The Vogue to offer encore showings of “Deer Camp ’86” 

The Vogue to offer encore showings of “Deer Camp ’86” 

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

MANISTEE — The Vogue Theatre has added two more showings of the locally produced, award winning movie “Deer Camp ’86” after it was sold out tonight, Friday, Nov. 4. The film will show again on Monday, Nov. 14 and — fittingly — Tuesday, Nov. 15. Both shows will be at 7 p.m. 

The film was written and produced by Harold David Cronk of Scottville and Eric Michiela of Holland and directed by L. Van Dyke Sibsoutszen. The super natural thriller/comedy is about six guys who drive up to northern Michigan from Detroit to spend time deer hunting. In the process, they manage to wake a “forest demon” which proceeds to haunt them. The movie was filmed almost entirely in Mason and Oceana counties in the fall of 2020. 

It recently won Best Special Effects at Screamfest film festival in Hollywood. Screamfest is the largest and longest running film festival in the United States and included over 20 feature films. Other feature film categories included Best Feature, Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Special Effects Makeup and Best Musical Score. 

The movie is a nice mix of adult humor, suspense and thriller. It also has a social message about the exploitation of indigenous American women.   

The concept of “Deer Camp ‘86” came to fruition in the early days of the COVID pandemic when it was clear that many in the motion picture industry were forced out of work (like most other people). Cronk and Michiela had each been developing story lines over the years and they merged their two concepts into a project that became “Deer Camp ’86.” As a result,  many creative people, the majority from Michigan (including several local) were put back to work. The film also invested money into local businesses through lodging, catering and set design. 

The majority of the movie was filmed at a hunting cabin owned by Thurow Farms.  Most of the other scenes were also filmed in Mason County at locations including the former Johnny’s of Custer, Sanders of Custer, Wilwin Lodge (and Woodruff Lake) in Eden Township. An exterior scene was filmed at Murphy’s Tavern in Weare Township, Oceana County. An additional scene was filmed in Tampa, Fla. 

At this time, the movie has only been shown to the public at The Vogue. The producers are still in the process of finding a distributor who will either purchase the streaming rights or show it at multiple theaters. 

See the trailer here. Note that the trailer and the film are not rated but both contain adult language. 

Reserve tickets here.

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