Welcome to Camp Video Store Podcast! While we’re not actually going to camp, we are getting your summer started off the right way with some summer-themed horror movies. We hope you packed your sleeping bag, your flashlight, and a big bowl of popcorn. Here are four films that give us the Summer Spookies.

Friday the 13th (1980)

The second of the big three slashers, Friday the 13th, gave us Jason and a summer full of terror. It’s an iconic horror film for a reason, and the summer camp setting makes it a fantastic first choice for our short list of summer spookies. Get your bunkmates together for this classic of the horror genre. Bonus: You get to see an early film appearance of Kevin Bacon.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Our next trip to camp is with the 1983 cult favorite, Sleepaway Camp. This film has gained a cult following over the years due to its disturbing and now controversial ending. It’s campy and over-the-top while simultaneously being an effective and disturbing horror film. It begat over three decades of sequels, so it’s an icon of summer horror for a reason.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

We’re going forward to the late 90s with our next film—I Know What You Did Last Summer, based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan. With a cast of young “it” stars of the time, I Know What You Did Last Summer sparked two sequels, a 2021 television adaptation, and a legacy sequel heading to theaters in July 2025. Check your mailbox and watch out for folks in rain slickers this summer.

Jaws (1975)

The big kahuna of summer movies is our last film for the week—Jaws from 1975. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Carl Gottlieb and Peter Benchley, and based on Benchley’s book of the same name, Jaws is a film for movie lovers everywhere, even if you don’t like horror. It’s the reason we have the term “blockbuster” and boasts an amazing score and tension you can cut with a knife…or a harpoon. It’s a film that’s still beloved 50 years later and worth watching every summer, or any other time of year.

Thanks for spending your summer with us at the Video Store Podcast!

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