Sleepaway Camp (1983) KILL COUNT

[Music] welcome to the guild cow where we tally up the victims in all our favorite horror movies I'm James agent east and I am so so happy because today we're looking at sleepaway camp one of my absolute all-time favorite horror movies released in 1983 the title and premise of sleepaway camp suggests that it'll be a Friday the 13th clone and while two of the three sequels in the sleepaway camp series are more like the prototypical slasher the original film is so so much more written and directed by film student Robert Hill SiC his one and only movie before he made the fourth one twenty years later Lee boy camp is a cult classic mostly known for its infamous ending but I'm actually upset that the ending overshadows the rest of the movie because it's straight-up fucking bizarre right down to the goddamn bone I'm gonna have a hard time not commenting on every weird ass scene and including every hilarious line delivery like this one I believe or this one all right one more okay now one more nice this is definitely one of those movies that you should go watch for yourself before watching the kill cow you should experience this masterpiece as unspoiled as possible Lee boy camp works so well for me because it feels so damn authentic the kids are actual kids played by 12 to 17 year olds and they talk like real kids to swearing almost as much as I do and in random little things like a rooftop water balloon fight or counselor Ronnie's way too short of shorts and you get a truly unique movie that feels like it was filmed with a home video camera and an actual summer camp plus it's got some respectable practical effects when it gets to the gory goodness how many kills will we find at Camp Arawak let's sit around the campfire and count them up [Music] the movie begins in fond memory of mom a doer did she have anything to do with this very dramatic I know card him so props to mom I really enjoyed it in fact I'm a huge fan of all of Edward Phyllis's overly dramatic score for this movie that's some epic shit right ban on a lake shared by the nearby camp Arawak a man named John Baker suntan's his chest hair while this kids Peter and Angela argue over some bullshit such a relaxing day on the water for Dad as long as those kids of his aren't little schemers oh wait a minute Oh No de ruin that's okay this dude Lenny is here saying that it's time for them to leave anyway you'll get some more Lenny later but there is some dispute over his exact relationship to the other characters as hilariously explored when sleepaway camp was covered by the podcast how did this get made oh you guys so that was his wife that was his way no yes I highly suggest listening to that episode and watching the fun little animated clip I'm linking to here sharing the lake with the bakers is a camp Arawak lifeguard and his gal pal Marianne who are currently busy screaming at each other over their motorboat engine I'm sorry what was that you know what never mind I'm not gonna be able to hear you they're towing a teary-eyed water skier who wants to be done with this shit especially when she sees that they're headed towards John Baker's flipped over boat it's too late for them to turn out of the way though so we kick things off with two kills for the cow John Baker and one of his children the other kid is left paddling in their life jacket while the witnesses scream and/or exclaim breathlessly eight years later a brightly dressed woman named Martha is sending her brash son Ricky and her demure niece Angela the sole survivor of that boating accident off to camp Arawa Angela is played by the then thirteen-year-old felissa Rose who has been nothing but an absolute sweetheart every time I've run into her if you ever get the chance to meet her at a convention I can't recommend it enough she is truly fantastic also fantastic is the portrayal of Aunt Martha by actor Desiree Ghul her bizarre acting he says make it feel like she's not only in a different movie but on a different planet entirely we wouldn't want them to leave without us now would we no I'm afraid that wouldn't do yeah no wonder Ricky's eager to get away from his space case mom but not before she gives both kids their physicals for camp just be careful not to tell anyone how you got them no no I'm afraid that they wouldn't approve of that at all even though they know that I am a doctor lady you're scaring us a bunch of school buses unleash hordes of hyper children unto camp arrow ass where they're yelled at by councillor Ronny et of the muscles and short shorts and camp owner Mel who looks like he finances adult films during the offseason disgustingly enough these actual children are also humble that by head chef Artie look at all the young fresh chicken oh fuck dude and what the fuck fellow cook bag that shit ain't funny although I do have a fun fact to lighten the mood that Ben guy is played by Robert Earl Jones and his voice is pretty similar to a son James Earl Jones you know friggin Darth Vader slash Mufasa talk about the dark