The inaugural Cult Movie Campout, featuring four horror flicks that involve "camp" in every sense of the word, will debut Saturday, Sept. 12, at Butter Flower Farm. The night will feature live music, vendors and screenings of cult films "Sleepaway Camp," "Cannibal Campout," "Camp Blood Christmas" and "Don't F--k In the Woods."
Cult Movie Campout takes horror outdoors
- Published: September 11, 2026
Any avid horror fan will tell you: If you’re trapped within the celluloid boundaries of a slasher film, nothing good can come from fleeing into the great outdoors, and it’s best to avoid the woods altogether.
Nevertheless, on Saturday, Sept. 12, the inaugural Cult Movie Campout will invite film lovers to ignore that advice and gather at Butter Flower Farm for a night of slashers, cannibals and assorted other camp terrors on a 30-foot inflatable screen.
And if you really want to get into the spirit of things, why not camp out for the night?
Cult Movie Campout is the work of local resident Victor Bonacore and Mal Thokey, and represents a partnership between the Ohio Underground Film Fest, which Bonacore launched in March this year, and “Cult Movie Night,” a screening series Thokey and Bonacore co-organize at the Neon in Dayton.
As the News reported this spring, Bonacore brought his affection for eccentric films — ones that don’t always find room within conventional programming — to bear with the film festival; “Cult Movie Night” moves within a similar ethos, and this year, Bonacore and Thokey have screened films including the latter-day camp classic “Bride of Chucky,” John Waters’ black comedy “Desperate Living” and Larry Clark and Harmony Korine’s ultra-bleak 1995 drama “Kids.”
For Cult Movie Campout, the duo said they wanted to move some of that ethos outside — in the dark — with a lineup that pairs older cult favorites with newer and locally made horror.
“It’s a fun mix, and it’s like a mix of ’80s and now,” Bonacore said. “There’s nothing boring about any of these movies.”
Bonacore and Thokey come by their screen predilections honestly: Bonacore is not only a curator of the peculiar, but also a purveyor — his high-camp opus “Video Vixen,” in which a small-town resident’s murder streak targets social media stars, debuted to a packed house at the Ohio Underground Film Festival.
Thokey, for her part, is a self-described “lifelong horror fan” and makeup artist who’s worked on a number of area films, including Bonacore’s; in addition to providing special effects makeup for Bonacore’s 2022 “Thrust,” she also appeared on-screen. She’s also a makeup artist for Land of Illusion’s Haunted Scream Park in Middletown, as well as a sculptor and painter.
Thokey and Bonacore first crossed paths, they said, when he found her John Waters-themed art online and bought a few paintings. From there, they became the kind of friends, as Bonacore said, who go see “the worst horror movies” they can find.
Their shared appetite eventually yielded its own fruit by way of “Cult Movie Night,” and they’ve programmed seven or eight films a year for the last few years. For Cult Movie Campout, they settled on four films united, aesthetically and literally, by camp.
The campout will open with 1983’s “Sleepaway Camp,” the evening’s best-known film and a particular favorite of Bonacore’s. The film follows the painfully shy Angela to Camp Arawak, where she quickly becomes a target for bullies; before long, campers and staff who mistreat her begin meeting violent and bizarre ends. The over-the-top slasher has grown a devoted cult following over the last four decades, aided by a final reveal Bonacore and Thokey were careful not to spoil.
“I saw it as a kid, and it changed everything,” Bonacore said.
Meanwhile, “Cannibal Campout” comes from the scrappier end of the spectrum: The ultra-low-budget film sends four college friends into the New Jersey woods, where a weekend getaway runs afoul of three cannibalistic brothers. Its rough performances, primitive gore effects and general lack of polish have helped it endure as an obscurity among devotees of shot-on-video horror. Bonacore affectionately, and approvingly, called it “ridiculous.”
“There’s something so endearing about it,” he said of films made with limited means. “They’re making it because they want to make it.”
The newer “Camp Blood Christmas,” made last year in northeast Ohio, takes place at the infamous Camp Blackwood, where a new owner intends to turn the grounds into a family Christmas attraction. The camp’s resident killer clown, however, is apparently disinclined to go quietly into retirement. Bonacore said the film’s director, Matthew Dilts-Williams, and actor Allison Egan — who also starred in Bonacore’s “Thrust” and “Video Vixen” — plan to attend the screening.
And 2016’s “Don’t F–k in the Woods” is a creature feature by Dayton-area filmmaker Shawn Burkett, following a group of recent college graduates whose celebratory camping trip is interrupted by a monster stalking them through the woods. Made with practical monster and gore effects, the locally produced, low-budget film is marking its 10th anniversary this year.
The filmmakers, Bonacore said, were enthusiastic about the prospect of seeing their camp-themed movies screened outdoors — and their enthusiasm gets at Thokey and Bonacore’s larger hope: that the setting changes the experience for the audience, too. A cult movie can be streamed alone on a television, but it’s a lot more fun with other people.
“It’s just community building and showing cool stuff off,” Bonacore said.
Part of the goal of both Ohio Underground and “Cult Movie Night,” he added, is giving people a reason to take a chance on films they might otherwise overlook — particularly in a room, or in this case a field, full of other people willing to take the same chance. The films may feature visible seams and minuscule budgets, but Thokey said the unpretentiousness of making movies at that level is part of their appeal: The work doesn’t have to emerge polished to be worth making, or sharing.
“Anyone can make [a low-budget film] and express something,” she said. “They’re not all going to be great, but it’s an expression.”
“Yeah — and these films deserve an audience,” Bonacore added.
And after several hours of watching people make exceptionally poor choices in fictional camps and forests, folks are invited to stay overnight and crawl into their tents, and listen for what bumps in the night.
Butter Flower Farm will open for Cult Movie Campout at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, with films beginning at 8:30 p.m. The evening will also include vendors and a set by Extraordinary Twins (Andrew Halsey and Caleab Wyant). Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets, chairs, snacks and cash for vendors; dogs and drugs are prohibited.
Admission is $15 for the films, with overnight camping available for an additional $10 per person. Camping space is limited and must be reserved before the day of the event. The event is open to those 18 and older.
For more information, and tickets, go to bit.ly/CultMovieCampout2026.
Contact: chuck@ysnews.com
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