Sleepaway camp 1983

Starring: Felissa Rose
Directed (and written) by: Robert Hiltzik

This movie is known to me as having one of the most scandalous endings in horror movie history - at least for its time. The premise is that a very shy girl named Angela goes to summer camp for the first time with her cousin.

Angela is a sweet faced thing who rarely speaks; probably on account of the traumatic loss of her family as a child. She gradually begins to open up at camp, despite the bullying and nasty attitudes she recieves from the camp bitches. Then in the tradition of slasher movies people begin to die.

So what did I think? Well for the first 10 minutes I laughed my ass off. Not because it's intentionally funny but because it's bad. An unfortunate accident on the water is dramatised by repeatedly screaming "A boat! A boat!! Oh GOD the BOAT!!!" then the camera cuts ineptly to a body bobbing face down in the water.

We are then swept 8 years into the future where the sole survivor of the accident (Angela) is being talked at by her peculiar aunt. There is no explanation for the aunt's odd behaviour or manner of speech and I still can't decide if she is supposed to be comical, but I actually think she is my favourite part of the movie.

The acting throughout is dreadful. Truly I have seen more compelling performances in a Year 7 production of Grease. I realise that stalker movies are not well known for character development but this film is inhabited by paper thin stereotypes who over react to everything without reason.

I was particularly disturbed by the portrayal of an obvious paedophile who leers over the teenage campers. His vile innuendos are met with laughter from his friends as though he made a slightly cheeky joke. Thankfully it is not long until he gets his just desserts. And it is unpleasant. The screams go on for an uncomfortably long time.

The story goes on as you might expect. Lovely Angela grows in confidence and even finds a little romance. Meanwhile campers begin to die in various ways. The film attempts to divert suspicion in different directions but it is so poorly done it tends to have the opposite effect.

Personally I didn't feel suspense or shock during the film and it was a struggle to sit through it. Whether it was the poor performances, the pacing or the terrible direction, I just didn't care what happened next.

The ending is pretty freaky I must admit. It leaves an image burned on the retinas. However, after the final scene had faded I felt unsatisfied. There was no conclusion just a "ta da!" and then curtain dropped.

Overall it is a bad bad movie with 10 seconds of awesome at the end. I wouldn't watch the film again under any circumstances. For the unique finale alone I give it 4/10.