The year is 1983 and Sleepaway Camp was a surprise success. The film made 11 million off a 350,000 dollar budget. Seeing that the film did well, the studio signed off on doing another film. It was the era of the video store, so if the film didn’t do the greatest, they could make the money back and then some on rentals if they made some appealing box art that would catch the attention of those perusing the horror section. The film didn’t start shooting until 1987, but once they began, they went quick. The film took about three weeks to shoot and the film wrapped production on October 9th 1987. In terms of production, this one has an interesting story associated with it that ties to the franchise as a whole. The producer was having so much fun shooting this film that he decided to shoot another film right after it at the same set.
In terms of Sleepaway Camp 2, it’s a very different film from the original as the first one was trying to play it serious and the sequel decided to have fun with it. Sleepaway Camp 2 to put it simply is a satire on 80s slasher film and 80s teen comedies released way before its time. This film came out years before Scream, so the audience wasn’t ready for a film that was so meta and obvious with its humour and critiques on the genres. The first one was a straight forward slasher film with a wild twist and the sequel decided to play around with the formula and poke fun at it. For this reason and many others, I would consider Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers better than Sleepaway Camp and possibly the best one in the whole franchise.
Sleepaway Camp 2 follows Angela five years after the events of Sleepaway Camp where she’s found a way to come back to the camp which is under a new name and new management. This time she isn’t a camper but instead a counsellor. It’s established right away with the opening kill that she is killing kids who she sees as breaking the rules or acting irresponsibly. She’s also the “hard ass” counsellor to many of the campers. She is all about the rules which makes her a favourite for the owner, but an enemy to the campers. The film follows Angela as she kills all the campers that she sees as bad while she idolizes the one girl that she sees as pure, that girl being Molly played by Renee Estevez who is actually Emilio Esevez’s sister. She’s one of the two famous sisters who appears in this film. The bigger one is Pamela Springsteen who is Bruce Springsteen’s sister as Angela who many see as giving a bad performance in this one and the third film but I quite like her performance. The film has Angela killing campers until Molly escapes her. The film ends surprisingly with Angela winning as she kills Molly after pretending to be a truck driver. The line in that scene is killer and Pamela’s reading of it is perfect.
The film isn’t overly remarkable or groundbreaking when it comes to the central plot or the structure, but it’s much smarter in the things that are subtextual. This film knows exactly what it is and it makes fun of it constantly. One scene has kids dressed up as Freddy and Jason who are killed by Angela in a Leatherface mask. It sees the state of the horror genre at that time and chooses to call out some the formula while also going wild with it. Most of the kills in the original were off screen and implied, but this film takes it to another level and almost revels in the pure insanity and unhinged nature of the kills. The wildest of these kills is one where a camper drowns in an outhouse toilet. Angela continuously pushes the kid into the piss and shit until they eventually die. Another kill has Angela cooking two stoners on a grill. The Best kill in this movie is either the outhouse kill, the BBQ kill or the one where Angela drills a girl in her car based upon how wild they are.
The film does something that I don’t think i’ve ever seen another horror film of this calibre do ever. The film made fun of the wild extremes that the genre had found itself in at that moment in time in terms of the gratuitous kills and nudity but it also makes fun of the good image that media was trying to attach itself too at that moment as well. It takes on the extreme censorship and conservative nature of the time period while also taking on the extreme nature of the genre. This is further confirmed by how the third film was treated by the MPAA, i’ll get to that one soon.
The film is very counter culture as it was calling out the super conservative mindset at that time in history with the violence, but I would also argue that Angela’s presence also does that. They doubled down on Angela’s trans identity in this one and made fun of the “purity narrative” that was becoming more present in horror films at that time. As Randy Meeks would say “The Rules of Surviving a Horror Film”. (Clip) The film makes fun of how serious America has got at that point about “Protecting the youth”. Horror has alway been the “villain” to many when it comes to maintaining a purity for the youth. Ask many fans and they would state that those who judge the genre haven’t really seen a horror film and make a judgement about them without knowing. The film also came out during the Satanic Panic era where many believed that everything was out to hurt the children and make them into satanists. This concept also ties into the idea of Angela’s identity quite a bit.
The idea of any sexual deviance from the norm being set out by conservative beliefs was seen as pure evil. The fact that this film doubles down on Angela’s trans identity and has the kids she’s killing emulate the negativity that conservatives were placing on their kids was pure genius in my opinion. One kid during the opening scene is complaining that his parents tax money went to this mysterious “Angela’s” sex change. These kids are emulating and repeating what they see in their parents and Angela spends the runtime of the movie “dealing with their problematic behavior”. The use of certain homophobic language in this film I also feel is purely on purpose as the ones using it are the ones that Angela kills. Angela is a beacon for the writer to call out the uptight nature of America at the time while showcasing in other ways how the witch-hunt on media at the time and the way that it “influences” the youth was blown out of proportion. There’s something empowering about a trans woman killing a myriad of problematic individuals.
In terms of the representation of Trans individuals, I feel like this one does a better job with it. The way that the original represented trans people was definitely debatable and based upon the person’s views on the matter, but this one is very upfront about how they feel. The film is all from the perspective of Angela as she is the lead of the film. Most of the other horror slasher franchises has the point of view coming from one of the individuals being stalked and killed, but Sleepaway Camp puts the perspective completely on the killer, mostly in the second and third film. That’s not on accident as I feel the writer sees Angela as the protagonist and the kids as the “antagonists” of the project. The kids are just inserts for the negative politics and opinions that were hurting many marginalized communities at the time. This film pinpoints on the LGBTQ community, but more specifically the Trans community, but I feel that her fury is representative of anyone who was marginalized getting their revenge of sorts. This change in execution was probably because of the fact that the writer and director were completely different than the original. MIchael A Simpson stepped in as the director and Michael Hitchcock wrote the script under the pseudonym Fritz Gordon. Their inclusion feels like it shook up the perspective of the franchise and breathed new life into it. Their inclusion brought more depth and nuance to the franchise in my opinion and one of those areas was the representation of Angela. I feel like as a trans woman that maybe the first one’s representation was debatable but this one’s is much more in your face in favour of trans individuals.
I saw this film because I liked the original and wanted to dive into the franchise more. I have probably seen this one the most out of the whole franchise. This has also become one of those films that I recommend to people who are looking for a good campy 80s horror film. This one I would even recommend more than the original. I love this one and I would probably consider it as one of my favourite horror films, specifically in this time period. This film gets a dismembered thumb up. When people are discussing Trans representation in horror, I never see this one come up which is a shame because I would consider this good representation as Angela’s a three dimensional character and this film along with three delves into social commentary in favour of trans individuals. I would love to see this one discussed more because it sure as hell deserves it.
The Rating
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