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(reposted from the dumb films thread as CAMP seems relevant only now...)
Well I've looked at another dumb film, SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983) which I had seen way back when thru video rental, and must have blocked it out of my memory.  I sat thru all of it on IFC (of all places)  I knew exactly where it was going including it's deep dark, dank, secret ... each cheapo horrible murder, that wreck of a Camp Director Mel (Mike Kellin who died the year this film was made) the flipped out mother, the clueless stepbrother, boy, I'm making this silly movie sound good... the hideous, implausible, and unconvincing abuse heaped on one camper relates the message you are most certainly probably right to heap abuse on the quiet shy types.  I will say that the ending remains seriously creepy, but not in any good way. 

I have no plans to ever return to this movie.

There are those who love this, and even the sequels, but then Pink Flamingos has its demented...err...I mean devoted fans too.

The ending of this movie is something which just....well....I didn't know whether to laugh or to be creeped out, and I think I accomplished both simultaneously.

What leads up to the ending could have been a decent camp slasher flick, but there are too many inconsistencies within the film for the killer to have been who it was; not to mention that they would have had to be twins (no, that's the plot of another film) to have pulled it off, or they just simply accomplished being in two places at once.

Sleepaway Camp has always been one of my favorites, but I'm also a demented devoted John Waters fan so maybe Menard wasn't so far off the mark.  Personally, in order for me to enjoy a film, it (or the viewing experience) has to be memorable in some aspect.  Video store shelves are full of blatantly unoriginal slasher films.  SC on a whole was nothing spectacular.  The acting was atrocious.  The story was contrived.  Indeed, everything about it should destine it to obscurity... but then there's the ending.  No matter how insignificant every other frame is, the ending was enough to make me remember it.  Whether or not it makes any sense is irrelevant.  When friends ask me to recommend a slasher, I usually offer this, My Bloody Valentine, or The Stepfather.

New viewers are at a disadvantage though.  The Anchor Bay DVD is missing several minutes of footage the older VHS tapes had.  Apparently the original negatives were damaged and AB opted for quality over quantity.  Like anyone would notice?  :teddyr:

I am also one of those who will probably never watch this movie again. One reason is that I've only seen it once about 7 years ago, and I remember it as if I watched it last week. As Dodging pointed out, the first 87 minutes of it were boring and stale. It was one of those movies I would see on the rental shelf when I was in high school, but it never looked better than Demonic Toys or Night of the Demons 2. A fellow bad movie lover in college finally showed it to me. I remember hating most of it. I thought it was a pretty lame Friday the 13th rip-off. But then... it happened. I will give it proper respect for being the only film to ever send a shiver down my spine so strongly that I wretched out of my chair. I had a really hard time sleeping that night because every time I closed my eyes I'd see... well... that! So, apparently the final scene was an eighteen-year-old male with a Felissa Rose mask on. Great craftsmanship on the mask, I must say.

The Anchor Bay is missing four minutes:

* In the prank scene when Mozart's face hits the kid's naked ass, the slap sound effect is missing and then his "You guys are gross" line is out of synch with his lips.

* A shot of the naked guys running down the dock is completely missing replaced by a weird over-dubbed cat howl.

* The watersnake slithering out of Kenny's mouth is cut drastically to the point where you only see the final few frames of the shot after the snake has emerged.

* After Mel accosts the guys for throwing water ballons at Angela and Ricky and Paul tend to her, a shot of the guy's reaction to Mel leaving is cut, where one calls him a "wrinkled old dick".

* After Ricky sticks his finger up at Judy and walks off, a shot of Judy coming back with"Same to you" is gone.

* Many frames of Meg's corpse on the bathroom floor are cut, and Mel's reaction is cut up too - "He did it" should   be followed by "to get back at me".

(Provided by www.SleepawayCampFilms.com (http://www.SleepawayCampFilms.com))

The sad part is that we all keep mentioning the ending to this film to the point that someone reading this thread is going to rent or buy it just for that; and they will regret it (sorry...no spoilers here).

