Meg Hafdahl Kelly Florence Popular Books

Meg Hafdahl Kelly Florence Biography & Facts

Sleepaway Camp is a 1983 American slasher film written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, and starring Felissa Rose, Katherine Kamhi, Paul DeAngelo, Mike Kellin (in his last screen appearance), and Christopher Collet (in his first). The original entry in the Sleepaway Camp film series, it focuses on serial killings which occur at a summer camp for pre-teenagers. Filmed in upstate New York in the fall of 1982, Sleepaway Camp was released the following year by United Film Distributors. It earned approximately $11 million at the box office, but was met by largely unfavorable reviews from critics, many of whom deemed it exploitative and derivative of such films as Friday the 13th (1980). In the years since its release, Sleepaway Camp has gone on to develop a cult following, as well as garnering notoriety for its twist ending, which is considered one of the most shocking in the horror genre and in film history at large. The film has also been subject to diverging criticism from modern reviewers regarding its themes of gender identity. It was followed by four sequels: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989), Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor (2012), and Return to Sleepaway Camp (2008). Plot In 1975, John Baker and his boyfriend, Lenny, take John's children Angela and Peter on a boating trip. After the boat capsizes, John and the children attempt to swim ashore. However, they swim into the path of a reckless motorboat and are struck. John and one of the kids are killed. Eight years later, Angela, the surviving child, is now traumatized. She has been living with her eccentric aunt, Dr. Martha Thomas, and her cousin Ricky Thomas. Angela and Ricky are sent to Camp Arawak. Due to her introverted nature, Angela is bullied, with fellow camper Judy and camp counselor Meg her primary tormentors. The head cook, Artie, attempts to molest Angela as well. Later, an unseen figure causes Artie to get severely scalded by the water he is boiling. He is rushed to the hospital, and the incident is deemed accidental by camp owner Mel Costic. Campers Kenny and Mike also mock Angela, prompting Ricky and his friend Paul to get into a fight with them. Paul befriends Angela. Kenny is later drowned after capsizing his canoe, his death also ruled accidental by Mel. Paul asks Angela to attend a movie with him and kisses her. Campers Billy and Jimmy pick on Angela, and Billy is killed next, stung to death when someone traps him in a public toilet stall with a beehive. Mel starts thinking there is a killer in the camp. The relationship between Angela and Paul grows strained when Paul kisses her again, causing Angela to have a flashback to her youth when she and her brother witnessed their father in bed with Lenny. Paul is seduced by Judy, and the two are found kissing by Angela. Guilty, Paul attempts to explain himself but is shooed away by Judy and Meg, who throw Angela into the water. Small children fling sand at Angela; she is comforted by Ricky, who swears revenge on her aggressors. Meg is later stabbed to death in the shower. A camp social is held. At the event, Paul apologizes to Angela again and she tells him to meet her at the water. Mel finds Meg's body. Four of the six children who threw sand at Angela are found hacked to bits. Soon after, Judy is killed by being vaginally penetrated with a lit curling iron. The camp is thrown into a panic with all the deaths. Thinking Ricky is the killer, Mel beats him into unconsciousness, then runs into the woods and encounters the real killer. In shock as to who it is, he appears to recognize the assailant before being killed with an arrow to the throat. Police begin searching for the missing campers. Paul is at the beach with Angela, who suggests they go for a swim. The policeman discovers Ricky, unconscious but alive. Ronnie and Susie find a naked Angela humming and clutching a hunting knife and Paul's severed head. They are shocked to discover that "Angela" is actually Peter, her thought-to-be-dead brother. It is revealed that the real Angela died in the accident and Peter survived. After Martha gained custody of him, she decided to raise Peter as the girl she always wanted, already having a son. It is implied that Peter was mentally affected by seeing his father sharing a homosexual embrace with another man. The nude and blood-covered "Angela" (with male genitalia in full view), stands before the shocked Susie and Ronnie who discover that she is the killer; Angela stares vacantly at both of them, hissing and growling at them like a wild animal. Cast Production The filming of Sleepaway Camp took place in Argyle, New York near Summit Lake at a camp formerly known as Camp Algonquin. In interviews, screenwriter and director, Robert Hiltzik, has said that he attended that camp as a child. The movie was filmed in five weeks starting in September 1982 and ending in October on a budget of $350,000. The film had been storyboarded but after the first day of filming, the film was already behind schedule. The storyboards could not be used and were thrown out. The trees, with their leaves turning, belie the summer setting of the film. Unlike many of its contemporaries, which had adults portraying youth, the cast of Sleepaway Camp was primarily made up of adolescent actors. Release Box office Sleepaway Camp premiered in New York City on November 18, 1983. It had its premiere in Los Angeles the following spring on May 25, 1984, screening in fifteen theaters and earning $90,000 during its opening weekend. On June 10, the film ranked among the top-twenty highest grossing films at the U.S. box office that week. By the end of its theatrical run, it had gone on to gross a total of $11 million. Critical response Contemporary Upon its original release, the film was frequently compared to Friday the 13th due to their shared settings and whodunit plot structure. A review in The Courier-Journal characterized the film as a "low-budget slasher in the Friday the 13th mold, with teen-age mayhem at a summer camp", while Rick Lyman of The Philadelphia Inquirer uniformly lambasted the film, criticizing its performances, writing, and twist ending. Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times felt the film was derivative and gruesome, but conceded that its pacing was adept and that director Hiltzik portrayed the often cruel and abusive behavior of teenagers towards another young person. In the Chula Vista Star-News's review, the film was deemed "a tasteless picture about mysterious murders at a summer youth camp that obscenely blends beheadings, stabbings, pubescent impulses, homosexuality, and transvestism" with a cast of junior-high-school actors. George Williams of The Sacramento Bee made similar criticisms of the acting, and described the film as "mindless" and "dirty". Paul Willistein of The Morning Call described the film as "simply horrible", writing that its campy sensibility is unsuccessful as it is "intended to be a bonafide horror.... Discover the Meg Hafdahl Kelly Florence popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Meg Hafdahl Kelly Florence books.