Review of Sleepaway Camp (1983) by Andy R — 29 Jun 2009

Yes this is an 80s slasher that ripped off the classic (guess which one!), yes the horrendous dialogue and fashions are here and yes, you can't wait for most of the kids to die. But this one offers a little more for me than the norm.

First off, I loved the inclusion of Angela. She brought the movie a lot of down time and kept me ithe most interested. It's not often that you see this type of character in this type of movie. Felissa Rose did an amazing job.

The other factor being the relationships between the main characters. Ricky (Tiersten) and Paul (Collet) were also awesome to watch here and their interactions with Angela (and on her defence) kept me watching.

How often can I say I cared about the characters in an 80s slasher? Not very. The gore was serviceable enough here (too much after the fact for my taste though) and there's at least one scene that will stay with you for days.

Hiltsik does a lot of cool things with the camera and you can tell he was looking for something more here than your standard slasher. There was a couple of wrongs for me here, though. Fist off, the murders are very predictable and you'll know exactly what's going to happen, when it'll happen.

Some of the older characters here were annoying or unnecessary, tarnishing the storyline at times. I would've also appreciated more after the ending. I don't get what films were trying to pull back then when they just 'ended' like that but I'm glad that phase is over.

All in all, this is a swift, well directed, well acted little sleeper. I wouldn't really think of this one as a horror film. I think of it more as a drama that happens to have more murders than the norm.

If you can get that concept, you might like it.