I've heard great things about this series, mainly this first installment. Many a serious horror fan told me stuff about a "surprise ending that you'll never guess" and other reasons that this is definitely one of the most underrated pure horror movies of all time. No offense guys, but I think I'll stick to my own choices from now on and let YOU people stick with the crap! This movie was far from special! It lacks gore, a plausible story, and any sort of rational thought, while also losing out on any kind of "artistic" trippy stuff like you'd find in a Dave Lynch film. At least with ERASERHEAD you can down a few blotters and feel like you're in A NIGHTMARE ON LOLLIPOP LANE, but this movie doesn't even have that advantage! Okay, enough ranting or I'm gonna put my head through this screen ala TROMEO AND JULIET! Now, let me settle for a second and I'll give you a main idea of the movie......... Okay, here goes. The opening credits role over some dramatic footage of the vacant campgrounds of Camp Arawak, overlapped with one of those odd tracks of children playing. Then we witness some lanky goober with an overly hairy torso as he, his son, and his niece are all nailed in a freak speedboat accident on a lake. Meanwhile, everyone else looks on in shock and stupidity. FF>> "8 years later", where it seems that the kids have survived, but the hairy man is gone. The boy and girl then head off to summer camp, sent by Ricky (the boy)'s mother, who's Mary Tyler Moore on PCP. From here, the story basically follows our youths as they deal with the stress of camp life. More precisely it's about Angela (the girl), who has to put up with teasing from the popular girls and the bitch head counselor, all because she doesn't talk and she stares at people. Soon enough, people who give Ang trouble start winding up in a series of "accidents", including a fat pedophile cook who winds up boiled alive and forever scarred. Ang finds friendship in Rick's pal Paul, who's probably just trying to get a shot at Ang's cherry. Boy does he get surprised though, when Angela finally goes crazy. We learn that it was her, not Ricky who killed everyone, and, oh, one other small thing... she's a guy! A scrawny, hairy, limp dicked, guy. Where this came from is something of a mystery. From what I can piece together, Ang's father was a total pillow biter, and when he died, (s)he went to live with Ricky and his mom. The woman always wanted a little girl, so, in her obviously narcotic induced state, she decided to make Peter (Ang's real name) dress and act like a girl. Sure, it's not your average ending, I'll give you that, but it still sucked. I was expecting some odd revelation like, "Angela's a demon from another planet who's come to eat the brains of 13 year old boys" or "Angela's a C.H.U.D.", so yes, I didn't expect this ending... though I still don't like it. You wanna know what else about this flick sucked? First off, all the hairy male counselors in Daisy Duke shorts. Were I a politician (or at least a more powerful God), I would have such crap outlawed. Shave or wear a fucking shirt! Secondly, there's the problem I have when the angry old Italian owner, Mel, gets an arrow shot through his throat. Woulda been cool, but apparently Mel has a worm hole in his throat (for all you non-Star Trek fans out there, a worm hole is like a black hole that warps time when you go through it), because when the end of that arrow stopped penetrating his throat, the front didn't come out the back until a split second later! What horrid editing! Finally, we get another dose of "C.H.U.D. bikini", as we see through the magic of slow motion that Meg (the bitchy girls counselor), when she is killed in the shower, is clearly wearing a tube top! A black tube top even! They couldn't have used one that even REMOTELY matched her flesh?! What happened to the days where people actually took pride in their work?! I mean, I know I'm a fucking nit-picker, but if I were making a movie, I'd want it to be the best it could be, or I wouldn't want to make it at all. If that includes making women take off their clothes, and sticking arrows through people's throats, then so be it! Argh. This movie did herald at least 2 sequels that I can think of (look below for the technical shit), which I'm hoping were at least mildly better. On the lighter side though, some of the special FX for SLEEPAWAY CAMP were good, which is why I gave it one "star" instead of 1/2. Admittedly, the snake in the drowned boy's mouth was pretty cool, but I think that's only on special copies of the film.

Also Known As: Nightmare Vacation

Sequels: Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers; Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland

If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: Friday The 13th or April Fools' Day