Sleepaway Camp is such a cult film that despite never having seen it I was well aware of the twist ending reveal of who the killer was. Due to this it was really hard to put myself in the mindset of someone who had never heard of this twist. Even so, I was really interested to see how this character would be handled, and if the film in general was at all memorable outside of its notorious shock finish.
As a child, Angela (Felissa Rose - Camp Twilight) was involved in a terrible boating accident that saw her twin brother and her dad killed before her eyes. Now 13 she lives with her eccentric aunt and her protective cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten - Return to Sleepaway Camp). During summer, Ricky and Angela are sent away to a summer camp, with the shy and practically mute Angela getting bullied there. As the weeks pass people keep showing up severely injured or dead. At first it is thought to be down to accidents, but as the bodies pile up it starts to seem like there is a killer on the loose.
I will admit to not having seen a gigantic amount of 80s slashers but I'm pretty sure that usually it is older teens (typically played by adults) who are the victims of the killers wrath, here though the age range is on the whole a lot lower with the majority of the victims being young teenagers. While there was a large body count by the films conclusion this was slow to really get going. I think by the halfway point there had only been two attacks. I say attacks, as also different is that not all the victims of the killer die, just horrifically maimed! The Friday the 13th films have to have been an influence, at least with the location of a lake side camp mainly ran by young adults. I really don't rate that series at all, the lack of any kind of story in any of the entries really make them quite dull. It was nice that here there is more of a story with both Ricky and Angela getting character development. Angela in particular changed over the course of the film, initially she doesn't even speak but as she befriends Ricky's best friend she slowly comes out of her shell.
