The opening music to this is perfect, the opening credits do well to set the tone, and the sounds of children at a now abandoned camp just set you off-kilter right away. I actually think modern film makers could learn a little bit just from this opening sequence, although most modern movies eschews opening credits, this film shows how well they can work in your favor when you do it right. Low-budget as this movie was, and some of it's effects show that, it was still far more competent than most modern movies, but as horror film, is it scary? No. It's really more of a strange mystery than a horror film, and it really helps if you go in blind, this review will have spoilers, i recommend you stop reading now if you have never scene it.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
I originally watch this 20yrs ago, which is crazy to say. I wanted to revisit it, honestly, because of the insane reinterpretations this film gets as transphobic or insensitive, neither of which is true. This story is a tragedy and very sad, something I will elaborate on this later. The pace is slow, but there is constantly something simmering under the surface, despite the normalcy of a lot of the scenes of kids goofing around or playing sports. Most of the effects are good, but yes, raspberries are used to look like a really bad bee sting, which is unintentionally funny, and I will give them points for creativity.
The opening sequence is kind of silly honestly. At the same time, it is well-done with fantastic music. Again it continues to give you this weird off-kilter tone in it's absurdity, it does well to hide what later happens in the film. Right up to Aunt Martha who is gross and creepy right off the bat. Angela seems off from the beginning as very uncomfortable, she seems like she is miserable and angry, about to snap. The reference to physicals, and how they were "unethically acquired", of course later comes into play.
I cannot praise the score enough, I never realized how good it was. The creepy old pedophile cook is introduced, as well as the young campers. The kids in this movie are actually kids, unlike the movies is is copying, such as "Friday the 13th" or "The Burning", but takes it in a much twisted direction. The girls are properly catty from the get-go. If you don't think girls are like this, you haven't forced to sleep in a room with girls that you do not know. The movie is populated with normal looking people. Fat children were rare back then, it was not common at all. You might get a mildly chubby kid, but that is about it. The kids and adults look pretty average for the time it was made some 40yrs ago, and I appreciate that.
Felissa Rose does a very good job and her eyes are highly expressive. The sequels with Pamela Springsteen are not nearly as well-done. Even though they are fun in their own ways. Given Felissa's largely silent performance; it can be very easy to dismiss he performance is wooden, which is actually not true in the slightest. She says a lot with her blank stare, she looks very sad at times without playing it up, and angry, again without overplaying it. When Angela finally speaks and smiles, it is such a sweet moment.
There are a lot of other silly and goofy hijinks going on in this film with teens doing what teens do, being jerks and being stupid. The language isn't polished, and it is pretty harsh to hear honestly, but it's part of the charm and it's something that is missing from a lot of films; authenticity. I know when I grew up, and still today, kids tend to have pretty foul moths, but I honestly think it was worse back then than it is now. We made all kinds of inappropriate jokes and use "bad" language all of the time. I can confirm that yes, guys still do the stupid shaving cream prank, things haven't change too much. Judy and Meg are perfect mean girls, in fact they are a lot more true to life than most of the other depictions I have seen on TV or in media, save maybe other older movies such as the original "Carrie".
Like a lot of the 1980's films, it indeed very homoerotic. There are a lot of shots of guys in short shorts, guys in crop tops, guy butts. This was not an unusual thing in the 1980's to see in movies, in fact it's a lot more uncommon now due to people being too sensitive and year of insane political correctness.
There are some really deep themes here actually involving trauma which are hinted at early on, but don't come into play until the last 30 minutes. We start to see disturbing memories emerge from Angela. These scenes, again, have great movie, they are well shot, and contain a really good usage of panning shots. They hint at very disturbing incidences and severe trauma.
I think people are wrong when they call this a poorly made film, they are absolutely wrong. This film is a study of how trauma can effect people, and I am serious. This movie is a tragedy at its core, and it is a very sad story, it starts with tragedy and ands with tragedy. In my opinion, every sequel cheapens this film. They are just garbage exploitation, this film, in my opinion is not truly exploitation because it actually handles its subject with sensitivity. It also handles the subject with an honesty that mainstream studios would not have used then, and no one would now either.
When I watched this 20yrs ago, even though now I see all of the clues it lays out, I did not guess the twist. I never saw it coming in a million years. Watching it now, it isn't obvious, but it is there if you really pay attention.
