Having arrived a bit tipsy from a brief evening out with friends, I quickly got my ticket from the box office, said hello to familiar faces, and situated my happy self near the front of the theater for the pre-show. Peaches Christ has had Sleepaway Camp on her wish list of dream horror cult classics since Midnight Mass’s inception in 1998. The trouble was obtaining a print of the film which she found in the hands of Zach Jackson via the internets. Zach, coming all the way from Phoenix, made an appearance on stage, and much to his chagrin Peaches gave him a warm and humiliating Midnight Mass welcome.

I was a Sleepaway Camp virgin. I really had no idea what the movie was about at all. As a kid growing up in the 80′s I knew of the film. I had seen the poster on the cover of the VHS at my local video store that I frequented weekly. I think as a kid, who went to summer camp every year, I unknowingly avoided seeing it, thinking that it would totally freak me out… well it did. And in a very good way. This movie was ridiculous: boys in short shorts, horrendous acting, amazing deaths, and a finale that defies anything that I thought could have been possible to show in a theater in 1983. I loved it, and I think you will too.

Enhanced by Zemanta