifix to the bedroom window for weeks has the timing of a film been more ill-advised. Wolf Creek follows three backpackers in, yes, the Australian outback, as they’re befriended by a gap-toothed local (we’re starting to see a pattern here) who has other things on his mind than international friendship. Torture and murder, specifically. Our campervan never felt quite as cosy again.
Agree? Disagree? Upset that we left out that crucial camping scene in Eastenders (OK, Kat and Alfie in a caravan in Albert Square)? Let us know below.
