10 Utter Trash Horror Movies You Loved Anyway

Sleepaway Camp is just one of the many Friday the 13th rip-offs released throughout the 1980s, yet while most of these cash-ins are largely forgotten today, Robert Hiltzik's camp-set slasher endures due to its wildly unexpected subversion of audience expectations.

Sure, the production values aren't up to much and the dialogue is mostly horrid, but throughout the film Hiltzik is slyly teeing up an absolute jaw-dropper of a final twist that reshapes how the entire movie is viewed.

Boldly using its typical exploitation veneer to explore subjects that even the gnarliest horror movies wouldn't touch at the time, Sleepaway Camp effectively hijacks its schlocky slasher movie premise to get viewers thinking about things a little differently.

While opinions vary wildly on how that climactic reveal has aged, it certainly remains joltingly, viscerally effective all the same, ensuring Sleepaway Camp stands far away from the glut of Friday the 13th imitators released alongside it.