Examining Sleepaway Camp: An Unauthorized Dissection of the Cult Horror Series

By Troy H. Gardner

In this unauthorized book, author Troy H. Gardner casts an analytical eye on the Sleepaway Camp series, a horror franchise that has amassed a cult following.

Gardner calls upon a variety of film theory techniques to examine the iconic Angela Baker. Essays include close readings of the films, the Final Girl trope, the roles of water and the camp setting, character studies of Ricky and Judy, the horredy trend, and many more.

This fun collection is perfect for any Sleepaway Camp fan, film theorist, or horror lover.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troy H. Gardner
• Release date: May 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301487226

Troy H. Gardner

Troy H. Gardner grew up in New Hampshire and graduated with a B.A. in English/Communications with a dual concentration in film and writing from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He spent ten years working in the banking industry dreaming up numerous stories to write. When not writing, Troy busies himself jet-setting from Sunapee, NH to Moultonborough, NH.

Book preview

Examining Sleepaway Camp:

An Unauthorized Dissection of the Cult Horror Series

Troy H. Gardner

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or in any means—by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without prior written permission.

The author makes no claim to the intellectual rights of any of the Sleepaway Camp films, including but not limited to characters, dialogue, and story. None of the rights holders have aided, contributed, or sanctioned any aspect of this book. The analyses are created under the Fair Use exception of United States copyright laws for entertainment purposes only.

Book layout and design by Troy H. Gardner.

Smashwords eBook ISBN: 9781301487226

First eBook edition Copyright 2013 Troy H. Gardner

CONTENTS

Preface

Camp History

Anatomy of Sleepaway Camp—A Close Reading

The Camp Boogey man—Angela’s Place in the Slasher Pantheon

Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

Mad as Hell—A Character Study of Ricky

Venus and Mars—Gendered Roles

The Bitch in the Mirror—A Look at Judy

Why Camp?

Hidden and Dueling Final Girls

The Horredy Trend

Adult Munsters

Surviving Camp

Angela on the Couch—Armchair Psychology

The Fool at Camp

Who to Root For?

Camp Chameleon

Choose Your Own Horror

Works Cited

Preface

This collection of essays is borne out of my love for the Sleepaway Camp series. The essays are completely unauthorized by any rights holders or creative entities behind any of the movies. As will be apparent reading these collections, I have always been an avid horror film enthusiast. I also hold a BA in English/Communications with a dual concentration in film and writing from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

For the purposes of the majority of these essays, I will assume that the Angela from the first and last films, as portrayed by Felissa Rose, and the Angela from the middle sequels, as portrayed by Pamela Springsteen, are the same character. Some fans theorize that they are not, due to different actresses and shifts in tone and personality. While this is a valid theory (creator Robert Hiltzik ignores the middle sequels and director Michael A. Simpson proposed a sequel in which the two Angelas ended up battling [Unproduced Sequels]), it would only serve to complicate matters. Even if the second Angela is some imposter, she truly believes herself to be Angela Baker, which is just as important in a character study.

I subscribe to the school of thought that film is highly representational and deeper meanings are found due to associations of real-world constructs. Thus, these essays come from a film theory perspective.

Film theory is a theory developed to explain the nature of motion pictures and how they produce emotional and mental effects on the audience. Film theory recognizes the cinema as a distinct art form (Film Theory).

These essays are meant to be a fun look at the series and to continue a dialogue about the themes and characters. Even if you don’t agree with all of my assessments, I hope it gives you a new perspective on a set of movies you’ve probably seen several times, and a great excuse to watch them all again.

Enjoy, campers.

Camp History

Sleepaway Camp is the brainchild of writer/director Robert Hiltzik. While a graduate film student at New York University, Hiltzik decided that working his way up the corporate ladder wasn’t for him and instead he set out to create his own film, one that he would be in control of. He decided that the horror genre was marketable, and set out to create an original movie since he wanted to create murders that hadn’t been seen before and play with the characters and psychological motivation.

