Sleepaway Camp (also marketed on VHS as Nightmare Vacation) is a 1983 American slasher film written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, who also served as executive producer. The film tells the story of a young girl and her cousin who are sent to a summer camp, where a group of killings begins shortly after their arrival.
Released at a time when slasher films were in their heyday, the film is infamously known for its twist ending, which is considered by some to be one of the most shocking endings among horror films. Sleepaway Camp is also notable as the last film of Tony-nominee Mike Kellin. The film has since become a cult film.
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Plot
In 1975, John Baker and his boyfriend Lenny, take John's children Angela and Peter on a boating trip. While on a sailboat in the lake near Camp Arawak, the children prank their father by capsizing the boat. They attempt to swim ashore where Lenny is waiting for them. However, they swim into the path of a reckless motorboat driven by one of the camp's counsellors, resulting with John and Peter being struck and killed.
Eight years later in 1983, Angela, still traumatized by the accident, has been living with her eccentric aunt, Dr. Martha Thomas, and her cousin Ricky. Angela is sent to Camp Arawak for the first time, along with Ricky, who has attended the camp previously.
Due to her introverted nature, Angela is bullied, mostly by her bunkmate Judy and their counselor Meg. However, Angela's other counselor Susie, and the camp's head counselor Ronnie, are sympathetic to her situation and do what they can to help her feel at home.
Early on, the head cook Artie, attempts to molest Angela. Later, an unseen figure causes Artie to get severely scalded by the water he is boiling. Artie's incident is deemed accidental by camp owner Mel Costic.
At a social, campers Kenny and Mike mock Angela, prompting Ricky and his friend Paul to get into a fight with them. Afterwards, Paul befriends Angela. Later that night, Kenny is drowned, his death also ruled accidental by Mel.
Paul soon asks Angela to attend a movie with him. Later, campers Billy and Jimmy throw water balloons at Angela, and Billy is soon killed next, stung to death when he is trapped in a bathroom stall with a beehive. Mel starts thinking there is a killer in the camp.
The relationship between Angela and Paul grows strained when Paul kisses her, causing her to have a flashback to her youth when she and her brother witnessed their father in bed with Lenny. Angela recoils from Paul and runs away.
During a game of Capture the Flag, Paul is seduced by Judy, and the two are found kissing by Angela. Guilty, Paul later attempts to explain himself to Angela at the lake, but is shooed away by Judy and Meg, who throw Angela into the water. After being rescued by Ricky, Angela then has sand flung at her by small children. She is comforted by Ricky, who swears revenge on her aggressors.
That night, Meg is killed in the shower while getting ready to meet with Mel. At the camp social, Paul apologizes to Angela again and she tells him to meet her at the water later on. Meanwhile, Mel finds Meg's body and is convinced that Ricky is the killer, since Ricky had threatened most of the people killed so far, for bullying Angela.
At the same time, the six children who threw sand at Angela, are camping in the woods with their counselor Eddie, when two of them ask him to take them back to the camp. He returns to find the four children hacked to death with his hatchet. Back at the camp, Judy is killed by being raped with a hot curling iron. The camp is thrown into a panic with all the deaths. Thinking Ricky is the killer, Mel beats him mercilessly, only to be shot in the throat with an arrow by the real killer.
Police are called and begin searching with the counselors for the missing campers. Paul is at the beach with Angela, who suggests they go skinny dipping. The policeman discovers Ricky unconscious, but alive.
Ronnie and Susie find a naked Angela humming and caressing Paul's head. They are shocked when Angela jumps up holding a hunting knife, dropping Paul's severed head, and they discover that not only is she the killer, but that "Angela" is actually Peter, her thought-to-be-dead brother. It is revealed that the real Angela died in the accident and Peter survived. After Martha gained custody of him, she decided to raise Peter as the girl she always wanted, already having a son.
The film abruptly ends with the nude and blood-covered "Angela" (with male genitalia in full view) standing before the shocked Susie and Ronnie, while letting out an animalistic hissing sound. The last line is spoken by Ronnie: "How can it be? My God, she's a boy!"
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Cast
Reception
On release, the film was called a rip-off of Friday the 13th. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 83% based on 17 reviews.
Bloody Disgusting gave the film a positive review, praising Felissa Rose's performance and the film's twist ending calling it "one of the most shocking seen since, possibly, Hitchcock's Psycho". AllMovie wrote in its review on the film, "While most of the gender-bending story's sexual confusion is ultimately half-baked", "Sleepaway Camp is distinctive enough to warrant required viewing for genre enthusiasts." Over the years, the film has gained a cult following from fans of the slasher genre.
Sequels
In the late 1980s, Michael A. Simpson directed two sequels, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). In them, Angela (now played by Bruce Springsteen's younger sister, Pamela Springsteen) resurfaces at a nearby summer camp, but this time masquerading as a counselor after a sex reassignment surgery. Much like at the previous camp, she gleefully tortures and kills anyone who misbehaves or annoys her. These films had more of a comic tone than the original.
Another rogue sequel, Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, directed by Jim Markovic, was partially filmed in the early 1990s but never completed. In 2002 the unfinished footage was released and made available as an exclusive fourth disc in Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment's Sleepaway Camp DVD boxed set. In 2012 the film was completed and released on DVD and Amazon Video on Demand.
A new film, Return to Sleepaway Camp, was completed in 2003 and initially struggled to complete visual effects. It was directed by Robert Hiltzik, the director of the original 1983 film. He decided that this chapter will ignore the story lines of the previous sequels, stating that he wanted to pick up from where the original film ended. According to Fangoria.com the digital effects were redone from 2006 to 2008. The film found distribution, and was released November 4, 2008, by Magnolia/Magnet Pictures. Review copies of the film had been sent out, and the movie's screener had already been leaked prior to the release, ruining the surprise ending.
The purportedly final film in Hiltzik's Sleepaway Camp trilogy, titled Sleepaway Camp Reunion, was also announced to be in the works. Distribution had been arranged via Magnolia Pictures. Creator Robert Hiltzik stated that he would make the film if his budget was met. However, Hiltzik and "Return To Sleepaway Camp" producer Jeff Hayes have since started working on a reboot/remake that would retain the key characters and elements of the original film with additional storyline elements and a dose of modernizing. As of Summer 2014, Hiltzik was reportedly tweaking the script. Although he had no rights to the film series, Michael Simpson, the director of Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, wrote a script for his series of Sleepaway Camp movies as well, titled Sleepaway Camp: Berserk.
Reboot
Series creator Robert Hiltzik now owns the rights to the Sleepaway Camp franchise, which, as of 2013, is to be rebooted.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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