Much like slasher movies I'm a sucker when it comes to anthology flicks. From my first glimpse of 1972's Tales from the Crypt and its bite-size tales of terror there's just been something immensely appealing to me about the thought of getting a handful of short, usually twisted, stories in one place. That makes it truly unfortunate that my recent exposure to the sub-genre has included such dogs as Creepshow III, The Telling and, the subject of my disappointment here, Campfire Stories.

Purportedly based on a comic book penned by co-director/scripter Rob Cea (which I could find no solid proof of when researching) we're introduced into the world of Campfire Stories by a badly done CGI skull who briefly rambles on about scaring your parents and how he's learnt over the years how to basically scare the piss out of everyone - though judging from my reaction, he needs more education.

We then jump into our wraparound story with two twenty-something guys on a road trip to a wild party in the woods having their plans interrupted after their tomfoolery almost ends with them running over Natalie (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) who's standing in the middle of the road looking for help after her car has broken down. They soon end-up in the company of a creepy park ranger played by former New York Dolls lead singer David Johansson (who also took on the persona of "Buster Poindexter" and had a hit song in the 80s with "Hot, Hot, Hot") and he proceeds to tell them the stories within while they sit around a campfire.

Our first tale opens in an asylum where patients are being experimented on to research the pain threshold of humans. One of them gets free and starts killing his way out as a bad punk song entitled "Welcome to My Hell" drones on in the background along with plentiful, and pointless, uses of slow motion. Fast-forward to twenty-years-later as the asylum is now a high school and the football team has taken to picking on the slow-minded caretaker. Their deaths are soon to follow but they're staged so poorly, and bloodlessly, that I could care less. It's a mediocre kick-off but at least the killer has got the steely "I'm a psycho!!" look down.

It doesn't get much better with our second story as three punk-like friends follow an elderly Native American back to his remote trailer and proceed to choke him out and rob him blind. They come across some "Wom Pom" powder and, upon ingesting it, start having visions of creatures coming out of the fire (more awful CG effects, some of the worst I've laid eyes on). They eventually get theirs in the final twist but, like the first story, you probably won't care.

The last entry is the lengthiest of the trio and certainly not the worst (that distinction belongs to the story preceding it) though it is a bit overlong and doesn't manage to pull off its ideas despite a few Blair Witch Project inspired moments. After she's pranked by her boyfriend while they're making out in his car one evening, a girl decides that with the help of her roommate she's going to get back at him and his practical joking cohort by playing a game of Truth or Dare. It soon goes horribly wrong and they're murdered one-by-one. The POV video camera footage of the deaths does work fairly well but the story just doesn't have any flow to it and you have to sit through their incredibly boring games to get there.

Campfire Stories then wraps-up with our weary travellers meeting a similar fate at the hands of our kindly ranger that not only contains an out of nowhere cameo by the legendary punk band The Misfits but brings back all the characters from the past stories. It's a "meh" finale in what amounts to another junky anthology flick. Obviously Sigler was cast simply for the name recognition her role on the HBO series "The Sopranos" would garner and she's on screen for a handful of minutes at most but at least Johansson takes the opportunity to camp it up every time he's on camera and Kerry Butler is easy on the eyes as Natalie. If you're a fan of the outrageous comedy series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (and, if not, you should be) you might be interested to know that Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney both show-up here. (Chris Hartley, 4/14/10)

Directed By: Andrzej Krakowski, Rob Cea, Jeff Mazzola.
Written By: Rob Cea.

Starring: Jamie-Lynn Sigler, John Hensley, Abigail Spencer, Joshua Harto.