With “Kids In America” playing on the soundtrack over the sunshiny last day of Camp Briarbrook at the start of this movie, She Came from the Woods seems like the kind of movie that would be opening in theaters and drive-ins forty years ago. Instead, it’s on Tubi.

After the campers all leave for home. Peter (Spencer List), the bad boy grandson of the camp’s owner Gilbert McAlister (William Sadler) talks all of the camp counselors into conducting a ritual that brings back Agatha (Madeleine Dauer), the nurse who once terrorized the grounds with occult experiments four decades before.

Gilbert is planning to retire, leaving the camp in the hands of the rest of his family, which include good grandson Shawn (Tyler Elliot Burke) and their mother Heather (Cara Buono). But man, who can say what happens after this night, which starts with counselor Danny (director and co-writer Erik Bloomquist) losing his mind and attacking his crush Kellie (Emily Keefe) after she turns him down. This moment is completely shocking and out of nowhere, as is the further violence that follows.

Written along with his brother Carson, Erik Bloomquist has made a movie that doesn’t just harken back to the slashers of the 80s, but infuses the proceedings with tons of style, wit and no small amount of gore. And beyond the big stars like Sadler and Buono, there are good turns by Peter’s girlfriend Lauren (Clare Foley, Sinister) and Dylan (Adam Weppler).

Best of all, the movie also takes on more than just the slasher and supernatural, as an entire busload of kids goes missing in the woods and all suddenly become killers. You know how much a killer kid movie is appreciated around here.

The characters also make a point of not making the same mistakes as every other camp counselor. They don’t go off and make out in the middle of the murders (Veronica even screams at Dylan, “You want to f*** me to get my mind off my best friend being dead?” before punching him in the face), they call the police immediately and they work hard to not be separated. Not that it matters — whatever is out here in the woods is turning everyone insane.

Originally made as a short film made by Bloomquist brothers in 2017, I had a lot of fun with this movie. A lot of the reviews of it seem to take a holier than thou “how dare someone make another summer camp movie” spin and it kind of took me by surprise, as I really enjoyed what I watched. And you know, that’s the joy of watching movies for yourself and not depending on others to tell you if you should watch something or not. I mean, please keep coming back to this site and reading me discuss movies, but I want you, dear reader, to determine if a movie is something you like not because a group of hivemind sycophants thinks it’s good or not. Create your own sense of what you like and what you don’t. I don’t expect anyone to start liking late 80s Italian ripoffs of American movies, Turkish remakes or Philippines-shot war movies as much as me. I just got the whiff of “I have to show off my Film Twitter” cred in these reviews and you should remember: you are never as cool as the movies that you cover.

You can watch this on Tubi.