I remember seeing the newspaper ads for this one when it was initially released, though I did not see it until it hit video a few months later. My best friend and I rented and watched it one Saturday. We were mildly entertained, but then that ending came and we just looked at each other with expression that said, "Did we just see what we think we saw?!" We were totally blown away by that ending, but then again, we were young an inexperienced in the ways of cheap B-movies.

Okay, as seriously DUMB as I know this film is, and though there might be alot of titillation to recommend this sleazy cheezy queezee, I have no problem with anybody going out to rent this thing to look at it for the ending...consider it a cinematic experience chalked up, that many may need!  One thing everyone concurs on, you will not soon forget  that ending.   :twirl:

My Friends and I have a monthly veiwing of this movie... I love everything about it... we quote it constantly and again... I'm also a John Waters fan so perhaps the John waters-Sleepaway Camp comparsion is great.

I didn't care for it at all, it was like The Bad News Bears except with lots of swearing.  That ten minute scene of the little kids playing baseball against the big kids, oh yeah, [sarcasm]that certainly didn't slow down the movie at all[/sarcasm].  It serves as a perfect reminder of why they always have people in their twenties playing teenagers, everybody in the movie looked like they were about twelve.

But then there was that ending  :teddyr:  Pretty darned cool, one of the freakiest things I've seen in a movie.

Aww. I love Sleepaway Camp! I love the sequels, too (especially the third movie).
Actually, the first one was filmed a few miles away from where I used to live. My mother could recognize the badges on the paramedics' jackets!

The dumptruck smash is one of my favorite bad movie moments.  How bizarrely improbable!

Personally, I love the lawnmower death scene.

I've had SLEEPAWAY CAMP sitting on my shelve for a couple months now, so I didn't read any of the above.  :smile: Maybe I'll watch it soon.

I have the three dvd set of this and I actually liked the second and third movies alot more than the first. The first one really was boring until the end. It was so standard and medicore than all of a sudden they stuck that weird funny/creepy ending in. The problem was it felt like director or crew or whatever knew that they had a seriously boring movie and deciced at the last mintue to put a, like or hate it, memorable ending in. It just seemed so disjointed like the whole movie was made for one scene.

Go ahead...watch it...you'll love it. (http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Laughing/lol-065.gif)


uh...actually...knowing you...you probably will love it. :buggedout:

A friend of mine has that 3 pack of the all three Sleepaway Camp movies that Anchor Bay put out a while back.

I've only seen the 1st one but don't the 2nd and 3rd ones have Bruce Springsteen's sister starring in it?

I heard that Menard ! ! !  You're probably right. :smile:

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but having watched this again last night after originally viewing it years ago, I tend to agree with the claims of bad acting galore, long, overdrawn scenes (the baseball game), etc.

But you know what?  For some reason, as boring as the movie can get at times, it still manages to maintain a creepy vibe throughout.  It's the equally creepy characters (Aunt Martha, the cook who likes young girls) and atmosphere that make this movie memorable to me.  The direction is so pedestrian, but somehow manages to be eerie at the same time.

And the ending.  Let's just say its reputation is well-deserved.

Speaking of which, without spoilers, could any of you slasher experts recommend any other low budget horror movies that have surprise endings?  I realize they probably won't be as memorable as Sleepaway Camp's, but I'm a sucker for twist endings.  I've heard about April Fools Day and just read about a movie on IMDB titled Unhinged.  Any other recommendations?

This isn't that old of a thread. The only times I've heard the term 'necro thread' is on other forums moderated by basement dwelling geeks in need of a good lay.

Here, if a thread interests you, reply to it. Aside from KYGOTC, we have all been laid, so I think we can handle it. :tongueout:



Try Pranks, also known as The Dorm That Dripped Blood.

I can't belive I forgot this one, as I like it so much.

Just Before Dawn

Not a twist ending, but a serious plot twist, though it is foreshadowed.

Probably one of the damn coolest final fights in a slasher film.


For another serious plot twist, check out Alone in the Dark (the 1983 film where the hockey mask originated).

