Night 1 of 31 Nights of Horror

When I worked at the video store (after walking 40 miles uphill in the snow to get there, fighting off dinosaurs all the way) I remember passing by the box for this movie in the horror section a lot. I dismissed it as a cheap knock off trying to cash in on the success of Friday the 13th. I shouldn’t have. It’s better than I thought it would be.

Like the first movie in the franchise that made Jason more famous than a Golden Fleece could, Sleepaway Camp is a mystery/horror. The antagonist is not known, the murders are all shown in shadow, off camera or from the killers point of view, so you don’t find out who’s doing it until the end and there is more suspense than gore. Unlike Friday the 13th, this felt like a real camp. There are a lot of extras of all ages giving the camp itself a life that Crystal Lake didn’t have.

The acting is a little uneven, some performers are great, others over the top. Side note, Felissa Rose’s blank stare is fantastic. Given that their budget was $200,000 LESS than Friday’s, It’s a surprisingly well made film and the handful of makeup shots were excellent, except for that cops moustache, it looks super fake in high definition. Hats off to Ed French who eventually went on to get an Oscar nomination for his work on Star Trek VI.

If you want to watch the movie yourself before being spoiled, it is (at the moment) streaming for free (in Canada at least) on Tubi, or commercial free if you subscribe to Amazon Prime

SPOILERS BELOW

I watched an excellent documentary a few years ago about the history and representation of trans people in film and television called Disclosure. One of the things that stuck with me was when they pointed out how often being trans was used as a twist when exposing the villain, like in Ace Ventura or Soap Dish, so with the reveal at the end of Angela being the killer and actually a boy… it seems like another example of a trans character being used as a “shocking twist!”, except Angela isn’t trans, he’s Peter, forced to live as “Angela” by a batshit crazy aunt. You could say that being forced to present as a gender that is not who you really are is unfortunately a too common experience for trans people, but it doesn’t turn them into serial killers.

I guess you can tell, I’m not a fan of the ending and not just for the villain-is-a-trans-person-shock-twist but what was with that weird banshee scream at the end? And did they rip that kids head off? I didn’t see any weapons, so that’s what it looked like. All the other kills were done with mundane items, but suddenly the killer (a young teen) is strong enough to decapitate someone with their bare hands? And then it just ends?

Maybe the sequel explains things a little better. I’ll find out tomorrow.