Rave in the Redwoods

Rave in the Redwoods is Willard Wyler’s second film: a 1990s slasher shot at Bear Lake summer camp in California’s redwoods, where a rave called "Pushin’ Up Daisies" met the undead. The four actors return in new roles, and this reel’s trapped celebrity is Kevin Smith, playing himself, holed up in a cabin attic on the lake’s island — a casting choice the ending weaponises.

The camp

The map spreads from Bear Lodge across the mess hall, cabins, an old mine, an amphitheater and the rave itself, down to a swimmable beach whose piranha trap invites you to feed the fish — and out across the water to Turtle Island, reachable only by boat. Ziplines run from the lodge roof, and the spawn arms you with melee weapons instead of a pistol: bat, axe, golf club, machete.

Power and Rave Mode

One switch, in the Bear Lodge basement through the mine. The map’s signature is Rave Mode: throw a zombie-dropped pouch into any fire and the world flips into UV — double points, hidden paint, and stick doors that only exist in the other light. From scene ten onward, entering the rave also invites the Slasher.

Pack-a-Punch

Three boat-engine parts get you across the lake; two film reels repair the island cabin’s projector; and the projector throws a portal onto the wall — thirty seconds in the upgrade room, then the film ends and the portal cools down.

Wonder weapon: Vlad

Vlad is a free explosive-bolt crossbow, unlocked by feeding hot dogs to a bucket and shooting three deer heads in Rave Mode, with four elemental variants — the wind-blasting Whirlwind EF-5, the tripwire-laying Trap-O-Matic, Acid Rain and the lightning-throwing Ben Franklin. The Slasher’s own weapon, the buzzsaw Smiley, becomes collectible once the quest is done.

The Slasher

The Slasher stalks Rave Mode from scene ten on: a one-hit kill no perk survives, invulnerable in the UV light except to his own saw, and mortal only when the quest’s rituals drag him out of it.

The main quest: “Locksmith”

Three rituals with Kevin Smith — each a timed Rave Mode challenge ending in a Slasher kill — build toward the boat home, and the twist: the torn photos show Jason Mewes with his face scratched out, and Kevin remembers that he is the Slasher. The Super Slasher boss fight on the stranded island runs three cycles of soul-charged skulls and glowing weak points. Soloable; the reward is the second Soul Key piece and Kevin Smith, playable.

Story

The second of Wyler’s five films sits between Spaceland’s 80s park and Shaolin Shuffle’s 70s New York, its scrapbook side-quests and totem-pole souvenir stations carrying the anthology’s arcade DNA into the woods. The Soul Key grows a piece; the director keeps filming.