side Ricky meets up with this camp friend Paul who he introduces to his quiet cousin Angela since it's her first time away from home since the boating accident Paul's like yeah that's cool before telling Ricky that another girl named Judy has recently developed and now has jugs bigger than Annette's Ricky goes and tries to holla at her only to be given the cold shoulder out you know that's gotta hurt especially since they had been steadies the previous summer oh those summer nights although Ricky loves it here angela has a much harder time adapting to camp life she stares vacantly at Judy and the girls cabin she refuses to eat anything in the cafeteria and three days in she still hasn't said a word to anyone this prompts Ronnie and his high definition bulge to take Angela into the kitchen to look for something she might want to eat to this day I can't tell what Ronnie is just a clueless good guy or if he's purposely feeding Angela to the camp pedophile but the end result is the same Angela's left alone in the kitchen with Artie who immediately becomes the most disgusting human being you have ever seen he's just about to rape this poor girl in the pantry when cousin Ricky walks in and interrupts em what are you doing she is this first already attempts sexual assaults and now he's intimidating witnesses and beating up boxes is there nothing this monster won't do also apparently there was no stunt coordinator for this movie so Ricky's actor Jonathan Kirsten's then 17 years old got pretty banged up doing multiple takes for the scene and Rose on my back with redness and uh you know I just remember Robert keeps another saying again again it's just snickering and I'm like it's weird this seems like everyone else has very fond memories of making this movie but something about Jonathan Kirsten's interviews felt a little sad to me I hope you're doing all right man later that day Artie is trying to boil corn in the single largest pot I've ever seen when a first-person killer sneaks in and pulls his chair out from under his feet the resulting fall leaves Artie covered in gnarly looking burns from his fingers to his face those burns are almost as nasty as all the fly filled sticky paper hanging in the kitchen the practical effects in this film were done by Edward French which was a delight for me to learn because I previously covered his work in another bizarre favorite of mine blood rage he even had a small part in that movie as the sugar daddy date who ended up decapitated French used liquid gelatin to make the sculpted skin effects here and come some air into them to create bubbling blisters very cool and very gross but not quite a kill since we last see Artie being taken to a medical facility because of that I don't think the dude died I'm assuming he lived on his outside now matching his disgusting inner character after Mel pays off Ben and the rest of the kitchen staff to keep quiet lest the campers or their parents get worried we get a pretty good stretch of random weird camp stuff first is some inappropriate nerd hazing complete with actual bare ass and a pretty funny butt slap sound effect hazing is never okay kids but that noise is pretty fucking hilarious let's see you we also get another camp counselor in questionable attire this do Gino and his crop top and cut off George that's pretty odd something and finally we get one of the highlights of this movie when Ricky's friends have a baseball game against a cabin of older boys this sequence is one of my favorites mostly because about needless Longinus it has two separate dissolves showing us that a lot of time as fast we don't need to see every play in this game sleepaway camp this is absurd thankfully our patience is rewarded with the greatest exchange of insults I've ever heard in a movie shit and die Riki eat shit live bill heat shit and live bill eat shit and live that night there's a dance in the rec hall where Angela gets teased by these dudes Kenny and Mike after she fails to respond to their pickup lines girl Angela how could this so fucked up hello MF Alyssa Rose cites this as one of her favorite scenes she got to fill they cracked me up yo Angela what's the matter yeah why are you so fucked up lucky for Angela a cowboy cousin Ricky and his pal pal Paul are here to interfere on her behalf and Ricky instigates the first of this movie's many boy piles which as the name implies is just the big ol pile of boys when the boys are d piled we get some Ricky rage and the smarmy little finger I've ever seen holy shit I fuckin love this dudes face as he says fuck you that's my favorite pole checks on Angela and gives a nice boy monologue where he says he's sorry about what happened to her family his conversation upsets Judy but in trances Angela and by time he has to leave he even gets a word out of her goodnight Chop top you're not allowed to camp marowak get out of here down by the lake older camper Billy the dude who was told that each shouldn't live gets very upset when he can't convince the girls to go skinny-dipping it's