Review of Sleepaway Camp (1983) by John W — 18 Apr 2009

Okay. Reviewing this movie is... difficult because this movie is difficult to describe. One one hand, it's a god awful movie that would make even the sanest person push a screwdriver through their temple.

But on the other hand, it's no half bad. Sleepaway Camp's main problem is it's pacing. The movie manages to make 88 minutes seem like a long time. When I'm watching a movie, I should never want to look at the clock.

The film attempts to let mood and atmosphere speak for itself; but hey, we can't all be Ridley Scott, sometimes you just need to let the body count speak for itself. This movie, however, has a surprisingly low body count, I can only think of eleven people that get killed, and five of them are minor characters.

There is also very little blood, instead they used makeup, intensely effective makeup, but it feels like a bit of blood should have been thrown in the mix. Last but not least, and most surprising of all, no nudity what so ever.

In this film it's shaved down to making out and innuendo. I know, I was shocked too. Unfortunately this blend of factors lends itself to a rather boring film, at points it feels like an after school special on bullying, but someone's killing the bullies.

The makers should have thrown away some of the poorer attempts at story and mood and padded out the number of kids who leave in body bags. Parts of the film are downright bizarre. The mother of the children, who we're lead to believe at the end of the movie is a total psychotic freak, seems thrown in there as a strange, convenient plot device.

The ending is shocking and not at the same time. You will see the end coming, you just won't see all of it. Yeah... So, in the end, this movie succeeds in being a rather run of the mill slasher with touches of black humor throughout out.

Oh, and pat on the back to Felissa Rose for being able to make on the of the creepiest faces ever.