The year is 1980 and a little movie you may have not heard of was released. That film became a smash hit making 39 million off its 550,000 dollar budget leading to multiple sequels. This franchise has gone on to etch itself into the history of horror. If you were to ask anyone their favourite horror villain or horror franchise, they would probably say this one among a few more. That film is Friday the 13th and that villain is Jason. That’s not what we are going to be talking about. We are going to be instead talking about its trans cousin franchise Sleepaway Camp.
Sleepaway Camp is one of the many films that spawned out of the boom that occurred in the 80s that centred around camp movies. There was a fascination with films that took place at summer camps that popped up during this time. Something about seeing teens or adults cut loose at a summer camp was enthralling to the general audience. This subgenre found itself the most replicated in the horror genre. Friday The 13th is the one that started it all and it’s probably the most recognizable of all the attempts made. Others that came out at this time were The Burning with a very young Jason Alexander, Madman and of course the subject of this episode Sleepaway Camp. Sleepaway Camp was the last one out of those listed to be released and it’s probably the most experimental and different of the bunch. There were two types of slashers that have graced the Horror genre, those being the villain centred ones and the whodunnits. Some franchises chose to focus on a main slasher that was stalking the characters like Friday The 13th while others chose a Whodunnit approach where the audience spent the whole runtime guessing who the killer was like Scream. Sleepaway Camp as a franchise was able to do both. The first Sleepaway Camp took the whodunnit approach along with the straight to dvd sequel Return to Sleepaway Camp while Sleepaway Camp 2&3 anchored the film on a central recognizable villain. I didn’t mention Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor for a very specific reason, that being that it doesn’t fit in either. I’ll get into further detail when I cover that film down the road. Sleepaway Camp has a strange reputation as many don’t really remember anything other than the twist ending present in the first film and how that affected the narrative for the franchise moving forward.
Sleepaway Camp follows a girl named Angela and her cousin Ricky as they visit a camp during the summer that was connected to a fatal accident years previous. It is shown that Angela, the main girl in question’s father and brother were accidentally killed by some teens who were being irresponsible on a motorboat. Now that they are old enough to attend and there’s enough distance from the event, Angela’s aunt sends the pair to the camp for a hopefully eventful summer. We follow as a string of murders are committed leading to the individuals at the camp trying to pin down who the murderer is. We see as everyone from a pervy chef to a group of smaller campers are murdered one by one. The supporting cast of characters are not very remarkable as they follow a template put in place by other films of the genre. You have the promiscuous girl, in this case her name is Judy. Her big connection to the plot is that she use to date Ricky before she got too “cool for him”. She also wears a shirt with her name on it for a big chunk of the runtime which is somehow iconic. She probably says the most iconic line of the whole film, that being “She's a real carpenter's dream: flat as a board and needs a screw!” We also have the owner of the camp Mel, who gives probably one of the most overacted performances i’ve seen in an 80s slasher film. We also follow many camp counsellors and staffers as they navigate the week at camp as these mysterious murders occur. One of the more notable staffers being a chef who replaces the pervy one once he is killed off. This chef so happens to be played by James Earl Jones’ dad Robert. We also get a side plot of a counsellor who seems to have a thing with Mel, her name is Meg and her death is quite an interesting one.
The film is pretty unremarkable when it comes to the story. You can tell that the film only put certain scenes in because they had to pad out the time for a theatrical run. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but they didn’t really need to fade in and out of a baseball game three times. The remarkable elements of the film are the kills, the overacting, and the twist. This film is played so seriously and it almost adds a layer of ridiculous joy seeing these people trying to bring a serious tone to this ridiculous and campy film. The sequels dropped the serious dementor and it more in their favour. The best kill in this film is either the arrow kill or the curling iron kill based upon how wild they are even though the film is trying to play it serious. The film tries to be menacing and scary with the kills but they don’t really come off that way as many of them have me laughing instead of being overwhelmed by fear. I’ve been dancing around the twist for a while but it seems like a good time to bring it up.
If you were to ask anyone about this film, they would either tell you about how they remember seeing the cover at video stores and never saw it or they will immediately go directly to the twist. The twist in this film is that Angela is actually her brother who died in the boating accident. Angela was the one who actually died but the crazy aunt didn’t want another boy so she forced the kid to become Angela. The reason she killed the people in the camp is because their promiscuous nature triggered something inside her causing her to snap, at least that’s my read on it. There’s many scenes where it’s brought into focus visually or through the script that Angela is feeling uncomfortable in her body as they bring up her showering by herself or when the boys try to make advances on her, she is clearly conflicted. There has been a debate in the Trans community on whether this film is good representation or bad representation. I feel like as a trans woman that I don’t have an issue with this film or the franchise as in the future films, specifically 2&3 which I might actually prefer more than this one, we’ll see when i rank them, they develop the character much more and make it more than just a scary teen slasher girl who is physically a boy. The layers in the sequels are what causes me to see this franchise and in a good light. I totally understand other trans individuals who see the twist as a gotcha shock moment that may have done more harm than good socially, but looking at it at this point in time, I feel the franchise isn’t inherently transphobic, it just depends on how you read the film. I see it as a positive thing, as this character, more specifically her in the second and third film was super important to me. She was a fully fleshed out character that wasn’t just pushed to the side or used as an example. Yes she’s the villain, but she’s much more complex than some would give her credit for.
I first saw this film on Joe Bob’s The Last Drive In, which in itself was a super memorable and iconic marathon and I immediately liked it. When he played it, I didn’t even know what it was. I had heard of the film and saw the poster, but I wasn’t fully sure what I was getting into. After watching Tourist Trap for the first time before it, which was his first film on the marathon and one that has quite a slower pace when it’s compared to Sleepaway Camp, it got the energy flowing for the rest of the marathon. Since that first viewing, i’ve checked out the sequels and rewatched the franchise multiple times solidifying it as one of my favourite horror franchise, that’s if you only count the first three. This has become one of those films that I recommend to people who are looking for a good campy 80s horror film. In the department of recommendation, I would recommend this film to anyone. This film gets a dismembered thumb up. While it’s not the best film in the franchise in my opinion, it started something that now in retrospect is more important to the horror genre than many might have realized during its initial release.
The Rating