okay Billy there's nothing stopping you and your friends from having a bear but aquatic boy Pyle I know it's the name of that podcast I recommended but seriously how did this get make that Kenny dude who was teasing Angela and dance takes a canoe out with a girl but of course he's a dick about it and ends up flipping it over after she swims away he decides to get underneath the boat by himself where he really digs the acoustics hey you get off of my cloud a head pops up and the unseen figure shoves Kenny's head beneath the water and the next morning after the camp's lifeguard has an aneurysm over the mess left in his lake you notices something underneath that upturned boat is the body of Kenny which job is pretty obviously fake even that French can admit to that that effect was slightly cursed when he came in for the life cast that day I think he was a little nervous the life cast was a little compromised French did what he could to fix it and honestly it doesn't bug me that much since the life cast allowed them to have that snake coming out of the mouth and I think that's a great touch Kenny has taken away in a body bag and Mel is left insisting that his death was just an accident - a mustachioed cop named Frank remember Frank's mustache all right specifically how real it is you're gonna miss that realness although Ronnie is unsettled by the second accident camp life continues meaning judy is free to keep playing volleyball in a shirt that has her own name on it also if you'll allow me a moment of Internet Supervisor pride one of my mods Jordan did the best cosplay ever as Judy and actually got a picture with felissa Rose at Texas Frightmare great friggin work Jordan I love it Angeles it's out of the volleyball game but opens up like a chatterbox when Paul sits down and starts flirting with her again that gets Judy jealous and it also annoys the girls counselor Meg who tells Paul to go on and get although she's a counselor in charge of the younger campers meg is a mean girl who's allied herself with Judy because she is definitely not a fan Angela that night after a movie in the rec hall Angela and Paul have advanced to hand-holding but when Paul tries to move on to face kissing Angela shuts down again yeah when she responds like that buddy maybe don't go ahead and try to steal another one little lesson for you if you can even hear me underneath all those pillows and that boy pile pile on up now boys the next day Angela puts it behind her and it's cute and giggly with Paul again but that just gets her in trouble with Meg who shakes her like a rag doll and yelled at by Judy who's jealous that Paul seems to fancy her Judy makes fun of Angela for being underdeveloped with a line that has stuck with me ever since I heard it as a kid I actually have she's a real Carpenters dream signed by Judy's actress Karen fields on this curling iron back here courtesy of Karen's daughter Izzy I met Karen and Izzy filming my first ever event video and monster Palooza back in 2017 Karen was one of my first ever interview she's very nice in person and had a blast playing such a mean character I just felt at ease like I could just be as nasty as I wanted to be you know not think that that was a bad thing to be because it's fine to be nasty thanks so much for the curling iron Karen and Izzy oh and if you're wondering why it's a curling iron you'll find out later Angela leaves her cabin and walks outside passing some kids having a rooftop water balloon fight like that's a normal fucking thing to do head boy Billy and the other kids he's with turn their balloons against Angela but don't worry cuz all shit adidas coming as Paul tends to Angela cousin Ricky runs out and delivers another profane diatribe to the bullies although an improvised rant like that one got actor Jonathan tears tune the role during audition here it gets Ricky in just as much trouble with Mel as Billy in the balloon boys later on Billy hangs back from a baseball game for personal reasons reading material in hand he commences with his wicked dump not knowing that an unseen figure has locked him inside the stall with a broomstick and so Billy is trapped behind a locked door when a beehive is put inside the bathroom with him not sure why he didn't just escape underneath the door because if he had he might not have gotten Nicolas Cage with a bunch of bees oh man more gross skin effects courtesy of Edward French Judas killing it with this nasty shit puns intended if you wanna after this third accident slash murderer almost all of the campers have left Camp Arawa in fact Ronnie says that only 25 kids remain causing Mel to deliver an incensed monologue about his number one suspect Ricky seemed to hate in his eyes but I never did anything for what he's done to the house even though there might be a killer out there Paul and Angela are still meeting up after dark and kissing each other on the beach careful Paul she's a schemer haha gotta manya you little schemer but Paul once again press his past Angelus comfort women clearly our buddy