Headscratchers / Sleepaway Camp

• Was Paul a closeted bisexual? There are at least two situations where that theory can be deemed credible. The first is when Peter tricks Mozart into doing the "mind over matter" situp. When Mozart finally performs the mind over matter situp, Mozart's face hits Paul's naked rear end and Paul seems to take great pleasure on the results. The second occasion is when we see Paul's severed head at the end. Before we learn that Paul is dead, Angela is sitting naked on the beach alongside Paul's naked body. Angela is caressing Paul's head and Paul has a serene smile on his face. Now Paul and Angela got naked together and Paul had to have seen Angela's crotch, you'd think he wouldn't be smiling unless Paul was a bisexual and still wanted to go through with it. The smile on Paul's dead face says a whole lot about what he experienced. Paul was clearly sexually satisfied and didn't see his death coming. It can also be argued that Paul's bunkmates dogpiling him on his bed was proof of his closeted bisexuality. But that example could just be an example of "Boys will be Boys"
• How in the hell did Aunt Martha get away with parading Peter around as his dead sister for so long?! The boating accident happened in broad daylight and involved multiple people and witnesses, so there had to have been a police investigation. Peter would have certainly been taken to the hospital right afterwards and they would have easily identified his gender and identity long before his aunt got to him. Therefore, it would have been a matter of public record that Peter Baker survived and that Angela Baker was dead. Court records would also state that Martha had obtained custody of her nephew Peter. Yes, a lot of Martha’s abuse would have occurred behind closed doors, but it’s not unreasonable to think that a social worker might have dropped by to make sure Peter was adjusting to his new home. Wouldn’t any friends or neighbors have found it odd that the news is saying that Angela was killed and suddenly Martha is introducing them to her niece? What about school? How would Peter attend school as Angela if she’s legally dead? If Martha did somehow finagle it so he attended under Angela’s name, then why didn’t anyone question Martha on why there is no record of Peter attending school? Did no teacher notice anything was off? Yes, there is a moment near the beginning that hints Martha’s been faking the kids’ physical records, but did “Angela” never need to visit the school nurse? For that matter, where the hell was Ricky in all this?! Did he know this was going on? True, kids can be coerced to keep quiet about horrific abuse (hell, having to be compliant in his cousin’s abuse could explain a great deal of Ricky’s anger issues), but there’s still the chance he might have slipped up and said something to someone that could have triggered an investigation. Does social services just not exist in this universe? Frankly the fact that this was able to carry on for eight years boggles the mind.
  • I suppose the most logical explanation is that Martha moved house or far away from where the accident happened. Or else she already lived far away. I suppose she didn't make the decision to change his gender until after all the legal procedures had been settled. As for news reports, this stuff gets less coverage than you'd think. It was a simple boating accident with no foul play and therefore no more than a week's coverage at best. If neighbours see a niece apparently living with Martha and remember hearing about the niece being killed, they'll just assume they're remembering wrong. In the days before internet, it'd be hard to hunt down a news story and get confirmation. And do they have any reason to believe that Martha is raising her nephew as a girl? Schooling is a bit harder to explain but it's possible the children were home-schooled. Martha's a doctor and surely able to afford a tutor for them. It would explain why Angela is so awkward around other kids. She's never socialised before. Since it's a child we're dealing with, the ruse was easier to pull off. With Martha being a doctor, that takes care of the biggest problem. But yes, the truth would have come out once 'Angela' turned eighteen.
• Why is Angela Baker in part 2 and 3 a wisecracking serial killer who make bad puns? Wasn't she a quiet, shy, anti-social girl in the first movie? Angela in the sequels is talkative, fun loving, and likes to sing.
  • Even the fourth/fifth film, which was meant to be rerail the series, had her dress up as a cop, kill people who hadn't antagonized her in over-the-top ways, and loudly explain her motivation at the end. The short and unsatisfying answer is that her time in the asylum in both timelines changed her, and she started a crusade against all bullies, not just those that bullied her.
    • Sequelitis. The twist of the original movie is something you can only pull off once, and the reason for Angela's being mostly silent in the first film (the voice would have given away the true identity) was a moot point, so they just leaned into the campiness for future movies.
    • In-universe, it's very probable that Angela's murder spree and acceptance of her gender identity has caused her to become far more outgoing. Character Development? It also seems that Angela lucked out by being actually transgender (perhaps to be an Author's Saving Throw), she's just a serial killer too.
  • It still comes off as a pro-transphobia twist.
• Does Ricky know that Angela is really Peter? Did Martha lie to him?
  • No he doesn't. During the climactic flashback, Martha mentions how happy Ricky will be "to have a little girl in the house" so Peter/Angela arrives at their house without Ricky being present. This was possibly Ricky's first year away at camp (Peter and Angela asked their father about going to camp during the prologue).
  • It's probable that Ricky knows but he's under his Aunt's thumb enough that this might all be "normal" to him.
• Does "Angela" count as a case of Gender dysphoria? Near as I can tell this not a case of a boy thinking he was meant to be a girl, this is a case of an abusive parent forcing a traumatised boy into a role for her own sick fantasy.
  • It might still be considered gender dysphoria in the sense that Peter is being forced to act out a gender with which he doesn't identify. It's just that the gender with which he does identify happens to be his birth-assigned gender, as opposed to trans or queer people who identify as other than their assigned gender. (Then again, it's also a silly slasher movie that probably didn't think too hard about the implications.)
    • Later Angela fully embraces being a girl and probably is trans. Its probably best not to think on it too much.
• Aren't the Sleepaway Camp sequels more transphobic than the original, and adding the unfortunate implication that it's AOK to be forced into a gender identity not your own because you'll eventually adapt to it just fine?