Drawing from his own childhood for inspiration, Hiltzik set the film in a summer camp (the same camp he would shoot the film at as the fictitious Camp Arawak), as he believed summer camp had a great sub-text of adolescent freedom and gave a realistic reason for teenagers to run around wild (Kirst).

Hiltzik created the film with roughly a mere $350,000 and it was released on November 18, 1983, in eighty-five theaters. The opening weekend alone the movie grossed an impressive $430,000 (IMDB.com). In total, the film would go on to earn $11,000,000 worldwide. By today’s standards, that would be $27,342,857 (Anderson). To put that success in comparison, A Nightmare on Elm Street came out the following November, had a budget 5.14 times as much and its gross was just 2.3 times higher (IMDB.com).

The official blurb for the film, found on the back of VHS and DVD copies, states:

Welcome to Camp Arawak, where teenage boys and girls learn to experience the joys of nature, as well as each other. But when these happy campers begin to die in a series of horrible ‘accidents,’ they discover that someone—or something—has turned their summer of fun into a vacation to dismember. Has a dark secret returned from the camp’s past... or will an unspeakable horror end the season forever?

The big reveal is that the main character, Angela Baker, is not only the killer, but also secretly a boy. The final seconds of the movie; in which the supposed female Angela stands fully nude, penis visible, and moans directly at the camera; proved a real shock to audiences and cemented the movie in horror cinema history.

The film never quite latched onto mainstream consciousness, but there has been a resurgence in recent years, with it routinely appearing in best of lists (such as About.com, Movie Mavericks, HorrorNews.net, etc.) or appearing in pop culture references (such as a spoof on Robot Chicken, a song by the Blood Brothers, homages in Caesar and Otto’s Summer Camp Massacre, etc.).

As with most horror films that do well, producers decided to cash in on the first film and turn Sleepaway Camp into a franchise by shooting two sequels back-to-back and releasing them in 1988 and 1989 directly to video. Hiltzik wrote his own sequel which would have been a dark film set at another camp without any connections to the first film. Producer Jerry Silva wanted to take the series in a new direction, so he optioned the rights from Hiltzik and hired a new writer, Fritz Gordon, to pen the two sequels. Gordon did read Hiltzik’s unproduced screenplay, which possibly influenced a few characters and death scenes (Mysterious Mr. Hiltzik).

Michael A. Simpson was brought on board to direct the films and take the series in a more light-hearted, campier direction. Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers follows a recast Angela (now female thanks to an operation) as she takes center stage once more trying to fit in at summer camp—this time as a counselor. She quickly reverts to her old habits and kills everyone she considers to be bad or who gets in her way. In Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, Angela disguises herself as a New York delinquent to sneak back into camp, where she again commits a murder spree. The sequels were successful with VHS sales both domestically and internationally (where the series was retitled Nightmare Vacation).

A third sequel, Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, started production in 1992, and would have taken the series in a more Euro-centric sexy thriller vein, but production was halted due to financial difficulties (Interview w/ Jim Markovic).

The first website dedicated to the series was created in 1998 by webmistress sc83x and has changed formats and addresses over the years. The site can currently be found at www.sleepawaycamp.wordpress.com (About This Web Site).

A few months later, fans John Klyza and Jeff Hayes created Sleepaway Camp: The Website, a site that would become recognized officially by the studio behind the first film in 2000 as sleepawaycampmovies.com. In 2001, Klyza split and created sleepawaycampfilms.com, which became officialised by the studio that created the sequels (About The Web Site).

Around this time, Hiltzik learned about the fanbase for the series and attended a convention that was heavily attended and enthusiastic about his film, which prompted him to create another (Mysterious Mr. Hiltzik). Hiltzik dusted off his 1986 script for Sleepaway Camp II: Alan. He reworked the script, now titled Return to Sleepaway Camp (World of Robert Hiltzik). At the behest of Jeff Hayes, Hiltzik wrote in a few features and returning characters from the original film to appease fans (Return to Sleepaway Camp Pre-Production). This was treated as a direct sequel to his original film, ignoring Simpson’s entries in the series, and was released in 2008.

In 2012,