The build up to the conclusion is pretty good, and it is those quiet moments, the normal moments that just makes everything else better when it actually gets crazy. Crazy it does go indeed. Compare this to the lesser known "Cheer Camp", now that movie is absolute trash, entertaining as it may be, it's still trash. Seriously go watch it on youtube, you'll see, tell after watching this that this is just another bad slasher movie set at a camp, it isn't.
When we get the reveal, the usage of flashback is masterful, and it is never overused in the film, it is used just enough to build the story. When we see this reveal and we find out Angela is really a boy, we see it first in flashack, but everyone remembers the final reveal, which is full front nudity of a man(not Felissa Rose), she had no idea this was the end actually. She's talked about this in interviews. Her Aunt Martha literally forced her nephew you to be a girl, and when you combine it with the other flashbacks, Martha's husband left her, and Angela saw her father in bed with a man even if this was a woman it would be gross honestly, and then Angela(Peter) violates his sister. It also appears that the boating accident that killed his sister and his brother actually happened at the same lake, if you look and compare, they sure look the same.
This is why I believe Angela finally snaps, the combination of being attracted to someone he's afraid to show his real self to, the trauma he's endured, and being back where he father and sister died, is too much.
This is very heavy subject matter indeed. I would like to point to the MANY real life examples we have of this now, where mothers are actually forcing their sons to become daughters, look up the case of James Younger, it is sick and twisted. That is not a lone case either. This sadly, was a prophetic movie. And if you look up Walt Heyer's story, you'll see his grandma forced him to dress up in girls clothes all of the time. This had a huge impact on him later, and was not a good thing. These things have been going on a long time, and I think what makes some people mad is not that this movie has this exposing this horrifying occurrence because it does indeed happen.
This movie stands the test of time because it actually is mostly well-made, although it has it's goofy moments, Mel is a big over the top for instance, yet as a whole it holds together. The effects are decent, although as earlier stated, kind of silly at times The music is fantastic except maybe the closing theme, the cinematographer is truly exceptional, amazing flashback scenes(it's usage of a dark black backdrop for the memories is genius, giving them a dreamlike quality), the performances are mostly solid, the writing has fairly realistic dialog, even though the scenario is far-fetched, the motivations of the killer is solid and makes sense. It has one of the best twist in the history of cinema, largely because it does not pull punches, it goes straight for the jugular.
Well worth a watch if you are not highly sensitive, and can handle heavy subject matter that is dealt with in a very straightforward matter,
SPOILERS AHEAD:
I originally watch this 20yrs ago, which is crazy to say. I wanted to revisit it, honestly, because of the insane reinterpretations this film gets as transphobic or insensitive, neither of which is true. This story is a tragedy and very sad, something I will elaborate on this later. The pace is slow, but there is constantly something simmering under the surface, despite the normalcy of a lot of the scenes of kids goofing around or playing sports. Most of the effects are good, but yes, raspberries are used to look like a really bad bee sting, which is unintentionally funny, and I will give them points for creativity.
The opening sequence is kind of silly honestly. At the same time, it is well-done with fantastic music. Again it continues to give you this weird off-kilter tone in it's absurdity, it does well to hide what later happens in the film. Right up to Aunt Martha who is gross and creepy right off the bat. Angela seems off from the beginning as very uncomfortable, she seems like she is miserable and angry, about to snap. The reference to physicals, and how they were "unethically acquired", of course later comes into play.
I cannot praise the score enough, I never realized how good it was. The creepy old pedophile cook is introduced, as well as the young campers. The kids in this movie are actually kids, unlike the movies is is copying, such as "Friday the 13th" or "The Burning", but takes it in a much twisted direction. The girls are properly catty from the get-go. If you don't think girls are like this, you haven't forced to sleep in a room with girls that you do not know. The movie is populated with normal looking people. Fat children were rare back then, it was not common at all. You might get a mildly chubby kid, but that is about it. The kids and adults look pretty average for the time it was made some 40yrs ago, and I appreciate that.
Felissa Rose does a very good job and her eyes are highly expressive. The sequels with Pamela Springsteen are not nearly as well-done. Even though they are fun in their own ways. Given Felissa's largely silent performance; it can be very easy to dismiss he performance is wooden, which is actually not true in the slightest. She says a lot with her blank stare, she looks very sad at times without playing it up, and angry, again without overplaying it. When Angela finally speaks and smiles, it is such a sweet moment.
