Whats a campy movie anyway?
So just what are we talking about when say the word “camp?” If I were a real hard-nose about it, I’d not say a word further and just refer you to the ironically definitive essay on camp by my esteemed, dead colleague, Susan Sontag.1 Reading Sontag’s essay will certainly give you a lot to mull over, but since I expect most of you are lazier than me, I’ll go ahead and give you my version of what camp is. Keep in mind, Sontag does a much better job of describing camp in general, as a cultural phenomenon at large, while I’m just going to try to help you distinguish between different kinds of camp cinema. Let’s first get our terms straight. What’s the difference between camp cinema and downright bad movies? From Sontag’s point of view, a whole lot. There really isn’t any direct relationship between the two. Campy movies are sometimes bad, and bad movies are sometimes campy. But not always in either case. The following is a brief run down of different cousins to the camp cinema kingdom. I’ll
