sleepaway camp

Even by slasher standards, Sleepaway Camp is more than a little twisted. Everything about it feels slightly askew: the confusing boat accident prologue, the muscle head camp counselors, the skin tight shirts and pants worn only by the men in the cast and, of course, the notorious surprise ending that’s still creepy even if you know what’s coming. Even compared with the most lurid entries in the genre, Sleepaway Camp stands out in the crowd. Writer / director Robert Hiltzik’s film might have passed as a straight-up scary movie in 1983, but it’s aged into an entirely different sort of “camp” experience. The kind with quotation marks.

The story of Angela (Felissa Rose), a dangerously shy first year camper, sent off with her more experienced cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tierston) to Camp Arawak is the perfect template for a serious serial killer buffet. Audiences had already seen it before in Friday the 13th, which by this time was on its second installment. But Sleepaway Camp puts the underage kids front and center, cared for by some of the most despicable summer camp staff to ever earn a paycheck. It’s such a politically incorrect, inexplicably angry and flat-out bizarre cast of characters that it becomes an unintentional comedy of Grand Guignol proportions.

There actually is a predictable slasher narrative to follow with some surprisingly intense make-up effects for each kill: boiling water to the face, angry bees around the torso and several stabbings, choppings and beheadings. But as impressive as each set piece is, they pale in comparison the marvelously overblown acting, homoerotic flashbacks and messed up character motivations. Just pray to God your kids never wind up at a camp owned by Mel (Mike Kellin) who not only sleeps with the female staff but defends his pedophile camp cook!

Sleepaway Camp isn’t just an accident by the side of the road. It’s a tractor-trailer collision with a busful of Catholic school kids. And you can’t…stop…watching! A number of official and unofficial sequels followed, but none could capture the astounding inappropriateness of the original.

This is the sort of well-aged horror that Scream Factory specializes in and they’ve come through with another incredible blu-ray / DVD combo collector’s edition. The new 2K hi-def transfer is simply killer and comes with more extras than most new Hollywood fare, including two commentaries (one new, one recycled from the old box set), new interviews, scrapbook, trailers, a 45-minute comprehensive “Making Of” and some bizarre short films and music videos made by the cast. Would you expect anything less?