Sleepaway Camp (1983): The 80s Camp Masterpiece
Sleepaway Camp (1983) may be the greatest campy 80s horror movie of the decade. The film was directed by Robert Hiltzik whose entire directorial career is the Sleepaway Camp series. This movie has become so beloved that Felissa Rose, who plays the main character, Angela, is considered a Scream Queen and horror idol because of it. This is definitely a cult classic and is for the most part, cherished as a highlight of campy 1980s B-movie horror.
This is the original 1983 poster of the film.
This is a movie best experienced by going in blind and viewing it without spoiling it for yourself. The basic premise of Sleepaway Camp is that a traumatized girl goes to summer camp with her cousin for the first time and soon thereafter a killer appears at the campsite. Most would, and usually do, compare this movie with Friday the 13th, and I can understand why. The premise is similar to Friday the 13th especially since it turns into a whodunit at a campsite, but it is unique and bizarre enough to enjoy either way.
The acting is fine and fits the low budget charm of the film. The movie sometimes feels more like a fun project the kids made while at summer camp or something very DIY than a full production film, but that is 100% part of the charm.
There are a decent amount of meme worthy and quotable moments scattered throughout this, so its a blast to watch. So many lines throughout the film are delivered in the most hilarious way possible.
The film should be considered a success by any metric, especially since people are still talking about it now nearly 40 years later. Let me put it this way, this was essentially a indie film made with a budget of around $350,000, yet it made over $11 million at the box office which is an excellent return on investment and a major sign of success for a film with basically no advertising.
The characters, pretty much all of them, are so weird and odd it keeps you entertained the entire time.
A geniunely great thing about this movie is that all the teens are actually played by teens so they look the part unlike most slashers where full grown adults are playing kids. Every character in this slasher is interesting, from the weird ass mom at the beginning of the movie to the cop with the obviously fake mustache near the end.
Most of the kills in this movie are pretty creative, and brutal, and have suprisingly decent practical effects for a film with such a low budget. There is a standout death for me in the film when someone gets a comically large pot of boiling water poured on them and the effects are pretty gnarly. The effects were done by Ed French, who went on to work on some major projects such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Star Trek IV (which he recieved a Oscar nomination for.)
This is one of the plaster casts made by Ed French. This was a method used multiple times by French in the film.
There are a few really weird, gross, and pervy parts of the plot and it is wild to me that some of this was acceptable for children at the time. It really is mind-boggling, however it is a horror movie and those things are certainly horrific. There is absolutley no way this film would have been made today since there are so many bat shit crazy things about the plot.
The infamous ending of Sleepaway Camp is one of the biggest reasons it is considered a cult classic. There is something so jarring and uncanny valley about the practical effects and also because of the actual content you are seeing during the finale. I have seen this slasher and talked about it with many people and everyone always has an intense reaction to the ending, so it is absolutely worth checking out.
The sequels of Sleepaway Camp are not nearly as good as the first one, but the second one (Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers) is probably the best of the sequels. The second one features Pamela Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen’s sister, as Angela.
Sleepaway Camp II does seem more like a wacky, cut and dry slasher with a completely different cast and it is much less charming and unique. The other two film in the series from 1989 (Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland)and 2008 (Return to Sleepaway Camp) you can kind of just discard since I found them pretty forgettable.
All in all this fever dream of a film is probably my favorite 80s horror B-movie, or at the least top three. I love the slasher genre so I may actually say that about every other slasher I talk about. This film is just so wild, bizarre, and absurd that I highy recommend it.
