Hoop-Tober #20

I tear up every time Angela speaks for the first time. I love this movie. For all the reasons I love my favorite slashers. I love that it's half summer camp movie. I love the camper melodrama. I love the baseball game and that kid's Asia shirt. As a former "quiet kid," I find myself empathizing with Angela as she's constantly harassed. If only I had a killer stare like that as a kid.

More stuff I love:

1. When characters hang out and do 'not plot stuff' like play baseball for a solid 5+ minutes. I don't why, but I find this vaguely rebellious. It makes me giddy.

2. Vague, deeply problematic, but potentially subversive and radical…

As a transwoman, I feel expected to be offended by this film by its reputation in the community. Fortunately, I am not bound by my sisters' tendency of rote dismissal towards bigoted art or especially imperfectly phrased art, as this merely is.

It's rather surprising to me this isn't more widely celebrated in trans circles. Of all the slashers I've seen, This is the only one I think I have actually rooted for death in. The film is so removed from any semblance of emotional reality that death doesn't mean the same thing as it would in a film with even a modicum of realism. The baddies are so cartoonishly irredeemable, picking on Angela just because she's an easy target.…

This review was written in 2011, I believe:

How many times is a rip-off able to surpass the thing it owes its' existence to? Only two films come to mind (Piranha is the other). Friday the 13th had great pieces but really didn't come together to be the best it could be (though it's still a personal favorite and always will be). Sleepaway Camp aims lower but nonetheless passes with Sleaze Honors. In the arena of so-bad-it's-good horror movies - bad acting, character stereotypes or costumes that garner a reputation of their own, expository lines of dialogue that inspire riotous laughter ("Meet me at the waterfront after the social" has become this movie's "Nilbog! It's Goblin spelled backwards!") - this…

So much wrong with this film. I wonder if there was subversion going on or if Robert Hiltzik was working through some personal issues while writing/directing this oddity. Sometimes, it seems John Waters influenced and other times, just awkward and unintentionally funny.

The Scream Factory Blu-ray has a great restoration.

Special features
• New 2K scan of the original camera negative
• New Commentary with actors Felissa Rose (“Angela”) and Jonathan Tiersten (“Ricky”)
• New Commentary with writer/director Robert Hiltzik, moderated by SleepawayCampMovies.com webmaster Jeff Hayes
• Original Audio Commentary with writer/director Robert Hiltzik and star Felissa Rose
• At the Waterfront After the Social: The Legacy of Sleepaway Camp – new interviews with Robert Hiltzik, Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten,…

I recently watched Final Exam and mentioned how very gay all of the subtext was, but damn I had forgotten about this camp slasher that is dripping with homoeroticismness, right? Not many horror movies feature guys wearing less clothing than girls, male nudity with no female nudity, and unambiguously gay characters that aren’t caricatures, but here we were in 1983 and Robert Hiltzik couldn’t give a f*ck about your genre expectations and I say well done to that.

The kills are also pretty fantastic and even though some are only implied, they are still brutal af. I’ll never not be a tiny bit afraid of a hot curling iron again. Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten are great as the main campers and…

Hey you! Yeah, you! Avid horror fan and lover of every nook and cranny of the genre. Tell me, why have you not watched this yet? A mere 800 people have logged this film as watched on Letterboxd which is a crime as it is a cult and genre classic that should get more attention.

Sleepaway Camp is the epitome of 'so bad it's good'. This has a lot to do with the fact that I cannot get rid of the feeling it was all done intentionally. Many performances, especially from the adult cast, are so unbelievably camp and bad they have a feel to them as if they have been told to act badly in stead of them being…