Jeff Hayes Talks To Macabre Daily About His New Book About “Sleepaway Camp!”
The 2001 “Sleepaway Camp” reunion. Photo courtesy of Jeff Hayes (far left)
Everyone remembers the first time they saw “Sleepaway Camp.” Robert Hiltzik’s deranged debut slasher is so indelible, it’s nearly impossible to imagine it as part of a horror marathon. If you’ve never seen it before, what other films would you remember? To commemorate the film’s 40th anniversary, author and filmmaker Jeff Hayes has written a book, “Sleepaway Camp: Making the Movie and Reigniting the Campfire, from 1984 Publishing. Hayes talked to us about writing the book and his journey to talk to the people behind the scenes. He also debunked some rumors about the genesis of the film, and gave us some details on the script on the in-development reboot!
Macabre Daily: The book is split into 2 halves: the making of the film, and your own journey to reunite the cast with the fandom that grew after the film was released. How did you decide on that format beyond the traditional “making-of” book?
Jeff Hayes: I was contacted by 1984 Publishing, who told me they were big fans of the website since the late ‘90s. They knew my story and asked if I wanted to turn it into a book. We went back-and forth with some ideas about what could be in it, and we thought it could be fun for the fans to make the most comprehensive book on “Sleepaway Camp,” containing everyone’s stories. The director, the producers, the actors, the effects team, everyone. For these types of books, the focus is often on the actors, but I really wanted to focus on the people behind the scenes, too.
MD: That’s definitely the focus of the first half of the book, but the second half is more of your journey to reunite the cast and crew, which is pretty unique to these books.
JH: Yes, that was the idea from talking with the publisher. The first half of the book is about the movie and the second half is about what’s happened since, as well as the conception of the website.
MD: I was surprised to learn that the special effects team came right from “Creepshow.” It makes sense when you recall the great death scenes, but I never realized “Sleepaway Camp” had that pedigree for its effects.
JH: That was something I learned, too. I previously heard someone from “Creepshow” worked on “Sleepaway Camp,” but as I spoke to crew members who weren’t previously interviewed about the film, I realized there were more. I want to say the costume designer [Eileen Sieff], mechanical effects [technician Ed Fountain], and various others.
MD: How was Robert Hiltzik able to hire a top-notch special effects crew when he was just a 25-year-old film school graduate?
JH: I think it had something to do with Bil Billowit, the production designer, who was in the “Creepshow” art department. He brought a lot of crew in, lucky for us.
MD: You’ve interviewed a lot of the cast and crew over the years. Surely some of them are new, but were any interviews archival?
JH: Definitely. I wanted to include some to be the original interviews from when I first found these people and nobody knew what they were doing. I thought it would be neat, especially in the second half of the book when I talk about meeting them for the first time and hearing how they reflected on it. Over the years, the recollections have changed a bit, but those first interviews are a little closer to the making of the film than they are now.
MD: Let’s address an urban legend: the opening dedication of the film is “To Mom, a Doer.” Is it true Robert Hiltzik used the insurance money he got from his mother’s passing to make “Sleepaway Camp?”
JH: That’s not true. She did pass away before shooting, but he didn’t fund it with insurance money. His mom inspired him because she was always creating something. I was going to put that in the dedication to the book, like “To someone, a Doer,” but I dedicated it to Desiree Gould (“Aunt Martha”) because she passed not long ago and there’s no better person to dedicate it to.
The late, great Desiree Gould (left) and Jeff Hayes (right)
MD: There are many hilarious anecdotes in the book, but one of them is about the MPAA saying “Bad news, Hr. Hiltzik. The film will be rated R.” How could anyone view the film and think it should have anything less than an R? Did they really think he was aiming for a PG rating?
JH: That’s what I understand. The MPAA must have thought he was trying to make something like “Meatballs,” but of course he made a gruesome horror movie. He’s not trying to attract younger teenagers. Not with THAT ending [Laughs].
Hayes on the set of “Return to Sleepaway Camp”
MD: Can you tell me anything about your unused treatment for “Return to Sleepaway Camp?”
JH: This was before I found Robert, when there was a rumor he passed away. I was hoping to find him, but just in case, I wrote a treatment [for a sequel]. It’s really all in the book, but it would have been a whodunit like the original film, so you wouldn’t know that Chef Artie, who survived, was the killer in this one. I had Ricky as the main character, and he was going to arrange a meeting between Angela and Chef Artie, who would duel to the death.
I thought it would be great if Felissa Rose came back as Angela and Pamela Springsteen, who played Angela in “Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3,” played the “actress who played Angela” in a series of movies based on Camp Arawak!
MD: Speaking of parts 2 and 3, my mind was blown by the fact that credited screenwriter “Fritz Gordon” was a pseudonym for Christopher Guest regular Michael Hitchcock. He’s even on the commentaries? Do you know the story behind how he got hired?
JH: Jerry Silva was the producer on the first film and he went on to work for Double Helix films, who produced 2 and 3. I believe he found Michael and told him to make them more comedic. Those films are a lot of fun.
MD: Many slasher films from that era were purely exploitative, and “Sleepaway Camp” is definitely at home in a Times Square grindhouse. But it also tries to be a sweet, coming-of-age story while kids are dying in horrendous ways. Over the years, did you gleam any insight into why Hiltzik wanted to combine those genres?
JH: He took pieces of that from his summers at camp. When he wrote the script, he wrote the beginning and the end, then he filled the middle section with a lot of personalities he knew from camp. Robert’s a very quirky, funny guy, and I can definitely see where it came from. Plus, he was dating Michele at the time, so it makes sense that there’s a love story.
It’s funny, because when I finally tracked Robert down, and this in the book as you know, I found Michele’s sister’s phone number. I called and told her I ran the movie’s website and I was looking for Robert. Well, it wasn’t her sister, it was Michele who answered the phone and she said “I’m his wife.” Talk about one of those crazy moments!
MD: The camp he based Arawak on, Camp Algonquin, isn’t open anymore, correct?
JH: Yeah, the cabins are all gone, but if you go to the filming location in Argyle, New York, the beachfront still looks just like it did in the movie. It’s amazing. The first time I went there was when we started doing camp tours and screenings two years ago. I saw the ball courts, which I was told were overgrown, but they also looked just like they did in the movie.
A tour and screening on location. After the social, of course.
MD: Is it a resort now?
JH: No, but the owner of the land spends a lot of time up there with his camper and his grandkids. He has other family members who visit and they think it’s cool the movie’s so well-known and they get to camp on the location every year.
MD: Do you have any idea where the future of “Sleepaway Camp” has in store? Maybe a reboot? Or another sequel?
JH: Robert wants to do the reboot, himself. He’s written a script, which is really cool. It has an all-new cast playing the roles, but set in modern day, with a whole bunch of new subtext on top of the stuff that everyone loves about the original. It has a lot of what the fans would want to see because it comes from his mind.
Now available from 1984 Publishing.
Interview edited for length and clarity. “Sleepaway Camp: Making the Movie and Reigniting the Campfire" is available where books are sold and from the 1984 Publishing website.
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