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Sleepaway
Camp
(1983) |
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Ultra cheap stalker-slasher-whodunnit with a totally deranged plotline about as warped as they come. In this PC day and age, it is most unlikely that this movie featuring serial killing, sexually twisted children would be permitted for general public viewing. Not only that, but there is a scene of a child being thrashed to a pulp by an oldie…..also scenes where two tots are witness to homosexual bed room frolics as Daddy's wife is a rather unattractive balding middle aged man.
In the opening scene Daddy is horribly mangled to death in a boating accident and the action moves to eight years hence. The two tiny kids have grown up into a typically boisterious bratty lad of about 13 and a moronic, mute 12 year old in the form of Angela, the kid cousin. The boys mother, the mysterious "Aunt Martha" looks distinctly mannish and familiar. The kids are booted off to Camp Arawak where the usual collection of retarded, pimpled kids are assembled for the usual summer camp inanities and bonding sessions. If the kids appear mentally challenged, wait till you see the camp instructors who are beyond help. There is the leering cook with his eye on "fresh chicken", there is the dim witted, bright eyed janitor, the crony in charge of the camp who has his eyes on the curvaceous counselors and of course the athletics coaches who are truly specimens to behold. Mutated morons with bulging muscles and brains the size of nits and acting ability that has the ability to stupefy. The cast is kiddie strong and the main plot revolves around the mysterious Angela, her brat cousin with a golden heart, Angela's love interest and the sultry camp siren, Judy with a bosom to shame any 14 year old. Amidst the kiddie soap opera at Summer Camp the death toll slowly starts to mount up as one by one various cast members meet with the most horrendous, if totally outlandish deaths. The child-molesting cook gets a taste of his own medicine and ends up being cooked in his own broth. One has to wonder what exactly it was he was cooking in that vat considering the appalling effect it had on his own skin. The deaths are handled off camera, with the "shock" effect being created by the gross out factor. After the off screen death, the audience is invariably treated to a close up shot of the killed person in the most hideous mutilated form, with full make up effects designed to churn the stomach. The majority of the films budget appears to have been spent on the elaborate make up effects put together for the various gross out shocks liberally interspersed through the film. Events move along at a jolly jaunt until the plot thickens and the killer twist is finally revealed in one of modern horrors more memorable climax scenes. Angela retains a special position within the annals of modern horror for providing audiences with a character to relish for years to come. In fact, forget Angela, the entire film is crawling with weirdo's, sexual and otherwise. The movie somehow works and manages to entertain despite being simply horribly acted and amateurishly put together. There is a vitality and a sincerity to proceedings as well as an underlying sense of humour that clearly elevates this crumpled classic way above much of the horror trashy coming out in the 80's. Sleepaway Camp is very tongue in check and campy and with its twisted, off the wall plot and characters and ultimately emerges as a triumph of low budget z-grade horror with the ability to make one wince and cringe at the grisly make up effects and laugh out loud at the insane plotting and the horrendous acting of the performers. It emerges as a very minor 80's horror classic with a plot to cherish. Insane, horribly acted, deranged kiddie shocker has enough weird happenings to satisfy most jaded horror viewers and enough campy humour to set it aside from the myriad of masked stalker films that plagued the 80's…….it's a riot, and just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any stranger, along comes the end titles song by someone who calls himself Frankie Vinci (!). The sublime Angela's Theme (You're Just What I've Been Looking For is about as awful a song as you could wish to hear in an entire lifetime and it has been suitably sung by a person who appears to be in a considerable amount of pain. Sleepaway Camp, for enough good reasons, retains its place among z grade cult horror mini classics of the modern era. Not to be missed by serious purveyors of horror and schlock.
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