she said no knock it off Angela's apparently triggered into a flashback of her and her sibling as kids giggling at their dad in bed with that Lenny dude from the scene in the beginning this comes out of nowhere nearly an hour into the movie but yeah now this is a thing is it homophobic is it just kids giggling at something they don't understand I don't know I also don't really know the full meaning of this weird shot that ends the flashback why are you pointing so hard little boy Angela yells no and runs away from Paul the date rapist and the next day the camp's remaining campers engage in a group game of grab-ass or capture-the-flag I guess looks a lot like grab-ass to me Paul continues pressing his luck width and body against a clearly uncomfortable Angela and after she rebuffs him Judy swoops in for that rebound II their makeout sesh is discovered by Angela and if that wasn't bad enough for our quiet protagonist she Ben gets accosted at the lake by Meg who lifts Angela up so she can throw her into the water Ricky tries to intervene but get stopped by Mel who accuses him of killing the other kids show you those times there so with Ricky preoccupied angela is tossed into the lake and even after Ricky and the lifeguard helped her out she's laughed at by Judy and Meg and gets Sam thrown at her by some little kids fucking stupid little kids they'll pay for that see Ricky will make sure in another of this movies instances of sexual predation camp owner Mel makes a date with his surely underage counselor meg for later that night grout thanks to a long line in the girls cabin bathroom meg ends up showering in an empty neighboring cabin which is the perfect place for a killer to come in and end Meg's insufferable shower humming that's not even a real song meg Meg gets stabbed in the back with a knife through the aluminum shower wall and is killed when the unseen assailant carves her up and slits her back oh man but hey at least this mystery murderer knows to always keep their tools clean and to preserve water no need to put Mother Earth on the kill cow right Paul tries talking to Angela after that evening social event at the rec hall and when he refuses to leave her alone again she finally capitulates to his whining meet me at the waterfront after so sure good job Paul you successfully wore down I hope you're happy one person who isn't happy is Mel since his child date hasn't shown up for the dinner they plan he ends up looking in the empty cabin where her body inexplicably falls towards him sporting a simple wound made out of wax courtesy of Ed French the body's trajectory doesn't make any sense since it suddenly falls against the shower curtain there but it does lead to an absolutely incredible monologue by now [Applause] [Music] gotta stop him fuck yes give me that not you mag one more time I love it Judy winds up alone in her cabin curling her hair before bed when she's intruded upon by a silhouetted figure oh shit that's clearly Jonathan tear-stained who plays Ricky I don't think this movie was meant to be seen in HD because Jonathan tear-stained is only standing in here as a red herring it is not supposed to be this clear to us that it's just Ricky in a wig yeah we're supposed to be more like Judy and not know who it is the quote-unquote unknown figure approaches Judy and knocks her out with the punch and the mean girl is then killed in a horrendous but thankfully off-screen way after the killer grabs her curling iron and puts a pillow over her face the shadows on the wall tell us everything we need to know as does the resulting scream but in case you needed spelled out for you felissa Rose is here to explain what happened sticking that curling iron up that bitch's vagina damn that is brutal and it manages to be a memorably gruesome kill even though it was done off screen while all this other stuff was going on there was also a small side plot featuring a counselor named Eddie as he led a group of younger kids out on a camping trip after a couple of them complain about how cold it is and he agrees to take them back to the cabins reluctantly leaving the others behind on their own if only he knew that first-person killers were native to this area he might not have had to come back later to find four little bodies hacked up in their sleeping bags these kills are kind of confusing but they're meant to be four of the little shits that threw sand and Angela back when she got thrown into the lake regardless its effective enough to make Eddie throw up he a dude it's safe to say your camp counseling days are over Ricky gets abducted by Mel who yells at him for killing Meg and even slaps the kid to the ground he pounds on Ricky a whole bunch before he's moved into another monologue just like a promise I got him now up and decides that he needs to get away but during his escape he stopped on the archery range by another unseen figure who kills him quickly with a simple arrow to the neck this effect has always impressed me and I finally learned from some blu-rays special features