And I thought it sucked when I get rocks in my shoe.

When trying to decide which of my B-movies to watch this weekend, I really only had one criterion: it had to be mindless fun. Sleepaway Camp turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

Picture Wet Hot American Summer meets Friday the 13th. Although not as funny as the former and not as bloody as the latter. The reason I say it’s like Wet Hot American Summer is that there are so many short shorts (mainly on the men) and striped tube socks that I was in early 80’s heaven. The similarities to Friday the 13th should be obvious: a teen camp where people start getting picked off one by one.

The movie opens with a father sailing with his two children: a boy and a girl. We also see a motor boat pulling a water skier on the serene lake. During the scene, we learn that the motor boat is from a nearby camp and we see the driver hand over the wheel to someone who is not supposed to be driving the boat. This unauthorized driver does not see the sailboat belonging to father and kids until it is too late and basically runs over the sailboat. At this point, we see that father is dead and that one of the children is dead as well. This we know because we see previously occupied life vests.

Cut to 8 years later. The eccentric Aunt Martha is sending off her son Ricky and her niece Angela (the lone survivor of the sailboat accident) to summer camp. Angela has apparently been living with Ricky and Aunt Martha since the accident. So Ricky and Angela get to camp where Angela is frequently teased because she won’t participate in most of the activities and refuses to talk for quite a while. A male camper takes an interest in Angela and she begins to speak but still does not stand up for herself. During all this, several staff and campers either go missing or are found dead. Although these deaths could be viewed as accidents, we see that there is foul play even though we never see the killer. During the climax of the movie, several people are killed we see the murderer in all their glory.

It seems obvious throughout the movie that Angela is our killer. And I found myself really rooting for her during the entire film. Although I WILL tell you that there is not any Mrs. Voorhies type revelation during Sleepaway Camp, there is a great twist at the end. It’s awesome. Really.

Sleepaway Camp is everything I expect from a B-movie. The acting is horrible. The characters are one-dimensional. There are some funny parts and some completely surreal parts. In addition, I really enjoyed the whole early 80’s element. The clothes and hairstyles of everyone in the movie are just classic 80’s. I defy you to find another movie with more men wearing short shorts and tight pants. It looked like they chose the wardrobe and then everyone in the cast gained 40 pounds. Totally awesome.

So my next mission is to find the Sleepaway Camp sequels and watch them. Of COURSE there are sequels. There are Sleepaway Camp II and III. Then there’s Survivor of Sleepaway Camp. Return to Sleepaway Camp was just released this year and Sleepaway Camp Reunion is set to be released next year. Although I doubt that any of the sequels will match the mindless fun of the original, it will definitely be fun to test that theory.