[For The Love Of Franchises] The Sleepaway Camp Franchise And The Unsung Slasher Queen We All Deserve

Sleepaway Camp, the now-cult camp slasher film with an infamous twist, came to the horror realm in 1983 and took the templates set out a few years previous with Friday the 13th (1980) and The Burning (1981) and perfected them with an added unique layer. The film introduced us to transgender slasher queen Angela Baker and was shot in Italian horror giallo style.

Giallo films were the forefathers of what became known as the American slasher genre of horror, the premise being a very “who-done-it'' type of film with point-of-view deaths and a killer reveal in the final act after serving up a few red herrings. The difference between Sleepaway Camp and, for instance, Friday the 13th is that in former our killer is the focal point of the entire story (one could even call her an unreliable protagonist) while in the latter, the killer is revealed only we meet them in the final act (Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother). Therefore, the effect is not as impactful in Friday the 13th as in Sleepaway Camp in which the viewer has been getting to know the character throughout the film. 

Felissa Rose portrays young Angela with a brilliant intensity in the first Sleepaway Camp, a tone that would change as the franchise was sold to from creator Robert HIltzik to Michael A. Simpson, who would go on to create two sequels: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). Pamela Springsteen took over the role of Angela in these sequels, playing the character as a fully-transitioned woman with a fixation on camp, staunch morality, and a wicked sense of humor. This abrupt change of style from the shy and eerie Angela as portrayed in the first film beautifully by Felissa Rose to the ruthlessness of Pamela Springsteen’s performance rattled many fans of the original film, but the departure is an entertaining one and Michael A. Simpson explains his process here:

“The main thing [...] was a chance to stretch the horror genre a bit and not just do another ‘dead teenager’ movie. I have a pretty dark sense of humor…. I wanted to find a way to express dark humor in a so-called ‘slasher’ movie. [...] The teen horror genre was already in danger of becoming a parody of itself so I figured, what the heck, call attention to it and have some bloody fun.” (Hayes, Jeff and Klynn, John. Twice Red! The Michael A. Simpson Interview. ReturntoSleepawayCamp.com. https://returntosleepawaycamp.com/interviews/michael-simpson/ )

Felissa Rose

The team for both of the direct sequels helmed by Michael A. Simpson were tasked with moving forward in a slasher genre that had drastically evolved since the 1983 original film and were forced to compete with the biggest slasher villain names of the 1980’s (all male, of course): Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers, to name a few. Although the entire franchise of the Sleepaway Camp films  achieved  more of a cult-status than the bigger franchises, Angela holds her own alongside them, a slasher queen, with her unique storyline and creative kills (fan favorites include a double camper barbecue, a drill to the head, and Ajax disguised as cocaine) alongside moral platitudes in the second and third films with Springsteen’s portrayal of the character. During a much-appreciated kill in Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, Angela (who has been killing off the “immoral” campers under her care as a camp counselor), pushes antagonistic, promiscuous Ally into an abandoned outhouse porthole and says:

“You’ve pissed away your good looks and God-given talent your whole life and turned it into nothing but a cynical, dirty-mouthed waste of flesh! What else is down there? [...] Leeches, Ally! For a leech like you. You should have been the first to go.”

Pamela Springsteen taking over the role of Angela Baker in Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers

As with all franchises, an unavoidable fall inevitably happens. It’s fair to say that Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, inferior to the previous two films but fun nonetheless, was the last of the good ones in this series. Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, which began filming in 1992, was canned during production and considered “lost” until 2012 when the shot footage, featuring Carrie Chambers in the main role as a survivor of a mysterious camp massacre and seeking help from a psychiatrist, was cobbled together with footage from the previous 3 films. This leaves only a 70-minute run time and works as more of an addendum to the previous films. It is often incorrectly considered the fifth film in the series due to its release in 2012 following the legacy sequel Return to Sleepaway Camp, which ignores the second, third, and fourth entries in the franchise. The “twist” in Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor is laughably predictable and our protagonist lacks the uniqueness and charisma of the other films. 

