EarDelightBase Waste of Money.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

valiumthousand Late entry in the slasher/teen campground genre is better than the low viewer ratings would indicate, as long as one isn't looking for a straight-up horror flick.Campground owner Cameron Mitchell envisions the grand opening of Memorial Valley Campground as the opening salvo in his attempt to create a kind of resort destination that will lines his pockets with a lot of $$$$. However, a madman (or should I say "mad caveman"?) who lives on the campground has other plans.With a full crew of potential victims at hand, this movie doesn't take itself seriously and the pacing is actually fairly deft. There are slayings galore in the latter part of the film and countless moments of hysteria and humor via the acting and script.I found myself laughing but totally involved in the film and as long as one's expectations aren't too high, this film is a good diversion from the usual 80s slasher fare, and there are some memorable characters among the expected clichés.

miltonberle-48-57033 This movie is in the public domain, so it keeps popping up in bargain collections, drugstores and on-line for download, often free and sometimes with phony copyright information. I first saw this film as the second half of a $1.00 double feature DVD with another Cameron Mitchel turkey. Apparently he would turn nothing down. I think it's hard to know what to make of this movie. It starts off with an electronically inserted title card (Memorial Valley Massacre) A pretty good sign that this movie, whether released or not, started out with a different title. Research turned up the the title "Memorial Day" as its filming title. That's not a very good title in that it does not indicate a horror movie. But then, perhaps this is not one. The word "massacre" is misleading also as it makes you expect buckets of gore. Its not here. At least not in this cut. Recently (2011) I found a title "Son of Sleepaway Camp" online for free download. I found it to be the same film only it is a bit different. Apparently re-cut for foreign markets (Or more likely the U.S. version was cut, as it is much tamer. While the U.S. version plays like a slightly daring "made for TV movie" (The most shocking thing is a quickly glanced nipple that probably went unnoticed during editing.) This other version seems faster paced than the "Massacre" version. The title "Son of Sleepaway Camp" is even worst than "Memorial Day". What the heck does that even mean? I no longer own the "Massacre" version so my ability to review is impaired. The title sequence looks like the "real" one. The titles are burned in rather than electronic. The order of events seemed different to me. As though the action and murders are pushed closer toward the end. Mitchel's role seemed longer to me as well. But I cant imagine having a single name actor in the cast and then cutting him out of part of it. The single love scene is the biggest difference. This version is "hard core"!!! It is far too graphic for an R or PG-13 rating. It would not even get NC-17. Be ware if you are purchasing this on-line for a teen viewer and it reads Rated R or any other rating other than X. I am not certain of which versions have what content. I know that it was fashionable to add sex to foreign versions, but I guess they may have cut the sex out for the "Massacre" version. That version did seem ridiculously tame to me when I saw it. THe most graphic murder has a guy set on fire and running around. Its an impressive stunt and is pretty rough. I know they shot it "slo-mo" to make it run longer but I still had to wince. I believe the final murder has some added guts in one version that the other did not, but I'm not sure which version that was. I am not sure I can recommend either version. Though the "Son" version seemed more like a horror movie to me. Did this thing play in US theaters? I had never heard of it or even seen it written about in Monster mags at the time (1988) like Fangoria or Gore Zone. (I was also unaware of Mitchel's passing only a few years later, so I'm not always on the ball.) Where the heck did this thing pop up from?

Anthony Pittore III (Shattered_Wake) Synopsis: David Sangster (Mark Mears) has just accepted a new job from his father (Cameron Mitchell) to oversee the opening of the brand new Memorial Valley campground. With the help of George (John Kerry. . . no, not that one), David must attempt to get around all of the problems the camp is facing (dead construction workers, tainted water supplies (with rotting animal corpses), inoperable bathrooms, etc.). To add to the heap of problems, a psychopathic murderer is wandering the camp unleashing his vengeance and attempting to cut short the campers' weekend.Review: Hoping for a lighthearted romp through the California wilderness, I picked up Memorial Valley Massacre on a whim, without actually looking up any reviews or ratings. I saw the plot, saw the availability, and that was enough for me. After I started watching, I decided to take a peek at the IMDb page just to see what I was getting into. Needless to say, the 2.6/10 user rating did not instill much confidence in me. But, I kept on with it and decided to give it a fair shot. Ratings have been wrong before (many, many times). Somehow, regardless of all the hate it received. . . I really enjoyed it. It's not a great film by any means and fans of the more grisly 80s slashers won't like it, but it's very watchable in some inexplicable way to the point where I actually had a lot of fun with it. Technically speaking, you could do a lot worse: The acting is passable, as is the writing. The direction was actually quite good and took advantage of the beautiful location they had, taking plenty of time to give the viewer a look at the wildlife around them. Obviously, there are plenty of negatives: The film is extremely unoriginal, taking no risks whatsoever and essentially only going for a watchably dumb film (which it achieves). The predictability doesn't help much and, even with the weirdo killer, it's extremely obvious to see where it's going. Also, the movie's very tame, showing little and not giving much of what a slasher fan would hope to find. In the end, if one is looking for the next great hidden slasher gem, they won't find it here. . . but, if a good time is all that's wanted and thinking can be put on hold for 90 minutes, I wouldn't totally disregard Memorial Valley Massacre.Obligatory Slasher Elements:Violence/Gore: There's a bit of violence, but the majority of it is very tame and the worst of it is offscreen. There isn't much blood, except for a few scenes with just a few drops.Sex/Nudity: Just a wet t-shirt, a girl in a towel, and some heavy making out. . . nothing to see here, folks.Cool Killer(s): If by 'cool,' it means 'hilarious.' The guy is, seriously, some kind of caveman, dressed in animal skins and fang necklace and all. Weird.Scares/Suspense: Very little. There are some attempts at jump scares, but you can see them coming from a mile away and really don't do much at all.Mystery: There's one 'mystery' of the film, but it's so obvious when it's introduced that it shouldn't even count.Awkward Dance Scene: Dancing in the rain in a thin shirt with no bra? Not awkward, just hot.- -Final verdict: 5/10. Simply for the watchability.-AP3-

Dave Kaminskas Memorial Valley Campground is opening for business, even though they are having a rough start and not quite ready to open. The roads aren't quite ready and no running water are a few of the problems, but the biggest problem is a maniac caveman running around the campground killing off the campers. Extremely dull horror fare is neither gory nor horrifying. Memorial Valley Massacre takes forever to get started and by the time it does you don't even care. The acting is fairly terrible with the caveman being the worst. Who came up with this idea? Even if you are a fan of 80's serial killer movies this is one that is just not worth the bother. BOMB! Zero out of ****