Sleepaway Camp: A Retro Movie Review

The year? 1983. I was just one year old when this film came out, and honestly, I’m surprised it took me until 2009 to finally see this movie. Growing up, I watched horror films all the time, and how this gem made it past my eager young eyes is beyond me. Sleepaway Camp is a mindless fun time, a horror film that manages to poke fun at the very genre it sells itself to. Honestly, to me, there wasn’t much to be horrified about in the movie, at least, through most of the film. I was constantly laughing at everything – the jokes, the purposeful bad acting (at least, it seemed that way to me), the way it screamed “Look at me! I’m an 80’s horror flick! Whee!”

The premise is pretty simple. There are a bunch of mysterious murders committed by a “mysterious” character who of course we don’t find out the identity of until the last third of the film. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that it’s pretty obvious who the killer is, but that doesn’t make some of the things seen at the end of the movie any les shocking, I assure you (more on that later.) The film opens with a man and his two children being involved in a tragic boating accident. Even here, where in any other movie you’re supposed to be shocked and appalled at what just happened, the awful screaming of a bikini-clad woman intercut with images of disgusted onlookers is hilarious because of the looks on their faces. They seriously look like they were told to “Look horrified, but in a very overdramatic way, and like you want to laugh.” The movie goes on from there to introduce us to the two main protagonists, The surviving daughter of the man from the first scene now living with her cousin and aunt. The kids are going to summer camp, and well, they do, obviously. After that, it’s all the usual stuff you’ve seen in summer camp movies before: Hijinks by the kids, the atypical snobby girls who have an strange hatred right away for the main girl, her cousin protecting her. And the horror stuff is exactly what you’d expect, too. It’s all very cliche, but in an okay way. The humor definitely helps it along. And there is a lot of humor to be found in this movie. That is, until the very end. Things take a serious turn, and although while watching it the mood shift took some time to register with me, it’s very much there. And the final scene, when the killer is found standing over a dead body on the beach, is one that will haunt me in my nightmares for years to come. Not because of what someone would expect from what is seen in the moment – the explicitness, but in the face of the killer. It’s very creepy, and very cool when I try to think of how they pulled off such an effect when there was little to no CGI back then.

There are three sequels as of this writing to Sleepaway Camp. Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3 were released in 1988 and 1989 and featured the return of the killer from the first movie. The second film I found to be almost as funny as the first and was laughing throughout, even the ending. The third movie can pretty much be forgotten. It has a few funny moments, but mostly, the acting was just plain bleh and it really felt like they barely even tried. The fourth film, titled Return to Sleepaway Camp, was released just last year and features a couple of members from the first movie returning to their roles. It was a nice addition, and a pleasant surprise to say the least that the actors would come back for characters that they had help bring to life over 20 years ago. I felt the movie was decent enough, but it was slightly boring and I paid practically no attention to it – until the end. Again, you see it coming, and it’s pretty awesome when you see it, even if it is corny and overdone. Then again, that was the point, so it’s just right for the movie.

Overall, while not exactly a classic series such as A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th, the Sleepaway Camp series deserves to be seen once. The first film was a doozy, and is assured in my own personal Horror Movie Hall of Fame. I hope it will rest comfortably in yours too. Thanks for reading and I hope you get the chance to catch these films sometime. If you’re a horror fan, and especially and old-school 80’s one,  you’ll be glad you did.