Happy Campers

Daniel Waters, the writer of Heathers, takes a turn in writing and directing his latest feature: Happy Campers. If Meatballs could be remade with more, younger, and edgier camp counselors, than this would be the film. Some parallels can be made between this film and Heathers, showing that Waters knew which elements worked: both have an overweight child who is picked on, then is later highly respected; both have a song/jingle that is overplayed, which drive a main character crazy; and both try to invent new words and catch phrases. Happy Campers also looks to be inspired from various aspects of Shakespeare. Someone says, "...doth protest too much," straight out of Hamlet; The term "fairies" is thrown around and the head counselor's name is Oberon, who was king of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream; and they toy with the idea of death by poisoning, which is a common end to many Shakespearean tragedies. I greatly enjoyed this film - It took chances, and fought to stay out of the "cleaned-up summer camping movie" category. There's enough shock value here to leave a mark in your moral judgment!