Sleepaway Camp is a 1983 American slasher film written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, and starring Mike Kellin (in his last on-screen appearance), Katherine Kamhi, and Paul DeAngelo alongside Jonathan Tiersten, Felissa Rose, Christopher Collet (in his film debut), and Karen Fields.

It earned approximately $11 million at the box office, but was met by largely unfavorable reviews from critics, many of whom deemed it exploitative and derivative of such films as Friday the 13th (1980).

In the years since its release, Sleepaway Camp has gone on to develop a cult following, as well as garnering notoriety for its twist ending, which is considered one of the most shocking in the horror genre[5][6][7] and in film history at large.

Due to her introverted nature, Angela is bullied, with fellow camper Judy and camp counselor Meg her primary tormentors.

Ronnie and Susie find a naked Angela humming and clutching a hunting knife and Paul's severed head.

Unlike many of its contemporaries, which had adults portraying youth, the cast of Sleepaway Camp was primarily made up of adolescent actors.

[4] Upon its original release, the film was frequently compared to Friday the 13th due to their shared settings and whodunit plot structure.

[16] Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times felt the film was derivative and gruesome, but conceded that its pacing was adept and that director Hiltzik portrayed the often cruel and abusive behavior of teenagers towards another young person.

[17] In the Chula Vista Star-News's review, the film was deemed "a tasteless picture about mysterious murders at a summer youth camp that obscenely blends beheadings, stabbings, pubescent impulses, homosexuality, and transvestism" with a cast of junior-high-school actors.

[20] The News-Press gave it a favorable review, calling it "a shockingly good slasher film, if you use the relatively fine, first Friday the 13th as a measuring stick... it's just another crazed killer stalking nubile summer campers.

The website's consensus reads: "Sleepaway Camp is a standard teen slasher elevated by occasional moments of John Waters-esque weirdness and a twisted ending.

[14] AllMovie wrote in its review on the film: "While most of the gender-bending story's sexual confusion is ultimately half-baked... Sleepaway Camp is distinctive enough to warrant required viewing for genre enthusiasts".

[27] He further commented on the film's conclusion: "The epiphanous ending brings Sleepaway Camp further away from the likes of Friday the 13th and closer to such 1980s 'slashers with a twist' as Happy Birthday to Me (1981) and April Fool's Day (1986), but Hiltzik's movie goes even further than that: in this case the denouement doesn't just add a new dimension to everything we saw up to this point, but it pushes its way deep into our minds and stays with us forever".

[29][30] Willow Maclay, a transgender writer for Cléo magazine, criticized the film for its "equation of mental instability with having grown up in a gender role not concurrent with your identity.

Nearly every single transgender person grows up being raised in a gender role that does not fit, and that doesn't mean that they are mentally ill or seriously violent".

[30] BJ Colangelo, in an editorial for Dread Central, similarly felt the film had transphobic and homophobic implications due to its representation of Angela and Angela's gay father, but conceded that the film has metaphorical merit for showing the unfavorable and violent consequences for a character who is forced into gender roles that do not align with their identity.

[29] She compared the character to David Reimer, a Canadian man who, as a child, was forced by his parents to live as a girl following a botched circumcision.

[29] Addams further stated that the film should be assessed in the context of the period in which it was made: "I would just say that I enjoy Sleepaway Camp for what it is, which is schlocky '80s horror with a unique twist ending.

And I think it's the worst possible portrayal of a supposedly trans storyline, à la Buffalo Bill, or Dressed to Kill, or any of those types of films.

[29] Transgender writer Alice Collins of Bloody Disgusting said that Sleepaway Camp "is steeped in queerness, especially when compared to its contemporaries.

I feel as though Angela was a typical adolescent trying to find her gender identification and sexual orientation and I thought that was extremely exciting for 1982.

[44][45] Another sequel, Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, directed by Jim Markovic, was partially filmed in the early 1990s but left incomplete.

[27] In 2002, the unfinished footage was released and made available as an exclusive fourth disc in Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment's Sleepaway Camp DVD boxed set.

Karen Fields reprised her role from Sleepaway Camp in the 2014 short film Judy, although it wasn't technically a sequel.

The Jeff Hayes-directed film was included in the collector's edition Blu-ray release of the original Sleepaway Camp.