(written by Terry MacNeil, on July 11-12, 14, 19, 2025)

I’m a slasher movie fan. And I love (for varying reasons) the first three Sleepaway Camp movies AND Return to Sleepaway Camp. However, the first three movies are (nowadays) controversial – because they are accused of being transphobic and homophobic.

Is Sleepaway Camp (the first film in the series) transphobic and homophobic? I say no, because the killer is cisgendered and FORCED by an adult to live as another gender. But is the movie homophobic? Well, it has no stance on homosexuality – despite featuring two gay adult male characters. Also, the campers make NO homophobic jokes/insults – which (in real-life) is unusual, for children of that age range. Though in a way, Sleepaway Camp foresaw the future of transphobia – there ARE a lot of anti-trans humans today who are CONVINCED cisgendered children are being FORCED to transition by their “woke” parents, as well as by other (so-called) “activists” (such as harmless drag queens who volunteer to read children’s books to children at libraries). These paranoid (and mostly right-wing) anti-trans humans see trans humans as being manipulated, brainwashed, mentally ill, etc. They ALSO absurdly paint (most, if not all) trans humans as child molesters, a danger/threat to cisgendered humans, etc.

So is Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers transphobic and homophobic? Well, this sequel retcons the first Sleepaway Camp – by saying the killer IS transgendered (despite not being so in the first film). So this sequel features a killer trans human who is unstable/insane/psychopathic – though I didn’t get the impression the movie paints ALL trans humans as unstable/insane. However, the killer in this film is more comfortable in a female body, than a male one – something that wasn’t the case in the first film. Also, this sequel (unfortunately) features homophobic remarks – which is par for the course, for a 1980s slasher film.

The debate around these movies reminds me of when the movie Batman Returns was released. After seeing that movie, I (a cisgendered heterosexual male) wanted to be “Catwoman” for Halloween. But my parents got me a “Batman” costume that Halloween, and I was cool with that. In retrospect, I would’ve been mercilessly ridiculed by my peers if I had been “Catwoman” – and likely marked as a homosexual and/or transvestite and/or transgendered. The thing was, “Catwoman” was so BAD ASS in Batman Returns – she could go toe to toe fighting “Batman” (and nearly killed him). She also got shot a bunch of times – then challenged the gunman to keep firing. Also, “Catwoman” was a villain – which (in my opinion) made her even more awesome.

When another “Batman” movie (The Dark Knight) was released years later, an adorable four-year-old(?) female child came to my house trick-or-treating (and she was dressed as “Batman”). But at that time – there weren’t many heroines (that would appeal to children) in movies, so it was common to see female children dress as male heroes for Halloween. And no one thought anything of it. But if she had been born a boy and dressed as a heroine…

The only time in my life I wore women’s clothing – was for “Slave Day” when I was in elementary school. “Slave Day” is a game where one person pretends to be a “slave” for a “master”. In my case, my “master” was a girl in my class – and she forced me to spend the day in women’s clothing and make-up, in addition to bossing me around all day. It was a miserable day.

As for Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, it’s an unfinished film that was mostly old footage from the earlier films – which I HEAR is so bad, it makes Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (a film with a similarly shitty format) look like the most amazing movie ever filmed. Ⓐ