Acknowledging our collective thirst for blood and ’80s nostalgia, producer Jeff Katz has acquired the rights to the 1983 cult classic Sleepaway Camp in order to reboot the summertime slasher for a whole new generation of awful teens. Deadline reports that Katz wants to “echo its legacy and the psychosexual elements that made the first pic such a memorable cult favorite,” while moving the story to a modern setting. So basically the same movie, but with different hair and texting.
Not that anything should necessarily change about the story. Sleepaway Camp is a mercilessly bloody and brutal revenge flick that made Camp Crystal Lake look like it was for Cub Scouts. The film has spawned several direct-to-videos and one true sequel, 2008’s Return to Sleepaway Camp (also direct-to-video), so the franchise is in need of a good scrubbing. With original writer/director Robert Hiltzik, producer Michelle Tatosian and actress Felissa Rose, who starred as Angela, on board to produce alongside Katz, it seems like the project is in good hands.
Now, will they be keeping the film’s shocker of a twist ending? It will be interesting to see how they approach taking one of horror’s great endings and remaking it, 30 years after everyone saw it happen. A new twist?
