Sleepaway Camp
AKA Nightmare Vacation
Directed by Robert Hiltzik
Released: 1983
Starring Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Christopher Collet
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Studio: Anchor Bay

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After a boating accident that kills her father and younger brother, Angela Baker (Felissa Rose) is sent to live with her disturbed Aunt Martha and her cousin, Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten). Eight years later, Angela and Ricky are off to spend their summer at Camp Arawak. While there, the overly shy Angela runs into trouble with the other girls at the camp who tease her. Worst of them all is Judy (Karen Fields), who is jealous over the attention Angela receives from Paul (Christopher Collet), one of Ricky’s friends. Ricky spends much of his time at Camp Arawak getting into fights with boys who tease his sister as well.

When people start turning up dead (campers and staff alike), the manager of the camp, Mel Costic (Mike Kellin), tries to cover up the murders as accidents. Mel suspects Ricky of murdering those who dare mess with Angela. Pretty soon, the counselors and campers realize something is terribly wrong and discover the shocking secret behind the killer’s true identity.

Robert Hiltzik directs this ingenious and outrageous slasher with the twist ending that still manages to raise eyebrows and creep viewers out to this day. The film is well shot and the gore effects are quite grotesque. Luckily, Sleepaway Camp is much more than a brainless Friday The 13th rip-off. There are some interesting overtones of homosexuality and confused gender identity that become more apparent after a couple of viewings.

There are several irritating characters in Sleepaway Camp that get too many lines and simply provide bad comic relief. However, the principle cast members are well written and competently acted. Felissa Rose (Dante Tomaselli's Horror, Nikos the Impaler) is excellent as the subdued but not zombie-like, Angela. Rose manages to give range to a character that could easily have slipped into caricature zone. The best character in the film is Aunt Martha (played by Desiree Gould), a truly insane woman stuck in an episode of "The Donna Reed Show". Gould’s manic performance definitely needed more screentime or at least presence in one of the film’s sequels.

It's hard to put a finger on why Sleepaway Camp is so good but I doubt it's something I'd want to put my finger on. Despite some lackluster performances from a few of the actors and the thick layer of early 80s cheese, the movie is very well done. If you can get through the cutoff shorts (which leave very little to the imagination), you’ll survive the worst of it. The gruesome and inventive (albeit highly improbable) death scenes, will please most gore enthusiasts. There are some alternate cuts of Sleepaway Camp out there so you might be missing a few seconds but nevertheless, devotees of slasher flicks absolutely must see this immediately.