The Sleepaway Camp series (1983-2008)

Taglines: …you won’t be coming home! / Kids can be so mean / blah blah blah.

Curiosity: I like slasher movies. Plus, the ending to the original is kind of notorious.

Plots: Friday the 13th rip-offs across the board – horny kids at summer camp get gutted.

Thoughts: The Sleepaway Camp series goes through enough different phases over the course of its four films (five if you count the unfinished Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor… or next year’s Sleepaway Camp Reunion, I guess). The original is the clearest carbon copy of the original Friday the 13th, in that it’s a whodunit filled with point of view shots of the killer committing acts of murder most foul. It’s not particularly well-made, but it boasts one of my all-time favorite twist endings. It’s kind of hard to write about the series as a whole because of this, so forgive me if this post is a little vague with details.

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers goes a more straightforward route than its predecessor. Viewers always know the killer’s identity (It’s Pamela Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen’s sister), but in exchange they get better kill set-ups, however cheap-looking they are at times, plus boobs. A lot of boobs. Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland followed a year later, and it sucks. Springsteen runs a girl over with a truck and steals her identity in the whiz-bang opening scene, but the film quickly degrades into unimaginative kills and poor plotting. As cheesy as Unhappy Campers gets at times, it still has a thread of logic that runs throughout. Springsteen only kills people she thinks are morally corrupted (or on to her secret), and she actually makes attempts to cover up the murders. Plus, there’s some really weird tidbits thrown in. Teenage Wasteland, meanwhile, has her killing indiscriminately, and a majority of the kills consist of simple beatdowns. The lamest murder weapon is a gun, which is better suited for action films. Slashers are defined by their kill scenes; a gun has to be the laziest device that isn’t a cliché (Excluding Maniac, of course).

Return to Sleepaway Camp, released 25 years after Sleepaway Camp and helmed by original writer/director Robert Hiltzik, is oddly enough the strongest entry in the series. It reprises the killer POV style (and primary cast) from the original to better effect, with copious amounts of oddball humor thrown in by lead Michael Gibney. Plus, there’s another great twist ending. Even though Hiltzik is bent on creating his own trilogy and ignoring II and III, I’d argue that Unhappy Campers is worth including. It’s not a murder mystery, but it still offers plenty of kills ‘n’ boobs.

That being said, I worked my way backwards with these films – Return to Sleepaway Camp is the first movie I saw, and it functions well on its own (although, again, I was aware of the original’s ending). It helps to have an awareness of the original’s plot, but it’s not necessary. If anything, it’s better to go in completely blind – it makes the twist ending feel more random. It’s also the only one I’d say is funny and good. The rest of the series is funny and bad.

Reflection: These movies made me appreciate my summers at Camp Delmont a lot more. So, uh… thanks dad.

Also, anyone else notice how Isaac Hayes, who died during filming, pretty much disappears from Return to Sleepaway Camp halfway through without an explanation?