Directed & written by: Robert Hiltzik
Starring: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Christopher Collet, Mike Kellin,Katherine Kamhi
Music by: Edward Bilous
Taglines: “…you won’t be coming home!”
“A nice place for summer vacation – a perfect place to die!”
“A Perfect Place to meet young girls, might just be the perfect place to die!”
STORY
A father and his two young children (one boy, one girl) are enjoying their holiday on a lake near a summer camp when their boat capsizes. Unfortunately, one of the camp councillors is showing off to his girlfriend at the time and their boat crashes into the family, killing two of them and placing the youngest in hospital.
Several years later the survivor of the tragedy, Angela, is sent by her aunt to summer camp with her cousin. Very shy and quiet, Angela is quickly bullied by a number of people in the camp, but those who offend her seem to have a way of getting horribly murdered soon afterwards.
OPINION
Sleepaway Camp is a strange little film. For the most part it’s a straightforward low-budget teen slasher movie, one of many that followed in the wake of Friday The 13th. It stands out to some degree by the relative youth of its cast (Felissa Rose was apparently only 14 at the time), and the fairly well-drawn character dynamics between the kids in the camp. It also has a strange way of veering between camp and surreal character moments (the aunt especially seems strange, while the blatantly pedophilic camp cook is literally begging for a gruesome death) and nasty death scenes (the aforementioned cook’s death by scalding).
However, none of this is why the film has attracted not only a large cult following, but also (to date) 4 sequels. (Spoiler alert for the rest of this paragraph). No, the reason it’s become such a big success is the bizarre out-of-left-field twist ending where it’s revealed that “Angela” is actually Peter, her brother. You see, the aunt already had a son so decided to raise Peter as a girl. Combined with having caught his father having a gay affair shortly before the day of his death, this understandably left him with a lot of personal issues…
Without this twist, Sleepaway Camp would probably have joined many other teen slashers that made their money and quietly disappeared. With it, it’s an interesting movie that almost begs to be re-watched a second time as it makes Angela’s reactions to her situation seem very different.
For me, Sleepaway Camp is OK. I found it extremely boring the first time I watched it, but much better the second time around. I personally prefer the cheesier first two sequels starring Pamela Springsteen (Bruce’s sister!) as Angela. Expect reviews of those in the near future.
Rating: 
TRAILER
CENSORSHIP
The original UK VHS release was cut by 57 seconds to obtain an 18 certificate under the title “Nightmare Vacation”. The current UK DVD release is under the original title and is rated 15 with no further cuts required by the BBFC. However, the print does appear to have been pre-cut by Anchor Bay prior to submission for the US release. These scenes are included as a deleted scenes extra. Full details listed here. Some releases outside the US and UK that were not distributed by Anchor Bay may be uncut.
[...] embarrassing, but here goes. … not allowed. 2 Responses to Sleepaway Camp Matt says: November …Sleepaway Camp (1983) (a.k.a. Nightmare Vacation) 80s FearVery shy and quiet, Angela is quickly bullied by a number of people in the camp, but those who [...]