1983
Robert Hiltzik
Robert Hiltzik
Several years after a boating accident claims the lives of
her parents, Angela (Felissa Rose) is sent by her aunt Martha (Desiree Gould) to summer camp, Arawak, along with her cousin,
Ricky (Jonathan Tierston). At the camp,
Angela’s awkwardness makes her a target for bullying from both the boys and the
girls. An unseen killer begins to dispatch the kids who make Angela’s life
miserable. Meanwhile, she begins to develop a relationship with a boy named
Paul (Christopher Collet). Ricky starts taking the blame for deaths around the
camp, while Angela takes Paul out to the lake to reveal a secret she’s been
keeping from everyone.
By 1983, the slasher genre was fairly rote and Sleepaway Camp is a great example of how
to throw in just enough variation to keep things interesting
while still sticking to a fairly rigid formula. The plot of the film is predicated
on some questionable gender and sexual politics, but slasher films have never
been shy about exploiting these things. The various ways in which characters
are killed are by turns humorous and increasingly gruesome. It contains, as far
as I know, the only beehive related killing in slasher film history. The acting
is in general competent, except perhaps Desriee Gould’s turn as Martha, which is
so over the top, I’m still not sure if it’s deliberate or not. Much has been
made about the final image of this film, and it is indeed a haunting and bizarre
moment that seals Sleepaway Camp as an
essential slasher film.
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