how they did it the way it works is there's a string the string sets the mechanism the cups the second half of the arrow up off his back people are so smart when it comes to making kill Ronnie finds out about the little kids who got killed camping so he calls the cops and they send over the same dude as before only with a much faker mustache this time I guess the actor got another roll and shaved before doing some reshoots they need it that happens all the time trust me I know but couldn't they have at least gotten the right colour for his fakes - while the counselors scramble back to their cabins always at the waterfront for Angela who shows up and suggest that they go skinny-dipping as they dear old officer fakes - finds Ricky badly beaten but still alive while some other counselors find Meg who you know is not still alive that nearly shocks the mustache right off of officer Frank's face Ronnie and another counselor here's some humming and head down to the waterfront where they find Angela sitting naked with her back to them cradling Paul's head in her lap and this is when we get the big reveal a flashback shows Aunt Martha who oh yeah was in this movie excited to welcome a new member to her family she's taking in two surviving child's from the boat accident in the beginning but although Martha calls the child Angela because she's always wanted a daughter it turns out it was the son who survived the accident I know you're going to like that name don't you with that everything falls into place including Paul severed head because he's been decapitated by Angela you know beaches as summer camps are apparently a great place to lose your head as for Angela who's been the killer this whole time the big infamous ending here reveals that she was born as Peter but raised by Martha as Angela again just so you're clear in that boat accident we saw the real Angela Baker died and the surviving child her brother Peter Baker was raised as the new Angela Baker by his aunt Martha obviously this ending is all kinds of loaded in retrospect and since I'm not by any means qualified to comment on it I suggest you check out the podcast episode we did on transgender representation and whored here's some interesting thoughts about this ending and the character of Angela Baker I can comment about the effects here though the filmmakers briefly entertained the idea of having felissa Rose wear a strap-on but her mom wasn't about to let that fly felissa was never going to be allowed to strap that on instead they ended up making a mold of her face and creating a thin mask made of dental acrylic with glass eyeballs an unknown male actor wore the mask as he stood there knew and unfortunately it sounds like when the time came he really didn't want to do it so this guy sat down and started to have a few beers and by the time it was time to shoot he was crying horribly yeah it was really just Supes bizarre and it was freezing because we're by the water and to be nude and to wear the mask of a little girl has to be strange oh man I hate hearing that I hope that dude's okay and is living with the anonymity he desires he's never come out publicly but never to be seen or heard from again now clearly this big twist ending is played for shock value here but to me the scariest part of this whole thing is the intense music [Music] playing over Angela's intense face which is then turned an intense photo negative looking green as the credits begin to roll what and ending how many people did Angela Baker arrow whack at summer camp let's find out and get to the numbers [Music] [Music] 12 people died in sleepaway camp and the victims ages were all over the place we ended up with nine male victims and three female victims giving us a three to one ratio of dudes and with the runtime of 85 minutes that left us with a kill on average just over every seven minutes I'll get the golden chainsaw for coolest kill - Judy it's absolutely horrendous but I like that it's left to the imagination you got a respect a kill that manages to be this memorable despite not being on screen at all dole machete for lamest kill we'll go to the four campers hacked up in their sleeping bags since even writer director Robert Hiltzik has said that those deaths don't make a lot of sense if I have one regret in the film it's the scene with the little kids if I had the chance to do it again I would probably do something different it's the one part of the film that I'm kind of uncomfortable with and that's it sleepaway camp came out in 1983 and as a movie I can watch multiple times a year without ever getting bored of it I'm less keen on the sequels which we'll start to look at next week but until then I'm James Agee nice this has been the kill cow at one time in a little bubble we filmed this little horror movie together and it was like one of the best moments of my life I mean I they gave me like I know it's like this little cheesy horror movie but it was like you know it was my little dream that came true and it afforded me a lot of things in life