In 2008, the legacy sequel Return to Sleepaway Camp (also known as Sleepaway Camp 5: Return to Sleepaway Camp) was made as a direct-to-video follow-up to the original beloved film by franchise originator Robert Hiltzik (who recovered the rights) and featured the reprisal of key roles in the first film such as Angela’s cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten), camp counselor Ronnie (Paul DeAngelo), and Angela (Felissa Rose - who is little more than a cameo, to fans’ disappointment). It also featured Isaac Hayes in his last film credit before his death. The buzz excited fans, not to mention that legacy sequels are currently du jour and this was a step ahead of it all. Unfortunately, it fell flat, even for those that had the strongest nostalgia for the series and original characters. What worked in 1983 cannot work many years later without much of an update and relying upon a unique twist akin to the original was unwise. One reviewer put this succinctly: “Hiltzik should’ve taken Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor's demise as a warning and let this series go quietly. Return is nothing what the original trilogy was in terms of kills or fun. It limps by on sloppy editing, unlikeable characters, unsatisfying kills, and hopes that people get pulled in by the return of past characters.” (Torfe, Pat. “Return to Sleepaway Camp.” Joblo.com/arrowinthehead. Archival. https://web.archive.org/web/20140227163548/http://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/dvd-reviews/return-to-sleepaway-camp )

As for the future of the Sleepaway Camp franchise, Felissa Rose has gone on record to say: “Will they remake it? Will there be another sequel? I know that something’s in the works. [...] I would love to say that, mark my words, by the 40th [anniversary], something will be out. Now, if they ever consulted me, I would love to see a prequel to the Sleepaway Camp world. Because this is one of those movies that is driven by the circumstances that happens in the beginning of the film. [...] I would love to make the prequel. So, we definitely haven’t seen the end of Sleepaway Camp.” (Fleetwood, Cullen. “Felissa Rose on ‘Camp Twilight’, ‘Terrifier 2’, and the Return of the ‘Sleepaway Camp’ Franchise Interview”. Bloody Disgusting. 2 Dec. 2020. https://bloody-disgusting.com/interviews/3643408/felissa-rose-camp-twilight-terrifier-2-return-sleepaway-camp-franchise-interview/ ).

Felissa Rose reprises her role of Angela Baker in Return to Sleepaway Camp

There is hope for all Sleepaway Camp fans out there, according to its biggest star so all “Unhappy Campers” can rejoice and hope to see a fitting and successful reboot, prequel, or other media in 2023 for the 40th anniversary. In the 39 years since the first film, society and sexual identities and ideations have evolved and one can only hope that this could be treated accordingly, as it is essential to the plot. Several movies of the 1980’s and 1990’s suffered deeply from portraying transgender people as villains, but many members of the LGBTQ+ community are drawn to and love the franchise. 

“In its own way, Angela Baker’s actions almost play out like a different sub-genre known for it’s exploitative nature… rape revenge films. That comparison immediately adds a new, even more divisive layer to this movie, but I think it’s an important one to make. Angela only kills people who hurt her and while I can’t say I want to casually go a-killin’, this is a very cathartic thing for me to see as a trans woman.” (Colangelo, Harmony M. “The Transgender Defense of Angela Baker and ‘Sleepaway Camp’.” Medium. 23 Feb. 2020. https://harmonycolangelo.medium.com/the-transgender-defense-of-angela-baker-and-sleepaway-camp-82dd54ddf9cd ).

I humbly nominate Angela Baker as the slasher queen we all deserve and it’s time to recognize her alongside some of the most iconic of male-idenitfying horror icons and put forth the franchise as one that’s as solid (and, of course, unpredictable) as any A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, or even Child’s Play franchise. 

Hear the thoughts of myself and my podcast panel on the original Sleepaway Camp here: The House That Screams: Sleepaway Camp

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