There are a lot of other silly and goofy hijinks going on in this film with teens doing what teens do, being jerks and being stupid. The language isn't polished, and it is pretty harsh to hear honestly, but it's part of the charm and it's something that is missing from a lot of films; authenticity. I know when I grew up, and still today, kids tend to have pretty foul moths, but I honestly think it was worse back then than it is now. We made all kinds of inappropriate jokes and use "bad" language all of the time. I can confirm that yes, guys still do the stupid shaving cream prank, things haven't change too much. Judy and Meg are perfect mean girls, in fact they are a lot more true to life than most of the other depictions I have seen on TV or in media, save maybe other older movies such as the original "Carrie".
Like a lot of the 1980's films, it indeed very homoerotic. There are a lot of shots of guys in short shorts, guys in crop tops, guy butts. This was not an unusual thing in the 1980's to see in movies, in fact it's a lot more uncommon now due to people being too sensitive and year of insane political correctness.
There are some really deep themes here actually involving trauma which are hinted at early on, but don't come into play until the last 30 minutes. We start to see disturbing memories emerge from Angela. These scenes, again, have great movie, they are well shot, and contain a really good usage of panning shots. They hint at very disturbing incidences and severe trauma.
I think people are wrong when they call this a poorly made film, they are absolutely wrong. This film is a study of how trauma can effect people, and I am serious. This movie is a tragedy at its core, and it is a very sad story, it starts with tragedy and ands with tragedy. In my opinion, every sequel cheapens this film. They are just garbage exploitation, this film, in my opinion is not truly exploitation because it actually handles its subject with sensitivity. It also handles the subject with an honesty that mainstream studios would not have used then, and no one would now either.
When I watched this 20yrs ago, even though now I see all of the clues it lays out, I did not guess the twist. I never saw it coming in a million years. Watching it now, it isn't obvious, but it is there if you really pay attention.
The build up to the conclusion is pretty good, and it is those quiet moments, the normal moments that just makes everything else better when it actually gets crazy. Crazy it does go indeed. Compare this to the lesser known "Cheer Camp", now that movie is absolute trash, entertaining as it may be, it's still trash. Seriously go watch it on youtube, you'll see, tell after watching this that this is just another bad slasher movie set at a camp, it isn't.
When we get the reveal, the usage of flashback is masterful, and it is never overused in the film, it is used just enough to build the story. When we see this reveal and we find out Angela is really a boy, we see it first in flashack, but everyone remembers the final reveal, which is full front nudity of a man(not Felissa Rose), she had no idea this was the end actually. She's talked about this in interviews. Her Aunt Martha literally forced her nephew you to be a girl, and when you combine it with the other flashbacks, Martha's husband left her, and Angela saw her father in bed with a man even if this was a woman it would be gross honestly, and then Angela(Peter) violates his sister. It also appears that the boating accident that killed his sister and his brother actually happened at the same lake, if you look and compare, they sure look the same.
This is why I believe Angela finally snaps, the combination of being attracted to someone he's afraid to show his real self to, the trauma he's endured, and being back where he father and sister died, is too much.
This is very heavy subject matter indeed. I would like to point to the MANY real life examples we have of this now, where mothers are actually forcing their sons to become daughters, look up the case of James Younger, it is sick and twisted. That is not a lone case either. This sadly, was a prophetic movie. And if you look up Walt Heyer's story, you'll see his grandma forced him to dress up in girls clothes all of the time. This had a huge impact on him later, and was not a good thing. These things have been going on a long time, and I think what makes some people mad is not that this movie has this exposing this horrifying occurrence because it does indeed happen.
This movie stands the test of time because it actually is mostly well-made, although it has it's goofy moments, Mel is a big over the top for instance, yet as a whole it holds together. The effects are decent, although as earlier stated, kind of silly at times The music is fantastic except maybe the closing theme, the cinematographer is truly exceptional, amazing flashback scenes(it's usage of a dark black backdrop for the memories is genius, giving them a dreamlike quality), the performances are mostly solid, the writing has fairly realistic dialog, even though the scenario is far-fetched, the motivations of the killer is solid and makes sense. It has one of the best twist in the history of cinema, largely because it does not pull punches, it goes straight for the jugular.
Well worth a watch if you are not highly sensitive, and can handle heavy subject matter that is dealt with in a very straightforward matter,