Sleepaway Camp (1983)
Directed by Robert Hiltzik
Years after a terrible boating accident, Angela is sent to Camp Arawak where a series of bizarre and violent "accidents" begin to claim the lives of various campers.
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What critics compared Sleepaway Camp to
That disparity is found in the fandom of many old school horror films—“Friday the 13th,” “Sleepaway Camp,” “The Burning,” and more—where people love the atmosphere, lustful set pieces, and elaborate kills, yet recognize that it’s not exactly “high art.”
In the style of the Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp movies, the studio wants Kris to revitalize the flailing franchise and fix the transphobic issues from the original 1980s movie.
Sleepaway Camp (whose trans killer has long since been reclaimed by many queer horror fans)…
…the added twist is the inclusion of 1983’s Sleepaway Camp, which ends with a transgressive twist that still somehow divides LGBTQ+ film critics, despite its obvious transphobia.
Schoenbrun salutes the greats, namely Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, with reverence.
…it also gives us the kind of imagery you know to expect from someone who grew up watching Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th and The Burning…
If “Fear Street Part 1: 1994” was a spiritual cousin to “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” then Leah Janiak’s lively sequel/follow-up “Fear Street Part Two: 1978” is in the same ballpark as “Friday The 13th” and “Sleepaway Camp.”
The follow-up to "Fear Street Part One: 1994" — a fun, frenzied "Scream" homage that introduced viewers to the cursed town of Shadyside and the teens who inhabit it — unfolds 16 years earlier, and is styled after "Friday the 13th" or "Sleepaway Camp," horror films set in the world of horny teens and hornier camp counselors holed up inside wooded cabins and mess halls at summer camp.
While there is a clear Friday the 13th inspiration, you could even say that this second film brings a bit of Sleepaway Camp to the table by casting a few younger-looking actors to make their ages more believable.
The aforementioned genre is, of course, used to populate — for better or worse — the 80s horror films seen in the likes of Friday the 13th (1980) and its subsequent sequels, The Burning (1981) and Sleepaway Camp (1983).
The sleepaway-slaughter hallmarks of the 1980s such as The Burning, Friday the 13th, Madman, Sleepaway Camp and Cheerleader Camp belonged to a disreputable, sleazy sub-genre that cannot be genuinely replicated by such mainstream studios as Fox (which produced Fear Street) and Netflix (which eventually bought the films).
All three “Fear Street” flicks were co-written and directed by Leigh Janiak, who has the difficult task of balancing the source material’s teenage sensibility with the rated-R trappings of “Friday the 13th,” “Sleepaway Camp,” and other slashers.
X (2022) is an homage to the early days of the modern slasher – Last House on the Left (1972), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and even Sleepaway Camp (1983), but with one crucial difference.
Early successes for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th inspired a barrage of films over the ’80s and early ’90s, including The Prowler, April Fool’s Day, and Sleepaway Camp, that ultimately culminated with the reimagining of the genre with 1996’s Scream.
A love letter to “Friday the 13th,” “Sleepaway Camp,” and obviously “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” but also the adult film industry, “X” has assembled an incredible ensemble ranging from the versatile Mia Goth to 2022’s glorfield MVP and newly anointed scream queen Jenna Ortega (she had a couple showdowns with our pal Ghostface earlier this year in the excellent “Scream” revival) to help keep the story gelling.
This was already tired stuff when cult fave Sleepaway Camp came out in 1983, and it’s downright comatose by now.
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While its mythology might be a bit more complicated than it really needs to be, Hereditary still manages to overcome a slight sense of convolutedness to deliver a mind-blowing wallop of an ending that’s on par with the likes of Carrie, Kill List, Possession, The Witch, or even Sleepaway Camp.
…like a less campy version of Sleepaway Camp’s Aunt Martha.
Forget about the fact that Wes Craven all but mocked the slasher genre into oblivion in 1996 with "Scream," Green and screenwriter Danny McBride (yes the comedic actor), have decided to go back to the good old nostalgic days, to when movies like "Candyman," "I Know What You Did Last Summer" "Sleepaway Camp," and "Prom Night" were castigated by critics but audiences couldn't get enough of them, until that same audience realized just how godawful those actual movies were.