The original “Sleepaway Camp” is a ridiculous, messy triumph, and a breath of fresh air in a subgenre of “Friday the 13th” ripoffs. Starring actual teenagers instead of adults playing a decade younger, there’s a youthful, rebellious spirit to “Sleepaway Camp” that has gone unmatched. And as the film takes place at a youth summer camp, this also means that the film makes the shocking decision to kill off kids, something that even the scariest horror films avoid out of fear of upsetting the apple cart. Here are all five films in release order:
- “Sleepaway Camp” (1983)
- “Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers” (1988)
- “Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland” (1989)
- “Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor” (1992/2012)
- “Return to Sleepaway Camp” (2008)
“Sleepaway Camp II” and “III” lean far more into horror comedy than the original slasher, while “Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor” is a lot like “Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2” in that much of its runtime utilizes footage from the previous films. The movie’s crew began shooting new footage for the flick in the early ’90s, but the production company went bankrupt before they could finish. The footage was initially released as a special feature on the “Sleepaway Camp” Survival Kit DVD box set, but 20 years later, filmmaker Dustin Ferguson and producer John Klyza of SleepawayCampFilms.com gave the film a proper release.
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