Channel: Dead Meat

Views: 6,707,995

Rating: 4.9382091 out of 5

Keywords: horror, dead meat, movies, scary, films, kills, kill count, body count, james a. janisse, jaj, pine commander boogie, nightmare vacation, slasher, 80s, eighties, old, cheesy, twist, ending, felissa rose, jonathan tiersten, christopher collett, karen fields, angela, boy, girl, katherine kamhi, desiree gould, flashback, boat, cousin, shock, shocking, big twist, DMKC

Id: t0ZpAHKfHHE

Length: 25min 51sec (1551 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/thebrood138]

Finally.
Finally I learn why those little kids got hacked up. It always bugged me that their deaths seemed so random.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Also, thanks for mentioning that ridiculous giant pot in the Kitchen. I tried to look online for a pot that big and yeah, that thing had to be made for the movie, its insane.

[u/ChopNC93]

LADY, YOU'RE SCARING US.

[u/JakeZoso311]

I BELIEVE THERE’S A WHOLE BAG!

So fucking happy James thought that was as funny as I did. Also I think this could be my favorite Kill Count ever! Good work James!

[u/mysteryscienceloser]

eats shit and lives

[u/Nadocomedy]

It's a BOYYYYYYYY PILEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[u/gclem16]

Wow! So I actually only finished the movie about 4 hours ago off Prime so I could have it fresh in my mind. First time seeing it and it was wow. I’ll admit it isn’t my favorite horror movie out there. But it was still really good. I very much agree with James it felt so real. At least the campers aspect. I said that and that was one of my singing praises about the movie. Nothing felt forced. I’m also glad to hear Judy was a nice actress because god I know she was your typical female teenage bully but she was so convincing I hated her and I was feeling like I was upfront like damn Judy why you attacking me? James didn’t show the scene where Suzie I think(?) slapped Judy for bullying Anglea. It wasn’t hard but still satisfying. Nah but forreal she did a good job. The dialogue was top notch also. Memorable and memey lines for the future. So I actually heard about this huge twist ending that was one of the most memorable horror twists in a long time. So of course as the movie goes on. I can’t help but try my hardest in guessing everything. Of course I knew something from the beginning connected to this but I couldn’t figure it out. I was scenarioing everything. I did not expect that ending. I was in shock. I even thought it was a guy when they showed the very obviously veiny hands in earlier kills. So I was ok maybe a counselor or something? But I read they did that on purpose. So that was really dope. Also I know I like hearing movie stuff behind the scenes so I’ll share a kind of fun but not so fun fact. The kid who was on the receiving end of the pranks the ass to face kid. Was actually bullied on set by other kids on set not crazy or anything but to an extent one of the camp counselor actors would help out and protect him and tell them to knock it off. So that’s about it for me. I liked this movie a lot. I’d probably revisit in the future. This is one of the few times where I went out of my way to watch a movie myself that I haven’t seen before James covered it. None ever interested me enough that I hadn’t seen so I just let James cover it and that was my first interaction with the movie. But like James said experience this by itself before the kill count. The kill count was great. Kills were top notch and jokes were funny. 3 things before I finish off I really wish that creepy pedo fuck actually died, also I’m glad James explained why those 4 kids got killed that really caught me off guard and lastly this movie felt so 80s you could not know the release date then watch it and easily guess 80s. I liked that.

[u/Jagu721]

That ending actually gave me chills.

[u/accountingbro24]

This is one of my favorite horror movies and I'm so glad this got covered! I was dying at all the commentary. It was so spot on! I love how much Felissa loves this movie because it does seem so small compared to other franchises and the cast seemed to have a great time with it. Also I need that camp arawak shirt.

[u/procouchpotatohere]

God I can only imagine all of the people who never saw this movie before this video reactions to the ending. Has to be the creepiest ending to a movie(with that creepy music) I've ever seen which is the cherry on top of how morbid af this movie is.

Kids getting massacred in horrific ways, a pedo, a creepy psychotic aunt, adultery, adults wearing clothes that are far too revealing, off putting line delivery and camera angles with all of that and more among a seemingly pleasant looking camp for kids. The other movies are also pretty brutal, but this one has an eerie feeling to it more than them.

Also jesus, the guy who played rickie was 17 here? Looks like he was 12. Hope he's doing ok now.