9 Great Movies About Summer Camp

By David Dickerman / May 23, 2013

Summer is rapidly approaching, and it has caused me to think about how I spent my summers as a child. For me, there was only 1 option for how to spend my summer and I lived the other 10 months for it - summer camp. People generally have two opinions about summer camp: it was either the greatest months of their lives when they became who they are today, or it was endless weeks of misery that were filled with homesickness and embarrassment. The movies tend to treat camp the same way. My personal experience with camp was clearly a positive one. I met my closest friends there and it made me the man I am today, for better or worse. As both camper and staff, summer camp was a delicate balance between wholesomeness and debauchery that few films have been able to accurately replicate. As we got older, camp songs and bunk raids were replaced with experimentation and avoiding responsibility. The following movies have done a solidly respectable job in capturing the spirit of the summer camp experience.

9. Addams Family Values

One does not really think about camp movies when the Addams Family is mentioned, but in actuality the sequel to the surprising original hit is a great camp movie in disguise. As part of her plot to marry and kill Uncle Fester, Joan Cusack's black widow character of Debbie convinces Gomez and Morticia to send their kids to summer camp. In classic Addams fashion, the children turn the camp on its head and bring the twisted nature of certain camp traditions to light. After resisting getting into the camp spirit, Wednesday and Pugsley are locked away by their counselors and forced to watch sickeningly happy movies with a young David Krumholtz along for the ride. After a while, they realize they cannot fight it, and show their new found love for camp through Wednesday's creepily toothy smile. To no viewer's (yet every character's) surprise, the Addams children turn the camp on its head when they are given the role of Native Americans during the First Thanksgiving play. Instead of following the script, they take down the production from the inside by literally destroying the stage with all their fellow "rejects." The ironic part of all this is that through doing this, they learn what camp is about by trying to avoid it - being outside, having fun while working together, and in Wednesday's case, first love.