Crampton Watch: Fraternity Vacation (1985)

if the poster gives you a sinking feeling, that is the right reaction

Watched:  10/08/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  James Frawley

This movie is bad.  

You go into it knowing it's bad.  But then it's very bad, and there you are.  But you were the one who hit play on the movie, so you have to just sit with who you are and what you're doing with your life.

Fraternity Vacation (1985) is part of the horned-up young adults having wacky misadventures films of the 1980's.  But it comes along at a point where there were so many of these dumb things, there's a punchlist of things that need to happen more than there needs to be a plot.  

1. Dudes have to arrive and stare at girls in swimsuits, high fiving and ogling.  
2. Dudes run into whoever the rich guys are who will be our antagonists.
3. Blonde girl will be identified as "the one*.
4. A hare-brained scheme will be hatched to land *the one*.
5. Antics.
6. A crusty old guy hassles our party dudes
7. Someone has a genuine romance shown to be more real than just looking at boobs and saying "aaooooooogah!" (you can tell by treacly piano music)
8. A crowd party scene
9. A rally for some reason where truth are revealed.  Very stupid truths.
10. Everyone is friends.

Our tale: a pair of frat dudes are basically financed by Willie from ALF to take his son to Palm Springs for a long weekend.  If they successfully get the son laid, the frat house gets a jacuzzi.  The nerd in question is that tweaked guy from Fright Night.  One of the frat guys is pre-fame Tim Robbins who is doing his best.  

The movie also has Lloyd Braun from Seinfeld, Dean Wormer, Marcy from Married with Children, comedian Charles Rocket, Britt Ekland, and the blonde from Walker Texas Ranger as Blonde Girl Prime.  

Crampton plays a character who probably has a name, but she's just sort of in and out of the movie 3 or 4 times.  She is playing "hot blonde girl #2".

This movie was an excuse to have some brief nudity in a movie and give people something to watch after 10:00 PM on HBO.  The plot involved things that are not just illegal, they're just gross (photographing a woman without her consent, through her windows, in the altogether and basically forcing oneself on someone else).  The '80's, man.

Insanely, director James Frawley is, in theory, the director of The Muppet Movie.  And producer Denise Di Novi worked on the film as some sort of executive.  She has rightfully kind of buried this on her resume.

This isn't Crampton's first movie - incredibly, that's Body Double.  It is her second movie, Re-Animator being her third.  She seems like she's having fun.  I'm glad someone did.