A Definitive Ranking of Fictional Summer Camps

From the camp in 'Parent Trap' to Tall Oaks Band camp, these movie summer camps make us want to be kids again.

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Complex Original

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Our most treasured childhood memories and most mortifying childhood embarrassments happened at summer camp. Hormonal teens thrown together with strangers in a new environment with a set end date creates the perfect situation for a coming-of-age tale. Add in the quirky counselors, older kids primed to teach new campers about cool music and recreational drug use, and innately dramatic activities like Capture the Flag and prank wars, and you have all the ingredients for the perfect teen tale. Summer camps are the ideal setting for teenage storytelling, both at its hormonal highs and terribly disappointing lows.

As summer begins, and we watch younger generations march off for a few months filled with pottery kilns, archery, and making out in the boat house, let's look back at the greatest summer camps in pop culture. Here is A Definitive Ranking of Fictional Summer Camps.

19. Camp Crystal Lake, Friday the 13th

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Nostalgia Factor: 0 out of 5 merit badges

There are numerous terrible fictional summer camps out there, but only one of them guarantees you'll be murdered. Horror films love to show a dark take on the nostalgia inducing, coming-of-age narrative associated with most pop culture summer camps. In the slasher genre, sexual experimentation isn't rewarded with the pangs of young love or personal growth, but rather with decapitation, or at least a mild throat slashing. As is often the case in horror movies, the sins of the young campers in Friday the 13th have a similar theme. They either a) had sex, b) wanted to have sex or c) played strip Monopoly. If I were a murdered teenager, I would be extremely pissed if I was killed for playing strip Monopoly while still a virgin, but, hey that's what you get for trying to reopen an abandoned campground where a young boy drowned decades ago.


18. Kamp Krusty, The Simpsons

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Nostalgia Factor: 3 out of 5 merit badges


Despite stiff competition, The Simpsons' Kamp Krusty earns the title of worst fictional summer camp that doesn't guarantee the murder of its campers. As Kent Brockman put it, "Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Afganistan, and Iraq, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together."


Every kid knows that there is always a gulf between what a camp promises your parents and what that camp actually delivers. Even the best summer camp never quite lives up to the brochures. In "Kamp Krusty," The Simpsons plays with those childhood disappointments to create a dystopian nightmare that combines the sleaziest camp counselor corner cutting with Lord of the Flies. As a result, this episode actually makes you feel nostalgia for childhood disappointments. Just another brilliant achievement of golden age The Simpsons.

Of course, when you went to a shitty summer camp, you never got rewarded for overthrowing your counselors with a trip to Tijuana, but that's just the magic of television.

17. Kamp Kikakee, Ernest Goes to Camp

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Nostalgia Factor: 0 out of 5 merit badges


The Ernest P. Worrell films belong to a class of movie you don't often see anymore. Beginning with silent film, perfected by the Three Stooges, and continuing in one way or another through the decade-long reign of Jim Varney's Ernest, the feature film that is just a string of physical gags has a long, if spotty, tradition. Though certain films of Kevin James and (sadly) Melissa McCarthy approach this level of humor, even the flimsiest Paul Blart film doesn't nearly come close to the utter disregard for story that was a hallmark of the Ernest movies.

As such, Camp Kikakee doesn't leave us feeling much of anything. Ernest could have a toilet plunging accident in pretty much any locale. He could construct a Rube Goldberg barbeque machine anywhere his redneck heart desires. The only difference between Goes to Camp and other films in the series like Ernest Saves Christmas and Ernest Scared Stupid is that tents and animals are fodder for the physical bits instead of Christmas ornaments or jack-o-lanterns.


16. Camp Hope, Heavyweights

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Nostalgia Factor: 2 out of 5 merit badges


Many of the greatest fictional summer camps stick in our collective memory because they are places we want to be. We want to be the ones clawing through the mud in an intense game of Capture the Flag. We want to be the ones sneaking out into the woods to meet our crush. We want to be the ones making memories that will last a lifetime. Camp Hope from Heavyweights was seared into our young minds because it's the last place on Earth a kid would want to go: a place with no candy and no fun.

Of the '90s live-action Disney movies, Heavyweights is near the top of the class. The film is uneven, but early writing by Judd Apatow and what may still be Ben Stiller's greatest comedic performance provide flashes of brilliance.

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In terms of nostalgia, Heavyweights evokes a universal childhood experience: making the best of a bad situation. Childhood is so often about doing something you don't want to do. Whether you were conscripted into marching band or forced to join the math club, we all know the feeling. None of us want to go to Camp Hope, but all of us have been to Camp Hope in one way or another.

14. Camp North Star, Meatballs

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Nostalgia Factor: 3 out of 5 merit badges


Looking back at this era of comedy films can be difficult. On one hand, Meatballs, Porky's, and Revenge of the Nerds were important comedic movies. Meatballs is probably the most relevant of the three, as it was directed by Ivan Reitman and provided an early starring role for Bill Murray. Yet, there is an undercurrent of misogyny in these films, even in greater efforts like Animal House, that doesn't age well. While these films gave rise to Superbad, they also set the stage for Entourage

As long as you aren't a female counselor at this camp, forced to endure a steady campaign of sexual harassment, then Camp North Star wouldn't be a bad place to spend your summer. Just like many of the great fictional summer camps, this is a place for the nerds and the outcasts to find their place and take shots at the rich jocks along the way. Who wouldn't want a lackadaisical young Bill Murray half-assedly watching over them for a summer? Camp North Star is a great place for boys to spend the summer. Just maybe think about sending your daughters elsewhere.


