Sleepaway Camp
Yeah, stabbing a shoe makes complete sense
The term “cult
classic” is given to many horror movies, perhaps more than any
other genre of film. It's important to remember that just because a
movie is a cult classic, that doesn't mean that it is classic. It's
cult for a reason. Sometimes it's because the movie is obscure or too
strange or eccentric for the mainstream. Other times it's because the
movie is utterly terrible and people like to laugh at it. Then there
are those few films that gain cult status due to one or two memorable
scenes. These scenes are so shocking that just uttering the name of
the movie will cause be to go, “Oh, that's the movie where...”.
Sleepaway Camp is one of those movies.
Sleepaway Camp is a
1983 slasher horror movie starring Felissa Rose (Return To Sleepaway
Camp, Satan's Playground) as Angela Baker. Angela's father and
brother Peter, were killed in a boating accident and she was sent to
live with her eccentric aunt and cousin, Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten,
Return To Sleepaway Camp, The Perfect House). After the accident,
Angela has become introverted and rarely speaks. Ricky and Angela are
sent to Camp Arawak for the summer. Due to her shy nature, Angela is
bullied by some of the campers and her counselor, Meg. Ricky tries to
protect Angela and actually saves her from the head cook Artie who
tries to molest her. While Artie is boiling water, and unseen person
knocks him off a chair, sending boiling water all over his body. The
teasing continues and Ricky, along with his friend Paul, get into a
fight with some other boys. Angela begins to open up to Paul and a
relationship slowly starts to build between the two. Meg continues to
torment Angela, asking why she refuses to shower with the other girls
and why she never goes swimming. At the same time, the body count
beings to rise around camp, although they all appear to be accidents.
Mel, who runs the camp, suspects that it's Ricky behind all the
“accidents” and is determined to catch him. Who is really behind
the murders and is Angela really who she says she is?
"I left the oven on! My pies will burn!"
This movie came out
during the slasher heyday of the early 1980's, but it's general
concept was nothing new. By 1983, we already had multiple “youth at
a camp” slashers including the far-more popular Friday The 13th,
The Burning, and Madman. I will give Sleepaway Camp credit in
focusing more on the actual campers than the counselors, which does
make the killings more disturbing. This would have been a great
chance for the movie to really separate itself from the “camp site”
slasher pack, but unfortunately, nothing of real interest occurs.
It's not that the movie directly ripped-off previous slashers, it's
just kind of lazy. The kills are actually creative and fun to watch,
but when Sleepaway Camp focuses on anything else, the movie comes to
a grinding halt. We get that Angela is bullied, we don't need to see
it for an hour. Her relationship with Paul is barely-there and just
serves to get to the shock ending. The acting is pretty bad and some
of the character's motivations are questionable.
Now, I normally
don't like to give away major twists, but I feel it's necessary to
discuss in order to properly review the movie. While most know what
it is, if you've never seen Sleepaway Camp, I suggest you skip over
this paragraph. Needless to say, SPOILER ALERT. The big twist ending
is that Angela is in fact, Peter, who we previously thought was
killed in the boating accident. For whatever reason, her aunt decided
to raise her as a girl. Other than being nuts, there's no real reason
given as to why she did this and why Angela went along with it. I
guess we can chalk it up to being traumatized, but come on. While
that information is fairly surprising, it's how we learn that Angela
is actually a boy: a full-frontal naked shot of a blood-covered
Angela, penis and all. To top that all off, the final scene has a
naked Angela with an insane look on her face that lasts an
unnaturally long time. Seriously, look at that picture below. Keep
looking at it for at least 15 seconds. That's the end of the movie
which was incredibly unsettling. Weird and pointless, but unsettling.
The twist is quite shocking, though it doesn't really add that much
to the story itself. Why does Angela go on a killing spree now? Has
she killed anyone before? Why bother exposing herself now after
hiding for so long? I don't know, I'm probably thinking too much on a
movie who's main purpose is to shock the audience by showing a wang.
"Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Welcome back, those
of you who wanted to keep the ending a secret. Sleepaway Camp is a
fairly mundane slasher film with a real mediocre story. There are a
lot of holes in the story and the poor acting is hard to ignore.
You're better off watching several other “camp site” horror
movies. There are some interesting kills, though the movie lacked the
blood and gore that was prevalent in other slashers from the same
time. The movie has gained cult status thanks to it's truly shocking
ending, having been immortalized in multiple songs and even parodied
in the stop-motion show Robot Chicken. Just because something is cult status doesn't mean it's good. There's no real need to see
the entire movie since the last 5 minutes are the only interesting
and disturbing part.
4/10
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