Sleepaway Camp (1983) with Jack Sholder

Ricky and his shy, reserved cousin Angela are spending the summer at Camp Arawak, a bargain basement overnight camp in upstate New York run by Mel, cigar-chomping shyster, and staffed by a bunch of adult and teenage degenerates.  Angela is initially withdrawn, occasionally catatonic – but is soon brought out of her shell by Ricky’s friend Paul, who takes a liking to Angela in the hopes he might be able to make it with her before summer’s end.  But there are forces are at work – forces determined to put the strangely distant Angela in her place.  Bunkmate and camp harlot Judy sees Angela as a weirdo, then a threat when she attracts Paul’s attention.  Counselor Meg, who can’t get Angela to eat, play sports, or swim, constantly berates Angela for her failure to thrive.  That’s when the murders begin, one at a time, first a staffer, then a camper, and on and on.  Mel tries to hide it due to the bad publicity, but as any good camp director knows, murder’s bad for business, and the more we learn about Angela’s murky past, the more things at Camp Arawak take a turn… for the deadly. Intro, Math Club, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-26:29Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 26:30-1:02:16Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:02:17-1:21:08 Director Richard HiltzikScreenplay Richard HiltzikFeaturing Christopher Collet, Paul DeAngelo, Desiree Gould, Karen Fields, Owen Hughes, Robert Earl Jones, Katherine Kamhi, Mike Kellin, Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten Jack Sholder began his career as a film editor, working on the feature documentary King: From Montgomery to Memphis which was nominated for an Academy Award. He won an Emmy for his editing work on 3-2-1 Contact. After writing and directing several award-winning short films, Jack wrote Where Are The Children starring Jill Clayburgh for Ray Stark and Columbia. In 1982, Jack directed Alone In The Dark for New Line Cinema with Martin Landau, Jack Palance, and Donald Pleasence. He then directed A Nightmare On Elm Street II: Freddy’s Revenge. His next feature, The Hidden, won many awards including the Grand Prix at the Avoriaz Film Festival, Jury Award at the Sitges Film Festival, and Best Director at Fantasporto. Premiere Magazine called it “one of the ten most underrated films of the 80s.” This was followed by Renegades with Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips and By Dawn’s Early Light for HBO with Martin Landau, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Rebecca de Mornay, and Powers Boothe. Jack has directed movies and television for MGM, Paramount, Universal, Warners, Fox, United Artists, Lionsgate, HBO, Showtime, NBC, Discovery, and others. He is the recipient of lifetime achievement awards from FantaFest and the Grossman Festival. In 2004, he founded the Film & Television Production program at Western Carolina University where he was Professor and Director of the FTP program until 2017.  Jack has received Life Achievement Awards from Fantafestival (Rome), Grossmann Film Festival (Slovenia), and Fantastic Fest (Austin). Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar.  Music from Sleepaway Camp by Edward Bilous. For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on ⁠⁠⁠Our Blog⁠⁠⁠), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scareupod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ group. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.