Sleepaway Camp (1983)

“You’ll go there on a bus… and come back in a bag!”

Camp Arawak has everything a kid could want from summer vacation: swimming, baseball, questionable supervision, relentless bullying, and a killer quietly working through the camp roster.

Sleepaway Camp (1983) arrived during the early slasher boom, when nearly every campground, holiday, and school dance seemed capable of producing a masked murderer. On the surface, it looks like another summer-camp body-count movie. Then the strange characters, oddball dialogue, and increasingly nasty deaths begin piling up.

Shy and withdrawn Angela arrives at camp with her protective cousin Ricky. While the other campers quickly make Angela the target of their cruelty, someone begins punishing the bullies, counselors, and staff members in gruesome and unusually creative ways.

I remember this one playing on cable quite a bit during the ’80s. I was too young to fully understand the ending, but the way it was presented was frightening enough to stick with me. Watching it again years later, I realized how much fun the rest of the movie is—the bizarre dialogue, eccentric campers, unhinged counselors, and scenes that can be hilarious one minute and deeply uncomfortable the next.

It is cheap, strange, mean-spirited, and completely unforgettable. In other words, it earned its spot on the VHS shelf.

Sleepaway Camp (1983) A shy teenager arrives at summer camp as a mysterious killer begins eliminating bullies, counselors, and anyone else making Camp Arawak miserable. Watch or Buy on Amazon

At Camp Arawak, the mosquitoes are somehow the least dangerous thing in the woods.

Why Sleepaway Camp Is Worth Renting

Sleepaway Camp feels stranger than most of the slashers released around it. The performances are broad, the conversations frequently sound as though they came from another planet, and nearly every adult at the camp behaves in a way that should trigger an immediate investigation.

That awkwardness becomes part of the movie’s charm. Ricky spends much of the film furiously defending Angela, Judy turns camp bullying into a full-time profession, and Ronnie wears shorts that deserve their own place in horror history.

The kills also have more personality than the usual collection of stabbings. Boiling water, angry insects, and various camp supplies are put to uses never recommended in the official counselor handbook.

Then there is the ending. It completely changes the temperature of the movie and leaves the viewer with an image that is eerie, uncomfortable, and nearly impossible to shake. Whether you consider it brilliant, troubling, or both, it made certain that nobody forgot Sleepaway Camp.

Sleepaway Camp Official Trailer

Watch the original trailer and see why Camp Arawak never earned many repeat customers.