History Film / SleepawayCamp

* WouldHurtAChild: Mel beats Ricky to a near pulp. [[spoiler:Granted, it's because he thought he was the killer, but still. He thankfully gets his just deserts from the real killer with an arrow to the neck]].

** [[spoiler:Judy's]] death is more disturbing because we're not shown what happens when she is killed with the curling iron.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Angela]] scalds the pedophile cook with boiling water.

* MyBelovedSmother: Aunt Martha to Ricky.

* AmbiguouslyGay / AmbiguouslyBi: [[spoiler:Angela]], who appears interested in both men and women. [[spoiler:She]] even attracts a male admirer and seems to reciprocate [[spoiler:his]] feelings. [[spoiler:Then there's the reveal that Angela is really Peter...]]

* AmbiguouslyGay / AmbiguouslyBi: [[spoiler:Angela]], who appears interested in both men and women. [[spoiler:She]] even attracts a male admirer and seems to reciprocate his feelings. [[spoiler:Then there's the reveal that Angela is really Peter...]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:The movie ends on Ronnie and Susie discovering "Angela's" secret, leaving their fates unknown. However, Ronnie winds up returning in one of the later films, revealing Angela spared him and likely Susie as well.]]

** Judy is incredibly self centered, insecure and jealous. Her ego is so massive that she becomes envious of Paul and Angela despite having several other men fawn over her constantly. Apparently the idea of a girl who isn't like her, that also has a man's attention, just rubs her the wrong way. Interestingly it's implied that before she hit puberty she wasn't such a jerkass with a high opinion of herself.

%%* ImpendingDoomPOV: Both subverted and played straight.

* {{Jerkass}}: Pretty much every one who is targeted by the killer. There's also [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Aunt Martha]].
%% *JerkJock: Campers Billy and Mike.

** Aunt Martha. Although [[spoiler:there is a FreezeFrameBonus in ''Film/ReturnToSleepawayCamp'' that shows a newspaper clipping about what Aunt Martha did to Peter and mentioning that she is in police custody. So presumably she did face the consequences of her actions, albeit [[OffscreenKarma off-screen]]]].

** Mike is notable in that of the various bullies in the film, he goes completely unharmed.

* KubrickStare: Angela seems to pull this off frequently.

* LoveDodecahedron: Bordering on AllLoveIsUnrequited. Ricky and Judy dated the summer before, but Judy isn't interested in him anymore now that she's "more mature". Instead, she's interested in Paul, who's seems attracted but is more interested in Angela, who returns his feelings but freaks out anytime they get too close. [[spoiler: By the end, Judy and Paul are dead, rendering the whole thing moot.]]
* [[spoiler: MaleFrontalNudity: Peter at the end to reveal his true gender]].
* MayDecemberRomance: Mel is in his late fifties-early sixties at the youngest, and is in a relationship with the late teens/early twenties Meg.
* MyBelovedSmother: Aunt Martha to Angela.

* NightmareFace: [[spoiler:The final shot of the film is Angela staring at Susie and Ronnie with an unsettling wide-eyed, gaping smile.]]

%%* OhCrap: The ending and its reveal.

%%* PedoHunt: Averted. It's no secret that Artie is pedophile, but nobody cares.
* PeekABooCorpse: Several victims are discovered this way. One beneath a boat and another corpse falling from behind a shower curtain.
* PrimalScene: PlayedForDrama. [[spoiler:Angela and her brother Peter, as kids, saw their father spooning which another man (not sex, just embracing lovingly), which seemed to confuse them more than anything else. Peter, now being forced to be a girl against his will, is now deeply confused about his own sexuality and flashes back to this when contemplating being hit on by Paul. Unable to sort his feelings out, he eventually winds up murdering Paul.]]
* PsychosexualHorror: In this 1983 horror movie, a girl called Angela is the sole survivor of a boat accident that kills her father and brother and she's sent to a summer camp. [[spoiler: In the movie, Angela is revealed to be Peter, her brother, who was forced to adopt his better-received sister's identity by his adoptive aunt because she didn't want to raise another boy. As Angela, Peter is kissed by Paul and it reminds him of a time when he saw his father and his boyfriend Lenny after they had sex. Peter doesn't understand sex, never had the talk (or had the talk properly), and he doesn't understand the harmless nature of John and Lenny's relationship. These feelings are horrifying and deeply confusing for Peter and it causes him to go insane and murder people for mistreating him and for treating him as a girl.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Ronnie, the buffed-up, muscle-shirt-wearing counselor, really does care about the kids and their safety in the face of the killings, far moreso than the selfish, asshole owner of the camp. He gets a PetTheDog moment early on when he politely tries to get a homesick Angela to eat her lunch. Another counselor, Susie, also counts, as she's always kind towards Angela, to the point that she loses it and slaps Judy in the face when the latter wouldn't stop her nasty verbal abuse towards Angela.
* RedHerring: Hints that [[spoiler:Ricky]] is the killer. While this is obvious to viewers it later works in the film's favor, as TheReveal is more terrifying. There's a twist, just not of the nature you thought you were getting. This was all made more confusing by the fact that [[spoiler:Ricky's]] actor did all the 'kill scenes'.
* RewatchBonus: The prologue confirms that Aunt Martha is a doctor, and before the kids go off to camp she produces forms stating they've already undergone their physicals. [[spoiler: She wouldn't want a counselor checking Angela out more thoroughly]].
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Mel soon connects the dots as to why the victims are being targeted. [[spoiler:They have all wronged Angela.]] But then blames the wrong person. He suspects [[spoiler:Ricky is murdering people out of some twisted desire to protect Angela. When in reality "Angela" is actually killing them personally]].
** Judy teases Angela about never showering with the others, saying that's properly out of shame for not having developed yet. [[spoiler: Angela is in fact hiding her body from the other girls, but from completely different reasons.]]
* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler:Angela's flashback sequence acts as a case of foreshadowing for the viewer. In the flashback, a young Peter points at Angela's chest after they both witness a post-erotic moment between Lenny and John. The reveal of Peter being the surviving twin explains the flashback, flashback-Peter was Angela's true identity trying to resurface. Since he didn't understand sex or the harmless nature of John and Lenny's relationship, he freaked out when Paul kissed him since it reminded him of his trauma and true identity.]]
* SickeninglySweethearts: Everyone makes fun of Paul and Angela for being this. They sort of are for a while until [[spoiler:the end]].
%%* SirSwearsALot: Ricky.
* ShadowDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:Judy's]] death. We don't explicitly see what the killers done, only that it involves a curling iron and an awful lot of pain.
* ShesAllGrownUp: PlayedWith. Paul, in an admittedly juvenile manner, points out to Ricky that Judy's hit puberty since last they met. However she doesn't think Ricky's any good for her now that she's "more mature" and Ricky takes an instant disliking to her new found personality.

