Movie Details
| Title: | Sleepaway Camp | |
| Director: | Robert Hiltzik | |
| Year: | 1983 | |
| Genre: | Slasher | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.17.22 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.17.22 | Internet | "Eat shit and live, bill." In childhood, let's say from 9 to mid teens, I spent a lot of time at the video store. Hours searching for some gem in the rough or new discovery somehow there in the shelves where it wasn't the last ten times I looked. Pre Internet and with limited options, it could be tough to find something that I hadn't seen before but also had a decent shot at being not terrible. That box art really made or broke a movie's chances. In the case of Sleepaway Camp, I distinctly remember seeing that shoe with the knife through it all the time, probably right next to all the sequels, and thinking it was just another by-the-numbers slasher; a Friday the 13th knock-off. It wasn't quite in the category of some other titles which I was interested in but knew I'd never get them past my mom who approved all rentals (such as Slumber Party Massacre or I Spit on Your Grave), but for whatever reason it didn't pop for me, so there it stayed on the video store rental shelf. Since then, I've filled in the slasher gaps a tiny bit and have more friends with reliable taste so it's no longer a random box amongst many but a supposed outlier of the slasher cycle and well worth a watch. Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience the end as I would have if I picked it up one of those days back in 8th grade, but that's ok because I still liked it pretty good. I credit most of that to solid performances. The main kid with the foul mouth is great, the cigar-chomping owner and his body-building assistant are great, the chicken-hawk cook and evil deb Judy are great, and most of the camp counselors are super believable in their 80s ball-hanger shorts and oddly high crop tops. The movie perhaps plays against type by showing male ass and dong without any female nudity? And... I don't know if this makes any sense or not but, it FEELS more like it's actually sort of about a sleepaway camp. Friday the 13th was like, they could be anywhere. The camp was just a setting for them to get killed off in. Even Meatballs I remember felt to me more like Bill Murray and some funny actors doing gags, like it was the same as Stripes but at a camp instead of the military. I dunno... maybe I just like the shots of the kids busting ass as soon as they get off the bus to run to their bunks and start having fun. I'm sure the ending set it apart for fans back in the day. Now it falls into the "problematic" category I guess, but it's also an interesting bait and switch. Spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen it and somehow don't know about the ending or who the killer and you want to see it then the gist is I liked it, had a good fun time with it, and some of the dialogue is fantastic. Ok, spoilers coming. So... from the outset, you know that Angela is the killer right? You must. Between the first scene and the truly bizarre following scene where the mother sends them off to camp, when she starts staring at Judy and won't talk we know she's the killer. There's one mild attempt at subterfuge with her mentioning not wanting the killer to get her but the people who die are the people who she hates and I never feel any inclination that the boy is killing people so... what's the mystery right? I think that's where the real power of the ending comes in, because you spend the whole movie thinking "it's so obvious that it can't be her, right? They're messing with us because it's so obvious, which means it will be really disappointing if it IS her so it must not be, right?" I mean, she acts like a killer through the entire movie and nobody else is even close. So the ending is kind of a have-cake-and-eat-it-too moment which I appreciate even if it draws some insensitivity in today's world. Even as I was reminded thanks to much more subtle foreshadowing laid down throughout, I still found the last shot to be jarring. And to end it there without any explanation or anything else is also great. And maybe gets it off the hook a little bit, since it's our job as the audience to infer the meaning behind it and that angela's upbringing is what caused her to be the killer... which may or may not be true! Friday the 13th was built on just the first scene where her dad is killed by negligent camp-goers so the killer is out for revenge. The movie doesn't definitively state her motive, although I do think it's a reasonable assumption that it was more about what happened after her dad died, which I can see why some people have an issue with today. But whatever, there's plenty of offensive shit in these movies, some of which was intended at the time and much of which wasn't. It's still a good movie, much better than most of its peers. It's no Black Christmas, but I'd say it's up there with Pieces and Torso |
