Review of Sleepaway Camp

Deftly directed and laden with cartoonish characters performed with a seemingly intentional stilted weirdness, "Sleepaway Camp" is surprisingly distinguishable from its more blood-soaked contemporaries. Outlandishly comical due to the laughably contrasting era-specific acting styles within cliched yet incongruously heightened and dramatic juvenile situations delivered by the mostly adolescent cast whose hilariously campy dialogue is interspersed with varying methods of killing executed with decent practical effects, from knife, bee and curling tong attacks to drowning and scalding.

Despite its cult status, "Sleepaway Camp" is not meant to be taken seriously as a classic of the horror genre; a curio with a loose plot hinged on convolution and misdirection, the story takes a backseat to the gloriously atypical absurdity created by the oddball characters and their interactions. Every character behaves like a 1980s caricature rather than a stereotype, blending sexual confusion, teenage mayhem and crises with broad, overplayed strokes of obscenity and perversion, and it is these merits that set it apart from the litany of teen slashers released in its wake. It has its weaknesses, namely its dated elements and lack of topicality or context, but the twisted climax and disturbing flashbacks elevate it beyond standard slasher territory. Unpacking all of the hints and artfully concealed subversiveness is an enjoyable experience, and the strikingly epiphanous ending is decidedly trashy in its shock value, but adds a new dimension to the ambiguous relationships and indecipherable details established in the opening scene.

Not just your average "unseen killer on a vengeful rampage at a summer camp", the inapropos and (presumably) designedly bad performances, lack of film-making sophistication and outre psychosexual verve at the core of "Sleepaway Camp" pushes it past the bland, uninteresting measuring stick of "Friday the 13th", viewed as the better film when in fact it is far less creative and entertaining than this hidden gem.