Hey!  This thread is only 10 days old! 

"Aunt Martha" was unbelievable to me, a completely contrived character, right down to the tacky 1980s Ohrbach's hats on her head, but, as lewdly envelope-pushing, ridiculously risk-taking, purgatory punishment payin', as "the cook" is, he is no doubt creepy! 

ps. I once sold a magazine thru ebay to a Dolph Lundgren fanatic! (Dolph was on the cover, can't remember the title). 

A PLAGUE ON ANYONE WHO BADMOUTHS SLEEPAWAY CAMP!

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Taymt_tNeGE

Surprised to see this old thread revived!  But not at all happy with the idea of a "PLAGUE ON" me...?  I guess that's funny...  Thanks A LOT. 
I liked the clip which highlights all to be said about this film; in fact, why look at the film at all and not just watch the clip???   Oh yes, we don't see the pp.  :teddyr:
:bluesad: :drink: :question:

Meh.  Sleepaway Camp is one that I had always hyped to me from people.  After years of this type of thing, I rented it and it was "Meh.".  Aside from an interesting kill with a curling iron and the final few seconds of the film, it was far from entertaining.  Everything about it was derivative of other, better, slashers.  I have yet to see any of the sequels because of my less than good experience with the original.

Sleepaway Camp is a movie I have yet to have had the misfortune of seeing.  Although, Robot Chicken did make an obscure reference to it during an episode where they give the endings to movies.  During the commentary on the dvd, Mark Hamill was sitting in and was like, "Is this a real movie you reference or did you make it up?"  Seth was like, "Oh it's real.  Only about 3 people watching the show will understand it."

The only reason why Sleepaway Camp is remembered at all IMO is for the whole twist ending. Other than that it's pretty much a waste IMO though I do like the "acting" when the cook dude gets the scalding hot soup water poured on him.

I just saw this one tonight for the first time And I love it. Unfortunately, the ending was ruined for me about a year ago when ROBOT CKICKEN did a skit that gave away the ending of the film. I was pretty p**sed.


ANYHOO, This one was twisted, guys. However, I do have 2 complaints.

Complaint 1- Some of the death scenes were really weak. Stung to death by BEES?! C'MON! And also, when those 4 kids were butchered while they were sleeping, the killer was no where NEAR those guys because they said they had to drive to get there, so it was obliously far away.

The second thing is, I confused me with the scene of the gay dudes in bed and the scene with Angela and peter as kids sitting on a bed pointing at eachother. I didnt get it.


The version i saw was the one that came in a box set with its sequels and it was rated "R". Does anyone know of an unrated version? I looked on google and I couldnt find anything.


(edit) I just read on the Sleepawaycamp website that the only truely uncut version of the film exists only on pre-2000 vhs's. Damn. Damn you Anchor Bay.

I was rather fond of this whole franchise . . . esp. SLEEPAWAY CAMP III.

After reading all the talk about the end of this one I just had to add it to my Netflix queue. I am one of those unfortunates who upon hearing something along the lines of, "The movie is really boring and stupid but the twist at the end makes it almost worth watching", just has to go out and watch the movie. I used to see this one at Blockbuster but never rented it as it looked like another "Friday the 13th" ripoff, now though I'll attempt to judge this movie on its own merits, if it has any.

I'm a fan.  An ex of mine showed it to me, telling me it was one of her favorite horror movie.  She got so p**sed off when I laughed through most of it.  The pedophile cook killed me.

Haha, the pedo chef killed me too. You'd never see a character like that in todays movies, I loved how un-PC movies from the 70s and 80s were. "WHERE I COME FROM WE CALL 'EM BALDIES!" LOL wTF soooo f**ked up but I couldn't stop laughing

I thought the second and third ones were better than the original, but the whole killer-as-main-character thing didn't work for me at all.  Slashers rely on suspense, and of course these movies didn't have any.  Part 3 had some interesting characters, which they killed off in order from most to least interesting.  The worst part was watching the deleted scenes in the extra features.  They were pretty cool - why in the **** didn't they put them back in the movie!?!  It's a DVD for pete's sake, you add stuff like that back in.