* SoundtrackDissonance: On the ending credits.

* SympathyForTheDevil: [[spoiler:Angela. Rather than view "her" as aimless psycho killer, you can actually pity her]]. And that's pretty scary in itself.

* TransRelationshipTroubles: [[spoiler:Every time Angela is about to get closer to her male admirer, she freezes up and runs away before snapping and killing him in the end. And considering her secret that she really is Peter, one would think maybe she murdered Paul because he discovered her secret.]]

* UnsettlingGenderReveal: [[spoiler:Used for the infamous twist ending where Ronnie and Susie discover that the killer is not only Angela, but Angela is actually Peter and the camera zooms out exposing his male genitalia. It's also implied that this is what led to Paul's demise at the hands of Angela/Peter.]]

** A less innocent example would be [[spoiler:Aunt Martha]]. True, [[spoiler:her forcing Peter to adopt the identity of his dead sister was horrifying and abusive]] but she probably didn't expect it [[spoiler:to escalate to serial murder]].
* TheVoiceless: Initially Angela. Though she soon upgrades to TheQuietOne.

** Ronnie drops one as well at the twist ending:

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:The movie ends on Ronnie and Susie discovering "Angela's" secret, leaving their fates unknown. Ronnie winds up returning in one of the later films.]]
* WhenSheSmiles: Angela is typically meant to look like a CreepyChild with an expressionless ThousandYardStare. When not being abused by bullies and talking to Ricky and Paul, Angela comes out of her shell a little and starts smiling, which makes her look adorable.

* WouldHurtAChild: Mel beats up Ricky to a near pulp. [[spoiler:Granted it's because he thought he was the killer but still. Thankfully he gets his just deserts from the real killer with an arrow to the neck.]] Not to mention [[spoiler:Angela/Peter]], the movie's killer, who butchers multiple children in the woods.

* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:Aunt Martha is the abusive carer of Angela. However, the plot twist reveals "Angela" was actually ''Peter''. The boy survived the boat crash and Aunt Martha insisted she wanted a daughter. She forced him to take on the identity "Angela", causing Peter to develop gender dysphoria that only got worse during his emerging sexuality.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay / AmbiguouslyBi: [[spoiler:Angela]] who is capable of seducing and killing her victims, both male and female. She even attracts a male admirer but seems shy to get close to him. [[spoiler:Then there's the reveal that Angela is really Peter...]]
* AssholeVictim: Most of the victims. Most notably Artie the cook, who ''really'' likes children (yes, in ''that'' way). Ironically, he's also the only victim who doesn't die. Though if he survived his grave injuries it's likely a FateWorseThanDeath. He's horribly disfigured and likely blind by the time he's rolled off to hospital. However some of the victims are selected for very petty reasons, most notably [[spoiler:the young children murdered for being [[BrattyHalfPint bratty]] and kicking sand at Angela]].[[note]]The director even regretted the last one, finding the children didn't deserve that.[[/note]]
* AxCrazy: The killer has a lot of pent-up aggression as shown by the brutality.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Ricky was very protective of Angela throughout the movie. His behavior is the reason why camp owner Mel suspected him as killing kids that picked on Angela. (Whether [[AmbiguousSituation he knows the truth]] about [[spoiler:Angela]] is left unknown.)
%% *BigOMG: During TheReveal.
* ButtMonkey: Mozart who is on the receiving end of several pranks in the boys cabin.

