Sleepaway Camp

If there's a slasher flick that came out during the slasher fever that took place in the 80s, that succeeded in not becoming another carbon copy of "Friday the 13th", that would be "Sleepaway Camp". The movie offers all the elements featured in the average slasher formula... and then some. We have the campsite, the oblivious adults, the group of stereotyped kids, the mysterious killer lurking around the place, an opening flashback showing a horrible tragedy and a lot of dead bodies piling up.

In "Sleepaway Camp", the story begins with a family that is struck by a horrible accident, in which the father and one of the children die. Little Angela, the sole survivor of the gruesome event, is sent to live with her bizarre aunt Martha and her...

Adolescents at a summer camp in upstate New York with a killer on the loose

On the surface Sleepaway Camp (1983) is a clone of the first two Friday the 13th movies (1980/1981) mixed with elements of Meatballs (1979), but with more edge. Like the first Friday the 13th, the killer is a mystery until the end. Like Meatballs, the youths at the camp are adolescents, including pubescents. Kids of this ilk didnt manifest in the Friday the 13th franchise until Part VI (1986) and, even then, they werent the focus.

Unfortunately, the production values are subpar compared to the above films. If you take out the cussing and slayings, this is of the TV movie variety; and Im being nice. Theres also some overt camp (no pun intended), like Rick...

USA | November 18th, 1983 | ½

Sleepaway Camp is an American independent horror movie from filmmaker, Robert Hiltzik. Who wrote, directed, and produced the film. It introduces a very young Felissa Rose as Angela Baker. Alongside local actors Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, and Christopher Collet. We even have a rare appearance from Robert Earl Jones, brother to James Earl Jones. And this movie marked the final film role for Mike Kellin as he would die of lung cancer in August of 83. It was released to US theaters on November 18th, 1983 and became a surprise hit.

Angela Baker and her cousin Ricky attend summer camp at Camp Arawak. Ricky had been coming for a while, but this was Angela's first time. Needless to say, it doesn't go very w...