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The MONTH of HORROR - Day 8: Sleepaway Camp

If you think that Jason Voorhees, and Camp Crystal Lake had a monopoly on summer camp horror flicks, then you haven't been to Sleepaway Camp! Well, in the movie it's actually called Camp Arawak but that just doesn't have the same sort of ring to it. Of course, if you're going to create another horror movie in a summer camp setting then it better be different, and original enough to set it apart--oh man, does 'Sleepaway Camp' ever do that, and then some.

This is one messed up movie.

Everything about the story, the setting, the characters, and the dialogue feels a little "off", and I'm certain that is intentionally made so by the writer-director, Robert Hiltzik. The strangeness begins with an over the top performance by the aunt of the two main pre-teen characters who delivers all of her lines as if she's "ready for her close up" from Sunset Boulevard. Young Ricky, and his incredibly shy cousin Angela are sent off to Camp Arawak, and one of the first characters you meet once the kids pile off the buses is the slovenly camp cook who openly admits that he wants to get with as many of the under-age girls as possible--no kidding, he actually licks his lips and says that "bald is best". Yuck, not cool. Hmm, I wonder if he'll be the first to bite it?

The kids are all a bunch of foul mouthed little bastards, and not in a charming 'Bad News Bears' kind of way either so you do straight up begin to loathe a number of them, especially after all of the bullying they direct at quiet Angela's way. Kids will be kids though, right? I don't know, I went to summer camp  back in the day, and I definitely do not remember everyone acting so nasty but then again none of my fellow campers were brutally, and mysteriously murdered so I guess attitude is everything. Most of the violence in this one is off screen so it's not nearly as bloody as any entry in the Friday the 13th series however what sets it apart is the strangeness of where the plot goes. So you've got your pedophilia which I already mentioned (again, ick), there's some gay romance, the old camp director beats the hell out of one of the young campers, and then the now legendary end twist which vaults this movie into cult classic status.

That ending, oh wow, I will not spoil it here but when this was released into theatres, people must have absolutely lost their minds by the time the credits rolled! It's the moment that this film becomes something a whole lot more than just a cheesy 80's slasher flick, and I can't believe it was given the green light because it's seriously that far out. I shall say no more! Seek this one out if you're a fan of stab movies--super unique, and super disturbed.
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