DOUGLAS REESE
9Oct11
I do! :)
That last shot is so horrific, so way out of left field that you never see it coming. But the film is very bad.
The wtf-ness of the ending, as well as the ridiculous and constant foregrounding of its sex, move this much closer to Grand Guignol than Friday the 13th. Are large parts of it a mess? The acting almost uniformly awful? Full of jokey gore effects? Of course. But dang if it doesn't leave an impression by the end. (An impression that—based on the pitch of its performances—reminds me very much of *Alice, Sweet Alice*.)
There are movies out there in which a single image completely changes the entire context of the rest of the film. The infamous closing of this film is probably the most extreme example.
It's so laughably homerotic and schlocky that it's few surprises, particularly the notorious climax, are more impactful.
I am amazed of how a shitty movie like this turns out to contain the best twist-ending in the history of cinema. People I've shown it to were all turned into wrecks for a few minutes.
Everyone builds up that ending, but it was hilarious! Still, it does put it above a lot of the other slasher knock-offs of the 80s.
For some reason I've only watched Sleepaway Camp 2 with Bruce Springsteen's sister but never the first one.