13. Camp Little Wolf, Little Darlings

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12. Camp Tamakwa, Indian Summer

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11. Camp Little Otter, Camp

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10. Tall Oaks Band Camp, American Pie

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Nostalgia Factor: 2 out of 5 merit badges


Though band camp is a minor part of the original American Pie, the popularity of Alyson Hannigan's "This one time at band camp ..." lines was such that one of the numerous American Pie sequels was set at Twin Oaks.


As the fourth installment of the American Pie series and featuring only Eugene Levy from the original film, the film is somewhere between awful and atrocious. But, we shouldn't hold the movie against the camp, which is far superior to any band camp known to man.

Unlike actual band camp, there are attractive people, humorous pranks, and thinly-veiled excuses for nudity. It's likely that we would have all practiced our trumpets more if such opportunities were presented to us during our childhoods.

9. Camp Walden, The Parent Trap

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Nostalgia Factor: 3 out of 5 merit badges


As our protagonists are the daughters of a wealthy winemaker and a successful wedding dress designer, this isn't your typical summer camp story of downtrodden misfits. This camp offers aristocratic pastimes like fencing and very little opportunity for smoking cigarettes in the woods. Before we leave the camp and get on with the meat of the film—the "parent trapping," if you will—The Parent Trap does go out of its way to let you know that the rich are fun just like the rest of us. There is a prank war, a poker scene, and skinny dipping: all standard summer camp activities. Once Annie and Hallie leave solitary confinement and head off to reunite their parents, we are left feeling like Camp Walden would be a wonderful place to spend your summer, if you can afford it, especially if you're into fencing.

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7. Camp Nowhere, Camp Nowhere

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Nostalgia Factor: 2 out of 5 merit badges


What makes Camp Nowhere great is that it isn't actually a camp at all. The campers at Camp Nowhere create their own fake summer camp in order to avoid the doldrums of traditional camp. Such an endeavor could easily turn into a cautionary tale, but thanks to the general decency of the kids and Christopher Lloyd in his zany prime, the camp ends up working pretty well.


And wouldn't you know it, the kids all learn valuable lessons about themselves along the way. 

It's not likely that you'll have feelings of nostalgia after watching this one, as most of you probably didn't spend your youth building imaginary summer camps with the help of disgraced drama teachers. If you did, your childhood was definitely better than most.

6. Camp Anawanna, Salute Your Shorts

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Nostalgia Factor: 4 out of 5 merit badges


For those who came of age with Salute Your Shorts, it's hard to believe that the series only lasted two seasons. Though the show was short-lived and subpar even by '90s Nickelodeon standards, Salute Your Shorts still has a special place in our hearts. If you go back and watch the opening credits, don't be surprised if you find yourself mouthing along to the theme song. Salute Your Shorts didn't achieve that difficult balance of appealing to adults and kids alike, unlike The Adventures of Pete & Pete and Rugrats, and the shoestring budget is painfully evident to adult eyes, but millennials of a certain age likely still remember Camp Anawanna fondly: from Ug's sunscreen covered nose to Donkey Lip's farts.


5. Camp Victory, Huge

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4. Camp Ivanhoe, Moonrise Kingdom

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Nostalgia Factor: 5 out of 5 merit badges


It is fitting that Camp Ivanhoe is a summer camp as we imagined they would be before we ever went to a summer camp. The scout master is kind and dedicated. His lessons are not only useful, but they make you a better person. The equipment is quaint yet somehow in perfect condition. The canvas tents don't have mosquitos. The older boys aren't looking at pornos in their tents. The counselors don't smell of whiskey and weed. This fictional summer camp doesn't remind us of where we came of age, but where would have liked to come of age. Even with his world populated by orphans and troubled youth, Anderson's summer camp is the ideal summer camp, unmarred by incompetent leadership and less-than-enthusiastic campers. 

The nostalgia we feel for Camp Ivanhoe is nostalgia for a summer camp that we know could never exist outside of Norman Rockwell painting.

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2. Camp Firewood, Wet Hot American Summer

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Nostalgia Factor: 5 out of 5 merit badges


The brilliant absurdity of Wet Hot American Summer alone would have reserved it a spot in the cult comedy pantheon alongside ZoolanderPootie Tang, and the other great, zany comedies of  the early 2000s. This film had the additional benefit of being a finishing school for the reigning ruling class of American humor. Only Freaks and Geeks rivals Wet Hot American Summer as the Rosetta Stone of 21st century comedy.

Veterans of The State like Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, and Ken Marino were joined by future titans like Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, and Bradley Cooper to create one of the best comedic ensembles ever assembled. The proceedings were ably handled by burgeoning auteur David Wain, who has gone on to become one of the most interesting voices in American comedy. The results feel wholly original and wholly ridiculous, the kind of film that flops at the box office, but is passed down from comedy nerd to comedy nerd long after the summer's blockbusters have been forgotten. Every corner of Camp Firewood is mined for comedy gold.

It's no wonder that Netflix has revived the film as a series, and that most of the original cast signed on. Wet Hot American Summer was a once-in-a-lifetime comedic event, that, against all odds, we'll actually get to enjoy twice. Soon enough we'll be able to return to Camp Firewood and all its ridiculousness once again.


Oh yeah, and Christopher Meloni is a vision in this movie.


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