Reviving this thread just to say, I BELIEVE there's a sequel to this film being (or has been) made.  Can't recall what's it's called off-hand.

Did a quick check.. it's called Return to Sleepaway camp, directed by the guy who did the first one. 

Anyway, just thought you guys would like to know.

well, i acually enjoyed the first sleepaway camp, however, parts 2 and 3 were peices of crap. Not only did they have horrid acting but they were a dispointment considering the first was so great. The only good thing about theese films was the gore. The new sleepawy camp was good, Return to sleepaway camp, i recoment only this and the first sleepaway camp.

I thought it was okay.  It was better than it's recent sequel Return To Sleepaway Camp which was made by the same director and has Ricky from the first one in a minor part and counselor Ronnie in a bigger part.

I preferred The Burning.

Here it is.  In all its HORROR, here is...:
SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983)

Watch while the full movie is available: 

Sleepaway Camp (1983) [UNCUT] [HD] Full Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pjjuFT6QF4#ws) 

I pretty much dug the first and it's sequels. Although the sequels were vastly different from the first, to me all three are great fun. Also, the only "bad" acting in the first was Ricky and Angela's mom, also the characters in the speed boat at the beginning of the movie. C_CKSUCKERS!!!! PRICKS!!!!  :bouncegiggle:

I really like all these films and didn't mind Return To Sleepaway Camp either.

Here it is AGAIN... and I never look for this sh!t movie, but, the more I look at it, the more I like it's incredible BADNESS. 

http://youtu.be/6mhG6o8_4TM (http://youtu.be/6mhG6o8_4TM)

Here's a legitimate link from the DVD producers to watch it for free:

http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/sleepaway-camp/558dd80769702d071c0f0f00 (http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/sleepaway-camp/558dd80769702d071c0f0f00)

this film divides horror fans like no other. I loved it (and hated The Burning)

Its an AWFUL movie-but that ending elevated it into a CLASSIC!
I own it-I have showed t to folks-but I always just fast forward to the end-just to f**k 'em up.
"you dont wanna watch this movie-but check this s**t out-!"

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQFw0qQQhtg#)

theres 3 groups

1. people who hated it
2. the largest group: people who are largely indifferent to it but impressed with the ending
3. people who loved it

The smallest group by far.   :smile:

Hey-I own it I resemble that small group.
I love this sick piece of garbage!  :cheers:

gARBAGE lOVE pIECE sICK

I've never actually seen the first one, but I've seen the second and third. 

The second I really liked.  For what was basically a standard slasher it felt surprisingly gritty and mean spirited in a way that really gave it some impact. 

The third was decent but you really couldn't watch it without knowing what happened in the earlier movies for it to work. 

I've only seen the first Sleepaway Camp, and I pretty much hated it.

If I'd seen it when it came out (when I was an impressionable pre-teen), it probably would've made a bigger impression on me, but for whatever reason I never got around to seeing it till I was in college in my early 20s... and by that time I'd already seen so many other cheap-a$$ slasher movies that I was pretty much a jaded prick (haha).

The "shock" ending was also pretty much common knowledge in the horror community by that point (yes, even before Robot Chicken spoiled it for an entire generation) so I couldn't even get a jolt out of that because I knew it was coming!!

gARBAGE lOVE pIECE sICK

Love the film. Love the series

 :lookingup:

my brother got me part 3 for xmas.... even though there was much to dislike, I also kind of liked it. it's about as trashy and dumb as it gets. makes the average F13 sequel look like Suspiria.

also, there was a girl in my form at secondary school called Angela Baker  :bouncegiggle:

"..you are most certainly probably right to heap abuse on the quiet shy types..."

one of my favorite movies of all time, the 1s tone is a classic film i enjoy the 2nd one as it's a so bad it's good kind of film, now the 3rd one sucks ass but it's citizen freaking kane compared to the 4th one which is WOW is that movie bad.  Alan is well i dunno how to explain Alan but to those who have seen the film will know why. my only question was why was he written to be a character where you want to relate to like Angela in the 1st one you could relate to her in a way.

