Skip to main content

Sleepaway Camp (1983) - Robert Hiltzik



Really good horror movies need to leave an impression on you. Sleepaway Camp is definitely the type of movie that leaves it's mark. While being infamous for it's graphic ending. It's also a quintessential eighties horror film that captures the time in the style and fashion. It encompasses that summer camp style that was really popular during this time. It actually captures the camp feeling a whole lot better than most Friday the 13th films. 

Angela Baker and her cousin Ricky attend Summer Camp. Ricky had been coming for a while, but this was Angela's first time. Needless to say, the adjustment doesn't go very well. The camp is full of creeps, assholes and jerkbags. And someone is running around trying to kill them all! This really doesn't help things for Angela. 

This movie isn't afraid to go places that other movies don't. It explores all sorts of themes from gender bending to child molestation, while simultaneously being an entertaining summer camp comedy. The characters are all exaggerations with strokes of realism. The dialogue can be hokey at some points but really realistic at others. The fighting and bickering between campers is really great. It makes for an entertaining feature. 

This is a great slasher flick. Some of the characters that bite it really deserve it. The cook has my favorite incident. He's a real piece of shit that gets his comeuppance really well. The ending is the kind of finale that you never forget. Believe that. 

Sleepaway Camp isn't going to be for everyone. It's highly offensive to just about any yuppie or parent. However, it has a lot of great qualities that make it memorable. It's a great movie for more adult themed Halloween parties and isn't really for the youngins. If you liked this movie then I would suggest Wet Hot American Summer and Friday the 13th. Both are classics from two different genres. Both fit around this movie perfectly. 

Director: Robert Hiltzik
Producer: Jerry Silva and Michele Tatosian
Writer: Robert Hiltzik
Starring Mike Kellin, Katherine Kamhi, Paul DeAngelo, Jonathan Tiersten and Felissa Rose
Studio: American Eagle Films
Release Date: November 18, 1983
Country: United States
Did ya know: Jane Krakowski was originally cast to play Judy.











Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Human Monster (1939) - Walter Summers

Bela Lugosi turns in a fantastic performance. It is right on par with the exact same films that had made him famous like Dracula . My personal favorite being The Black Cat . Like the latter, this film suffered from poor circulation and lack of advertisement. Either that or the public wasn't interested in seeing Lugosi in anything else other than his famous bloodsucker. This film has a broad and well acted plot that was rich with detail.  Lugosi has two sides in this picture. His well loved and compassionate side. The other is a strict, brutal lone shark that acts as a sinister villain to blind and handicapped people. He really brutalizes his victims. It's a macabre message to pay your bills.  The film is slow moving and plagued by the usual setbacks from its time. Most of the nation wasn't really that concerned with horror at the time. But studios knew that they would always have an audience. This film is a prime example of that. It's sad because it's 

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t

Inseminoid (1981) - Norman J. Warren

What can be said for mindless schlock pictures like this one. They were pumped out in droves during the eighties. Inseminoid !? give me a break! It sounds like some pre-pubescent teenage boys came up with the title. On the plus side the movie isn't horrible to look at and it has a decent amount of gore. If you can separate yourself from the political incorrectness, then you might have a perfectly decent Sci-Fi Monster Feature.  A research team exploring caves on Jupiter accidentally awakens an ancient alien that rapes and impregnates one of the team members. She suffers from terrible shock and trauma, leading to a complete mental breakdown as her pregnancy accelerates faster and faster. Feeling threatened she decides to kill anyone she deems a threat. Can the rest of the research team survive or will they all become victims of INSEMINOID! Apparently this movie had a million dollar budget. That's really shocking considering the outcome of the picture. The acting