HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 🎃: Slasher Horror and Queer Fear at 'Sleepaway Camp' (1983)

The Problematic Gaze

In this special Halloween episode, The Problematic Gaze dives into Robert Hiltzik’s Sleepaway Camp (1983), a cult classic slasher that mixes lakeside gore with one of the most infamous twists in horror history. What begins as a standard teen body count film turns into a messy collision of gender anxiety, repression, and moral panic.

We unpack how Sleepaway Camp reflects (and distorts) early ’80s fears around gender nonconformity, the portrayal of trauma and queerness in horror, and how its shocking ending continues to haunt trans and queer representation decades later. Is Sleepaway Camp an accidental critique of heteronormative horror, or just another relic of exploitation cinema gone wrong?

Join us as we navigate the murky waters between camp and cruelty — with a few screams along the way.

Click here to watch Sleepaway Camp from 1983 on YouTube

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