Deer Camp ’86 Blu Ray Review (Mill Creek Entertainment)

Deer Camp ’86 is a 2022 independent horror film directed by L. Van Dyke Siboutszen. It’s written by Bo Hansen and Riley Taurus. It’s produced by 17 different people. It grossed $58,449 in the U.S. and Canada at the box office during it’s limited theatrical run. Six knuckleheads which includes Wes (played by: Noah LaLonde from Criminal Minds), Buck (played by: Jay J. Bidwell from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Simon (played by: Arthur Cartwright from Gran Torino), J.B. (played by: Brian Michael Raetz from Pitchfork), Karlos (played by: Josh Dominguez from Echoes of Violence), and EP (played by: David Lautman from General Hospital) from Detroit travel north to do their annual ritual of Deer Camp. This group of blue collar friends have been hunting together for a long time now. They get into a war with some local rednecks that cause major problems for the crew. They are starting to get knocked off one by one after a mysterious local death. The hunters have become the hunted in this isolated area. Can these men survive this dangerous weekend???? Deer Camp ’86 really surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much at all from this but it actually delivers. It has a quality script that mixes buddies bonding and people fighting for their lives. Later on, it’s full of suspense and some dark action. It kinda starts out as a buddy road trip type of feature. I enjoyed the throwback atmosphere. They go into a local small bar in the middle of nowhere but they don’t get along with the racist locals. This sets up a situation, they don’t know if these vengeful rednecks are the ones after them or if it’s something else. One of the better things about Deer Camp ’86 is the actual acting. All of the main cast which that includes Noah LaLonde, Jay J. Bidwell, Arthur Cartwright, Brian Michael Raetz, Josh Dominguez, and David Lautman give solid performances. They have decent chemistry and each one has his own unique personality. Jay J. Bidwell steals the show as Buck. He’s hilarious in almost of all his scenes. Tina Joy Manera (Logan) as Star really stands out in her small role, she’s the best thing about Deer Camp ’86. The rest of the supporting cast includes Paul Wilson (Angels in America), Matthew Derek Davis (God Bless the Broken Road), David Rubin (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), and Michael Delgado (Shameless). I personally think someone wrote and directed this under false names for some reason. The credited director and writers can’t be found anywhere when I did some research. Deer Camp ’86 has some tense moments when all hell breaks loose here. It has some impressive practical fx for it’s lower budget. I enjoyed the look of the main villain in this independent slasher. It actually had a decent twist to it. It hints at possible sequels which could be very interesting. Deer Camp ’86 is really entertaining and it’s lots of fun with it’s supernatural elements so it does have some solid replay value to it. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Mill Creek Entertainment! This 1080p (1.90:1) transfer looks good on blu ray, they went with an old school look to go with the time that it’s set in. The locations and special fx stand out the most when it comes to the visuals here. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the disc. The audio is better than I thought it would be especially considering it’s very low budget. All of the dialogue is very clean, the madness is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. There’s no extras on this home video release. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!