she was a likable girl that kept to herself pretty much, Alan went from being a character where you were suppose to care about him than he'd be treating others like sh*t  and  you wonder this is who we are suppose to be rooting for?  was Robert H. i dunno how to spell his name without looking it up on crack when he wrote the script and it must have been some good sh*t too. 

also whatever happened to Issac Hayes in the film? it never says i mean if he did die in the film was it filmed? it was made like 5 years before it was actually released.  also check out the cinema snob episodes of these films but if ya haven't seen the first one watch that one 1st the 1st one has a lot of gay undertones that i never even realized until Brad Jones of the Cinema snob fame got to the films and as it's called Snobbed it.

those actually are on the Official  website cause it's  owner loved them so much he got that they were done for fun and they weren't there to say how bad the films are. the cinema snob is just a character created by Brad Jones.

Brad is great.  Love his reviews.

i've been watching him for 10 years now i've been off and on been putting them to dvd but not for selling them or anything like that just for my own collection so if any get taken down i can watch them. i'm up to i think 2017 i think? or 2016 i forget which ?

I revisited the original Sleepaway Camp this past October during my annual Halloween season horror-thon. It was still mostly terrible (let's be honest -- aside from the shock ending, it's essentially a dollar store Friday the 13th knock off), but I had fun with it because my 13 year old was watching it with me for the first time, and his reaction to the "twist" ending ("wait... WAIT. She's a WHAT now?") made it worth sitting through the rest of the film. :D

I also watched SC "2" and "3" last year for the first time, and they made the original look like solid gold. I won't be revisiting any of them any time soon.

I liked it besides of the twist ending

if you want a good laugh i borrowed the dvd set from a friend years ago and reading it on the dvd cases on what Angela is i don't know why but it just never connected to my mind i think? because i didn't think about it all so the twist ending shocked me.  i'm okay with that ya know? i think it's a great film sure it's got some cheesy moments but so do a lot of horror films.   i think it's one of the better horror films we got in the 80's the 1st film i mean not the sequels even though

those were both filmed back to back as we all know by  now and it's not the best one from around this time but it's i don't think among the worst either. the sequels have some creative kills and you can tell Pamela Springsteen easily was having fun with the role and though most of the time you can say playing it that way can hurt a film but not always with these sequels i think it does help them cause she's in on the joke.

where else would there be a 14 year old thread on Sleepaway Camp but here  :teddyr:

honestly i didn't realize this thread was that old man i had to look at it myself

You know, I had a similar experience a while ago, before the pandemic. I had a cinema in my city doing a rerun of 80's horror movies and we went with my girlfriend. Surprinsingly, tons of teenagers who probably never saw the original movies went there, and they were being subjected for the first time to FRIDAY THE 13TH.

They all laughed most of the time (and I have to admit, I did at some points), but since I knew how it ended, I was prepared. They weren't, and it was very satisfying watching their smiles fade.  :bouncegiggle:

the Original film? ya know it makes me sad how many kids today's or even adults haven't seen the Original films but i am thrilled that there are still kids discovering it. i faintly remember the 1st time i saw it i do not remember the age though so i'd say late 80's.  the 1st horror film my brother showed me i think was night of the living dead. (1968) in (1987)  i remember cause i have a Stephen king documentary that isn't on IMDB i don't think?  but it's about an hr long and it was made to promote the running man (1987) 

a favorite film of mine anyways there's a commercial on it for Night of the living dead (1968) which is why i wanted to see it and after that i think i started to watch horror. my nephew though was about the same age as me at the time actually he's 9 now so he's just discovering horror films. he showed him that i think for his 1st horror film so that was a nite throwback as well. though he's a big Jaws fan he loves all of the films,  and he's even shown him the dead films as well i dunno about all of them though i think he still hasn't shown him day of the dead (1985) last he told me he hadn't but that was awhile ago