%%* ClassClown: Kenny.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Aunt Martha is a particularly creepy one [[spoiler:that is ultimately responsible for the whole mess due to her madness]].
* CradlingYourKill: [[spoiler:Angela, or rather Peter, holds Paul in his arms.]]

* DeathOfAChild: The opening has a child dying in a boating accident along with the father. [[spoiler: 'Angela/Peter' also kills a group of younger camp children for throwing water and sand on her]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler: Angela kills a group of young children]] for throwing water and sand on her. Even the director later regretted this.
* DontGoInTheWoods: Several kids take a trip to the woods, and never return.

* TheEndingChangesEverything: The last scene reveals [[spoiler: Angela actually died in the boating accident as a child, and Aunt Martha instead raised Peter to be his sister]].

** Meg takes a shower...[[spoiler: and gets stabbed through the back!]]
** Paul shirtless towards the end [[spoiler: when he's been killed and Angela/Peter is cradling his head]].

* FreudianExcuse: The killer has a doozy of one. [[spoiler:Peter's family died in a boating accident and his aunt forced him to dress in women's clothing and otherwise pretend to be her niece, who she preferred but actually died in the accident.]]
* FullFrontalAssault: The final scene. The counselors walk on [[spoiler:a nude Angela, revealing her male genitalia, bloody hatchet in her hand as a decapitated Paul lies on the ground.]]

* HarmfulToMinors: Angela witnessing the death of her family. [[spoiler:Well, Peter witnessing his father and sister's deaths more accurately.]]

* AlphaBitch: Judy. She seemingly goes out of her way to be bitchy and hostile toward Angela. And arguably worse than Judy is Meg, one of the counselors, who is extremely nasty and aggressive towards Angela in a way that would get her fired if anybody else but Mel had been running that camp.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Ricky was very protective of Angela throughout the movie. His behavior is the reason why camp owner Mel suspected him as killing kids that picked on Angela. (Whether [[AmbiguousSituation knows the truth]] about [[spoiler:Angela]] is left unknown.)

* GroinAttack: Happened to [[spoiler:Judy]]. With a curling iron to boot! However, whilst the scene indicates the possibility, it never explicitly shows what happened.

* RewatchBonus: The prologue confirms that Aunt Martha is a doctor, and before the kids go off to camp she produces forms stating they've already undergone their physicals. [[spoiler: She wouldn't want a counsellor checking Angela out more thoroughly]].

** Aunt Martha. Although [[spoiler:there is a FreezeFrameBonus in Film/ReturnToSleepawayCamp that shows a newspaper clipping about what Aunt Martha did to Peter and mentioning that she is in police custody. So presumably she did face the consequences of her actions, albeit off-screen]].

* [[HasTwoMommies Has Two Daddies]]: Angela's dad's boyfriend didn't get custody after the accident.

* VomitIndiscretionShot: Jeff upon discovering [[spoiler:the bodies of butchered camp children]].

%% *NightmareFace: [[spoiler:The final shot of the film.]]

* KidsAreCruel: The little kids who kick sand at Angela and throw water at her.

* AssholeVictim: Most of the victims. Most notably Artie the cook, who ''really'' likes children (yes, in ''that'' way). Ironically, he's also the only victim who doesn't die. Though if he survived his grave injuries it's likely a FateWorseThanDeath. He's horribly disfigured and likely blind by the time he's rolled off to hospital. However some of the victims are selected for very petty reasons, most notably [[spoiler:the young children murdered for being a bit bratty and kicking sand at Angela]].[[note]]The director even regretted the last one, finding the children didn't deserve that.[[/note]]

* KnifeNut: [[spoiler:Meg]] is killed with a knife pulled down through her spine.

* AbusiveMom: [[spoiler:Aunt Martha is the abusive carer of Angela. However, the plot twist reveals "Angela" was actually ''Peter''. The boy survived the boat crash and Aunt Martha insisted she wanted a daughter. She forced him to take on the identity "Angela", causing Peter to develop gender dysphoria that only got worse during his emerging sexuality.]]

* FollowTheLeader: So wait, an old summer camp is being reopened and a killer starts offing people. [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 Sounds kinda familiar.]]

* BigOMG: During TheReveal.

* ClassClown: Kenny.

* {{Dedication}}: Robert Hiltzik dedicated the movie to his mother.

* ImpendingDoomPOV: Both subverted and played straight.

* JerkJock: Campers Billy and Mike.

** Aunt Martha. Although [[spoiler:there is a FreezeFrameBonus in Film/ReturnToSleepawayCamp that shows a newspaper clipping about what Aunt Martha did to Peter and mentioning that she is in police custody. So presumably she did face the consequences of her actions, albeit offscreen]].

* MaleFrontalNudity: [[spoiler:Peter at the end to reveal his true gender]].

* NightmareFace: [[spoiler:The final shot of the film.]]

* OhCrap: The ending and its reveal.
* PedoHunt: Averted. It's no secret that Artie is pedophile, but nobody cares.

* SirSwearsALot: Ricky.