Series: Sleepaway Camp

Ah, the slasher sequel. So often the bane of the horror reviewer's existence, because, half of the time, the sequel has almost nothing to do with its predecessor. The other half, the sequel is such a perfect carbon copy that you might as well reprint your review of the original, with a few minor tweaks. Of course, every once in a while you get a movie like Sleepaway Camp II, which follows the events of Sleepaway Camp without repeating them. Sadly, however, this does not make the film all that interesting.

Please be warned -- the following review contains a massive spoiler for the first Sleepaway Camp movie. By continuing, you acknowledge that you have seen that film or that just don't give a fig.(read more...)

Quirky, cheesy, less violent than its peers, and frequently kind of sweet, Sleepaway Camp is not your average 80s slasher film. There's no reason it should be -- it was made towards the end of the first slasher cycle (which ran from Halloween until Silent Night, Deadly Night) and that particular subgenre was stretching for new ideas. Sleepaway Camp takes on a concept that should have been a natural for Friday the 13th but never quite worked that way -- using the frustration of summer campers' early adolescence as the background for murder. Toss in a terrifying ending, and you have a minor cult classic.(read more...)