Sleepaway Camp
Sleepaway Camp is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Robert Hiltzik.
A cheap, badly acted summer camp slasher with an ending that has been argued about for forty years.
goreledger editorial rating: 5/10 · Read the review
Sign in to track what you have survived.
A shy girl is sent to camp with her cousin after a boating accident killed her family. Campers and staff start dying.
For eighty minutes it is a poor Friday the 13th imitation with a memorably horrible aunt and dialogue nobody could deliver.
Then there is the final shot, which is held for a long time, and which is the reason anybody has heard of the film. It is truly shocking, it is achieved with a still image and a sound, and it has been the subject of continuous debate about what the film is actually saying.
Robert Hiltzik wrote and directed it and did not make another film for twenty years.
The treatment of its ending is a product of 1983 and reads very differently now, which is worth knowing before you watch it rather than after.
Goreledger editorial rating
5 / 10
A poor Friday the 13th imitation for eighty minutes, with an aunt and a script nobody could deliver. The held final shot is the reason anyone has heard of it, and it reads very differently now. Cult interest, not quality.
Our opinion, not an average. How we rate
Goreledger editorial profile
Describes the film, not its quality: high gore means very gory.
Rate this film
No ratings yet. Score it on the five axes and yours will be the first.
Sign in to rate this and add it to your shelf.
Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Canada
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.
Adjacent
obscureRevenge of the Bogey Man
Roughly 40 percent flashback to the first film. A sequel assembled rather than made.
WATCHobscureThe Slayer
A painter's nightmares kill people on an off-season island. Genuinely atmospheric and badly underrated.
cultPranks
A dorm over Christmas break and a plot that runs out. Notable mainly for an early Daphne Zuniga.
WATCHcultVisiting Hours
Michael Ironside stalking a hospital. A real cast, a real budget, and no business being on the list.
WATCHcanonBlack Christmas
Four years before Halloween and still the most frightening film in the category.
WATCHcanonFriday the 13th
Copied Halloween without any of the craft, added Savini, and proved the formula worked anyway.
- Next in Slasher: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) →