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Sleepaway Camp
After a terrible boating accident, Angela Baker is sent to Camp Arawak, where a series of bizarre and violent "accidents" begin to claim the lives of various campers.
Release : | 1983 |
Rating : | 6.2 |
Studio : | American Eagle, U.S. Films, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Felissa Rose Christopher Collet Mike Kellin Thomas E. van Dell Desiree Gould |
Genre : | Horror |
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Reviews
Sadly Over-hyped
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
This movie starts off as a campy regular flick, but wow what a twist!
After watching 'Sleepaway Camp' I was left to wonder whether horror has in fact gone backwards in the last 30 years. It's very rare that a modern horror film manages to have any effect on me whatsoever, however this film achieved it. A simple but effective tone, and a twist ending for the ages, all equal a very creepy experience. Horror has changed an incredible amount over the years. They used to apply the principles of, "Keep it simple, stupid." Before anything has happened in the movie and we are simply being treated to the opening credits over top of shots of the camp, the haunting music is being thrust at us already to set the mood. The acting is about what you expect, the delivery is often clunky, yet the intensity in key characters does the trick. I went into the film knowing there was to be a twist (the main reason I watched it). I spent the entire film trying to guess what it would be, and came up short. The visuals and sound in that final scene have gone down in history as one of the most shocking scenes in film history, and rightly so. The whole thing is just so unexpected and thrust on us in such a way that you can't help but become very uncomfortable. A good twist should have you looking back on things and questioning what you thought you know. This one does that and has quite a few discussion raising points. I'm very glad I took the time to track this film down and give it a watch, because it turned out to be a very rewarding experience.
I'm a fan of horror films, especially low budget 1970s-80s ones, as I find these to be the most entertaining and grisly. I have to say, as a whole, the film itself is pretty bad. The acting is terrible, the dialogue is cringeworthy and sounds like it was written by a 6-year-old, and the killings are underwhelming and boring. Plus it's full of 'filler' scenes as another reviewer pointed out, showing the campers playing sports and messing about in their cabins, etc. I know it's a film about a teenage summer camp and they certainly got the hormone-fuelled mise-en-scene spot on, but there just wasn't really enough tension or suspense which are key ingredients for a good horror.But the ending. Wow. I knew there was something extremely weird about Angela and I did kinda guess all along that she was the killer, but I was not expecting that other twist. I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with it, which is basically what salvages the film from being a complete flop.
I really grew to love this movie fast, I enjoyed it a bit more each time I saw it. In a switch that is very rare for a slasher, rather than the kill scenes, what I personally like most about is the characters and how they swear, are frequently mean to each other and just how they interact, I think it comes off as very natural with this movie mostly. It was cool to see a flick like this where a lot of the teens were actually teenagers and not 20 somethings pretending to be. And while they're not super-developed or anything, the characters are characters and aren't totally faceless victims, it at least attempts to give them a little personality and humanity, and that's something that really stood out a lot to me with Sleepaway Camp. I think they brilliantly portrayed the atmosphere of the camp. It's not amazingly original as a whole, but it's definitely one slasher that offers a little more, its creepy underlining elements of insanity and child gender blurring push the envelope and make it stand out somewhat, there's deeper psychological stuff going on beneath the typical stalk and kill surface. I like the slashers that try out different concepts and approaches to the setup, which this certainly does. To me it's deserving of being regarded as more than just a fantastic twist ending. Yeah sure it caps off the whole thing in a brilliant way that you can never unsee, but it deserves a little more credit than only being known for that crazy final scene. Without the rest of the compelling mystery of the story to build up to it that ending, for how shocking it is, just wouldn't be nearly as effective. You may know Angela is the killer but you'll never know she's a guy! You'll never see it coming, and you'll barely see it when it appears, but it's there alright! And for better or worse it sticks with you. But it's not necessarily the uh, the penis that sticks with you, it's the whole notion of it and the bizarre and chilling image of the frozen face with the mouth agape, making those horrible animal sounds. Brr, oh man! I thought Felicia Rose gave a wonderful performance, mostly all with her big dark eyes, she puts a lot of feeling into them, there's something magnetic and eerie about all her stares, you never know what she's thinking... I don't get why poor Paul deserved to die. Apart from one very understandable and forgivable slight, he was nothing but a friend to her. I like the scenes of them together, their chemistry and friendship seemed sweet and genuine. It's funny, as opposed to everyone else she ruthlessly slaughters Paul's murder feels especially cold and unforgivable and finally makes her a monster to the audience after appearing so innocent and harmless all through the movie. I guess sometimes you just don't know what's really looking you right in the face until it's too late. She's probably made a few people turn the movie right off in her day, but I just love that aunt. If overacting was a crime they'd lock her up and throw away the key! Now she is creepy. She's the real monster of the movie, what kind of a demented bitch would inflict such a terrible thing on an innocent child who's just lost his family? I get a big kick out of the actress who plays Judy, an ideal campground mean girl for the ages! I find all of her over the top facial expressions and mannerisms just hysterical, she's kinda terrible, but she puts so much bitchy character into her face that it works and she's such a riot to watch! I love it but something that I found annoying was how the old man kept making excuses to keep the camp running even as people were turning up dead, when in reality they'd all have been sent home after one.. Movie logic! Also it's just gotta be said, some of the guys' wardrobe is seriously ridiculous, it looks like it's taken from a gay porn shoot and really lends the movie a bit of a homoerotic streak that's pretty dang hard to ignore at points! Overall though, they got a lot out of what they had to work with, and you can tell that they weren't working with a big budget. Absolute gem of a slasher that's worth checking out if you like the earlier more weird ones. "Come children, let's be on our way!"