Plot
The film opens in summer, with John Baker and his two children, Angela and Peter, out on a lake. After their boat flips, John and the children head ashore, where John's lover, Lenny, is calling. As the family swims, a motorboat accidentally runs them over, killing John, and Peter.
Eight years later, Angela is now living with her eccentric aunt Dr. Martha Thomas and cousin Ricky Thomas. Angela and Ricky are sent to Camp Arawak. Due to her introverted nature, Angela is bullied, her main tormentors being fellow camper Judy and camp counselor Meg. The head cook, Artie attempts to molest Angela until Ricky interrupts, and the two children flee. While Artie is boiling water for corn, an unseen figure knocks him off the chair, scalding him with the water. Artie's injuries are deemed accidental by camp owner Mel Costic.
Campers Kenny and Mike begin to mock Angela, prompting Ricky and his friend Paul to get into a fight with them. After the brawl is broken up by Gene, Ricky and the rest of the boys involved in the fight leave, while Paul stays behind and befriends Angela. Later, Kenny is drowned, his body found the next day and his death also ruled accidental by Mel. Camper Billy also dies from a bee attack after he throws a water balloon at Angela.
The relationship between Angela and Paul grows strained when Paul kisses her twice as a goodnight kiss, causing Angela to have a flashback to her youth when she and her brother witnessed their father in bed with Lenny. Paul is then seduced by Judy, who lures him into the woods, where the two are found kissing by Angela and Ricky. Guilty, Paul attempts to explain himself to Angela while on the beach. As Paul talks to Angela, he is shooed away by Judy and Meg, who throw Angela into the water. After being taken out of the lake by lifeguard Hal and having sand flung at her by several small children, a clearly disturbed Angela is comforted by Ricky, who swears revenge on her aggressors. After the affair at the beach, Meg prepares for a date with Mel. During her shower, she is killed by a knife through her back.
Meg's disappearance goes largely unnoticed and a social is held. At the social, Angela is approached by Paul, whom she tells to meet her at the waterfront after the social. The six children who threw sand at Angela are taken out to go camping with counselor Eddie. When two of them ask to go back, Eddie takes them back to his car and drives back to the camp. The other four children are hacked to bits with Eddie's axe when he returns. Judy is murdered in her cabin when the killer punches her and forces a hot curling iron into her vagina (although it is not shown on screen, we are led to this conclusion). The camp is thrown into a panic when Eddie announces the deaths of the four children. Ricky overhears this news before being attacked by Mel, who had discovered Meg's corpse and blames Ricky for her death. After beating Ricky mercilessly, Mel stumbles into the camp archery range, where he is shot in the throat with an arrow by the killer.
As the counselors and the police scour the camp, they discover Ricky, unconscious but alive, and Angela meets Paul on the beach, suggesting they go for a swim. Ronnie and Susie find a naked Angela humming to herself and clutching both a large knife and Paul's severed head in her hands. They are shocked to discover that "Angela" is actually Peter, her thought-to-be-dead brother. It is revealed that the real Angela died in the accident and Peter survived. After Martha gained custody of him, she decided to raise Peter as the girl she always wanted, already having a son and coming to the conclusion that another boy "simply would not do." It's also implied that Peter/Angela was mentally affected in a very negative way by seeing his father sharing a homosexual embrace with another man. The film suddenly ends with the nude and blood-covered "Angela", male genitalia in full view, standing before Susie and Ronnie, letting out an animalistic hissing sound.
Read more about this topic: Sleepaway Camp
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
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