Sleepaway Camp

Infobox Film
name = Sleepaway Camp


image_size =
caption =
director = Robert Hiltzik
producer = Robert Hiltzik Jack Grossberg Jerry Silva Michele Tatosian
writer = Robert Hiltzik Marshall Brikman
narrator =
starring = Felissa Rose Mike Kellin Jonathan Tiersten Karen Fields Christopher Collet Paul De Angelo
music = Edward Bilous
cinematography = Benjamin Davis David M. Walsh
editing = Ron Kalish Ralph Rosenblum Sharyn Ross
distributor = American Eagle Films United Film Distribution
released = 1983
runtime = 88 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by = ""
website =
amg_id = 1:45145
imdb_id = 0086320:"This page is about the horror movie. For the summer activity, see "Summer camp".

‎"Sleepaway Camp" is a 1983 horror movie written and directed by Robert Hiltzik—who also served as executive producer. The film is about murders at a summer camp. The film came at a time when slasher films were in their heyday. It has since developed a cult following and is considered by many viewers to have one of the most disturbingly shocking endings of all horror films.

Plot summary

The main character Angela Baker (Felissa Rose), and her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten), are sent to summer camp one summer. Angela had come to live with Ricky and her Aunt Martha eight years earlier, after her father and her brother Peter were killed in a boating accident. Angela, a painfully shy 14-year-old, is bullied severely by most of the other campgoers and counselors at Camp Arawak. Her main foil is Judy (Karen Fields), a vain girl once friendly with Ricky but now snubbing him in favor of the older boys.

Soon people begin to die in bizarre ways, such as a youth being stung to death by bees from a hive thrown into a bathroom. A female counselor is stabbed in a shower stall. The murderer turns out to be Angela; however, it is later revealed that Angela was actually her brother Peter. The real Angela had died in the boating accident eight years ago, and Peter was forced to assume her identity afterward because deranged Aunt Martha chose to raise Peter as a girl, treating him as if he were Angela. The film also states that Angela/Peter's confused sexual identity occurred because she found out her father was in a homosexual relationship; a young Angela and Peter witnessed this behavior and were seen giggling surreptitiously at them, then were later shown sitting on a bed in an experiment of their own. Angela is last seen standing on the beach naked (male genitalia in full view) with the decapitated head of Paul (Christopher Collet) in one hand while holding a knife in the other, the rest of his body at her feet.

In the commentary on the DVD, Hiltzik and Rose tease that perhaps Angela isn't the sole killer in the movie. In fact, the only real continuity error in the film involves the killing of campers at a tent site far enough away from the main camp that they took a car to get there in the same night that four other people were murdered.

Note: All kills were cut in order to receive an R rating. Additionally, several scenes where the kids swear or make offensive hand gestures were snipped as well. The current Anchor Bay DVD is the cut version, but the older Video Treasures VHS is fully uncut.

tars

*Mike Kellin as Mel
*Katherine Kamhi as Meg
*Paul DeAngelo as Ronnie
*Jonathan Tiersten as Ricky
*Felissa Rose as Angela
*Karen Fields as Judy
*Christopher Collet as Paul
*Desiree Gould as Aunt Martha
*Owen Hughes as Artie
*Robert Earl Jones as Ben
*Susan Glaze as Susie
*Frank Trent Saladino as Gene
*Rick Edrich as Jeff
*Allen Breton as Frank the Cop
*Dan Tursi as John
*James Paradise as Lenny
*Tom Van Dell as Mike
*Loris Sallahian as Billy
*John E. Dunn as Kenny
*Willy Kuskin as Mozart
*Michael C. Mahon as Hal
*Fred Greene as Eddie

equels

Over the years, the "Sleepaway Camp" films gained a loyal cult following. In the late 1980s, Michael A. Simpson directed two sequels, ' (1988) and ' (1989). In them, Angela (now played by Bruce Springsteen's baby sister, Pamela Springsteen) resurfaces at a nearby summer camp, but this time masquerading as a counselor after a sex change that made her entirely female. Much like at the previous camp, she gleefully tortures and kills everyone upon whom she can get her hands on. Since then, Angela has yet to make another "Sleepaway Camp" appearance.

Another rogue sequel, "Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor", directed by Jim Markovic, was partially filmed but never completed. In 2002 the unfinished footage was released and made available as an exclusive fourth disc in Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment's "Sleepaway Camp" DVD boxed set.

A new film, "Return to Sleepaway Camp", has been completed and the producers are looking for a distributor. It was directed by Robert Hiltzik, the director of the original 1983 film. He decided that this chapter will ignore the story lines of the previous sequels, stating that he wanted to pick up from where the original film ended. Production was halted for quite some time, but according to Fangoria.com the digital effects were being redone and the film would most likely be released in the fall of 2008. Recently, Amazon has listed the film for pre-order, with it being available on October 24, 2008, by Magnolia Pictures.

The purportedly final film in Hiltzik's SC trilogy is also in the making. Its working title is "Sleepaway Camp Reunion".

Michael Simpson, the director of "Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers" and "Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland", recently wrote a script for his series of Sleepaway Camp movies as well, titled "".

Resurrection of the legacy

In the late 1990s, Jeff Hayes and Australian Web master John Klyza brought the fan base of "Sleepaway Camp" into the open, with the first official "Sleepaway Camp" Web site. Today, both Klyza and Hayes have their own SC sites, with Hayes running the official "SC1" and "RTSC" sites and Klyza running the official sequels site. Hayes did audio commentary for the first "Sleepaway Camp" on DVD, while Klyza provided commentary for "SC2" and "SC3". Hayes is expected to do commentary for the upcoming "Return to Sleepaway Camp".

References in pop culture

*Art punk band The Blood Brothers borrowed the title of their song "Meet Me at the Waterfront After the Social" verbatim from a line spoken by Angela.
*Metal band Frightmare wrote a song about the film, simply titled "Angela."
*Senses Fail named a song after Angela Baker, titled "Angela Baker and My Obsession With Fire."
*Robot Chicken aired a sketch about the movie, which included a horrified Robert Hiltzik exclaiming that "somebody" remembered the movie and wrote a comedy sketch about it.
*The band (and movie features) CKY (Camp Kill Yourself) is named in reference to the movie. They also released an EP entitled "Disengage The Simulator EP" in which Angela is on the cover.

External links

* [http://www.sleepawaycampmovies.com Official Sleepaway Camp Site (Jeff Hayes)]
* [http://www.sleepawaycampfilms.com Official Sleepaway Camp Sequels Site (John Klyza)]
*imdb title|id=0086320|title=Sleepaway Camp
* [http://camp.sc83x.org The Unofficial Sleepaway Camp Fan Site]