Review
br> "She's a real carpenter's dream: flat as a board and needs a screw!" - JudyEight years ago Angela's family while playing on a lake got ripped apart by an errant motor boat of all things, hell yeah deaths involved, and she has been living with her cousin Ricky and her mad as a cut snake Aunt Martha ever since. In the present the kids are packed off to Camp Arawak for no apparent reason, which is simply weird as the lake the camp is built on is right next to the area where Angela lost her nearest and dearest to rampaging out of control chick speed boat drivers. Naturally things aren't going to work out well as Angela doesn't talk much, hates the water for obvious reasons, and doesn't want to eat the food or be involved in any of the camp activities. On the bright side she has her cousin Ricky to look after her and Rickey's mate Paul develops a crush on her.
So we have a camp full of sex crazed teens, absolute bitches out to manipulate those less fortunate than themselves due to insecurities or some shite, and of course the sort of casual victimisation one would expect from a truck load of kids in the deep dark woods. Someone isn't going to take it anymore and following a few nasty accidents the murders start in earnest. Naturally the dude running the asylum isn't going to "close the beach" due to a few slaughtered campers, so get ready for things to escalate as someone goes Jason. Let's pitch a tent to see what the festivities are like.
Welcome to the ScaryMs heading to summer camp as we spend an entire weekend rocking out to the Sleepaway Camp flicks. Surprisingly none of the team had actually caught up with this franchise previously so we divvied up, assigned movies to people, ripped into the popcorn, and got stuck into things. I get to throw down the first over, with support from Sal, and holy hell did this movie surprise the hell out of me. If you have never seen Sleepaway Camp before then you're in for one heck of an experience, I'm still working out if I actually enjoyed the movie or not, the 90 odd minutes ripped past pretty quickly so I guess at least I was entertained.
Right from the start of this flick, post prologue, you know you won't be getting strong acting, technical expertise, or anything approaching a professional crew making what you are going to be watching. Which I guess pretty much makes Sleepaway about what you would expect from a 1980s slasher flick, with no attempt being made to thrown anything onto the fire to liven things up beyond the standard expectations. The support cast are of the predominately wooden method school of acting, most of the kills are off screen, and the dialogue ranges from atrocious to simply bad. There's a certain art form to making a successful slasher in my opinion, and surprisingly Sleepaway has that covered, though no one is going to be expecting anything more from this one.
Sal: For mine the Aunt summed things up in the open monologue as Angela and Ricky are leaving for camp, over the top, completely insane, and almost in cringe worthy territory. I was immediately wondering just what the frack we had got ourselves into, though given the big unveil at the end I guess it makes some sort of insane sense in terms of spelling everything out. There's no attempt at being subtle anywhere in this flick, the audience are treated as brain dead morons by movie makers with nothing to offer out of the ordinary. Sad that they got to make this crap, even sadder people are talking it up.
A slasher that achieves the impossible, it makes F13th look like Oscar bait
People dial into slashers for the "gnarly deaths" and in my case to check out who is going to survive, discover all the bodies, and no doubt do some battling with the antagonist. For gorehounds the murders are pretty much all off screen, though on occasion you do see the aftermath, though this isn't a consistent approach. There are some interesting deaths, if for the moment I can drop to that low level, but if after Jason style slashing then you are in for a huge disappointment. In one memorable scene, did I just say that, a curling iron is the preferred weapon, though where exactly that got inserted is left to the audience to decide. Throughout the movie we know who our victims are going to be, Director Robert Hiltzik pretty much broadcasts the news, and hence we know who are going to survive. Once again forget the "final girl", another major slasher that doesn't support that particular feminist fiction. There's no final battle with the antagonist, but frack me that's some sort of final scene.
Sal: I got this whole Friday the 13th vibe going down, but then Sleepaway didn't deliver. Some of the kills are physically impossible, but since we're in slasher country that's pretty much to be expected I guess. I would also point out if you haven't worked out who the killer is within five minutes then you are probably reading the wrong site.
While the slasher elements are either mishandled or simply left in the dust of cinematic history there are some truly disturbing elements to Sleepaway that would have raised some venom today in the horror hating press. We're got paedophilia in the form of the head chef and his whole "baldies" schlock, a not so subtle homophobic sub-plot, and you have to say the normal misogyny you would expect from the sub-genre. Surprisingly there's no nudity for dudes to check out, but girls do get a group of males bare arsed charging around in one scene.
Sal: I think the major problem here is the movie makers simply had no idea of taboo lines and when you can cross them to make a statement. While the shock value of the final scene can't be denied, though not for the obvious plot twist, there are some really nasty ideas being thrown around that Robert Hiltzik is seemingly unaware of.
Guess we're talked about the bad acting, the ludicrous script, and the fact the movie makers have no idea of what they are doing, but surprisingly there are a couple of decent points to the movie. There are two relationships that are really working, Angela and Ricky, and of course young love in the form of Angela and Paul. Both relationships work and ring true, as opposed to Meg panting after Mel, a dude who is about the age of her grandfather!
Sal: I was really digging on the character of Ricky. The kid swears like a dock worker, goes the biff with anyone who pisses him off, and is out to protect his cousin regardless of personal cost. For mine the best fracking character in the movie Bro. They needed to jettison some other characters and give us more Ricky.
So I guess we have pretty much covered everything in this completely overrated flick except for the final disclosure that is why Sleepaway has any place in horror's pantheon. While I'm not about to give away spoilers as to what I guess must be the one aspect of the movie that is memorable, I still wanted to mention that the scene is shocking, as Sal has allude to. Someone simply standing there with a severed head letting rip with a primordial scream is pretty disturbing to be honest, and I'm going to say worth sitting through the movie to get to.
Sal: Not going to argue about the impact but have to say the final scene isn't worth sitting through the movie to catch.
Guess we're out of room here and it hasn't felt like a decent review to be honest. I had some anticipation for this flick due to the cult following but ended up wondering why exactly Sleepaway is put on a pedestal. We're talking poor acting, atrocious scripting, and production values that make Friday the 13th seem like Oscar material. People are across this flick due to the final scene, and if two minutes of film elevate something to classic for you then knock yourself out, but it wasn't enough to have me booking a cabin at Camp Arawak. No recommendation on this flick, it's truly a bad cinematic experience, though I guess there must strangely be some entertainment value.
Sal: Pleased I watch this one as it reinforces my opinion that horror will never get out of the ghetto due to the morons supposedly promoting it. If this movie is being held up as a good horror flick, then we're in all sorts of trouble. There are good "B" graders out there, this one strokes that idea without committing to taking it home.