A halál angyala

The Sleepaway Camp series, or rather its ’80s contributions, is a unique curiosity in the context of the contemporary wave of slasher flicks, as it deliberately plays around with the basic building blocks of the genre more than it offers direct viewing pleasure. The first instalment lags far behind in terms of the superficial attractions of slasher movies, when a significant part of the murders take place off screen or are only hinted at. However, it focuses more on the typical setting of groups of adolescents. Unlike other movies, however, the first Sleepaway Camp does not play an illusory game about tight-knit groups of adolescent kids and summer camps as places of cheerful frolicking, instead showing them as terrifying social petri dishes. It is one of the few ’80s films that do not gloss over bullying as an isolated prank, but takes it as its central theme, showing its systemic nature and, mainly, relating it to the hierarchical structures and power arrangements of children’s groups. Also, through the final denouement and anticipation thereof in the course of the movie, it’s impossible to shake off the impression that Robert Hiltzik, in essentially his only film, needed to escape from his inner anxieties brought on by adolescence and only due to economic concerns used the framework of a slasher flick to explore the subject matter, which could also have served for a much more concise and claustrophobic psycho(logical) horror movie. (2021.01.21)

I’m giving it only two stars, and I’m being generous. Sleepaway Camp is a great example of how a very bad film can get cult status after some time. Everyone talks about the shocking twist, but it’s shocking only if you don’t know that there would be something unexpected. Unfortunately, I knew and I guessed it during a conversation somewhere in the first half. Also, it’s not a twist proper (a twist is something that explains previous events, this one doesn’t explain anything and it’s basically pointless) but some sort of final surprise to say good-bye. The rest of the film is pure horror evil. This is what horror shouldn’t be like for me, it was almost impossible to watch and it’d be hard to find more unlikeable protagonists – it’s a shame they didn’t all die. It’s ironic that from the trio Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th and The Burning, the only one that didn’t get a sequel is the best one, The Burning. (2008.08.21)

I know that it's also because I was in the right mood for the movie, but I enjoyed its poetics, I enjoyed its atmosphere, and in the end, even the final twist, which unfortunately I knew beforehand, and that disappointed me a little. But that's what you get from watching slasher documentaries. But Sleepaway Camp struck me as a good slasher film, and while it's not as explicit, it's imaginative. (2016.12.06)