Here we are, wasting our breath trying to talk you guys into picking new Halloween classics while Hollywood is still busy recycling the same old ones. In an era where no property or franchise is too obscure to be revived, we're now faced with the prospect of a Sleepaway Camp remake. According to Deadline the 1983 slasher film is in the corsairs of former Fox executive Jeff Katz, who has optioned the film's remake rights from an unlikely trio of owners. Katz will be working with the original film's writer/director Robert Hiltzik, producer Michael Tatosian and star Felissa Rose as producers on the reboot, which "aims to reboot the Sleepaway Camp mythos in a modern setting with a new film series that echoes its legacy and the psychosexual elements that made the first pic such a memorable cult favorite."
The term "cult favorite" gets abused all over the place, but Sleepaway Camp appears to be the real deal, inspiring midnight screenings, an episode of the fantastic podcast How Did This Get Made, and an incredible fan site that actually helped unearth footage of the unfinished fourth film in the series. And it's not like a remake would be the worst thing that's ever happened to the movie, which endured two direct-to-video sequels and that aborted fourth film, which abandoned production when the studio went bankrupt. Then Hiltzik decided to return to the franchise in 2003 with Return to Sleepaway Camp, which ignored the previous two sequels entirely, and then spent five years in post-production before landing on DVD in 2008. There's even been talk of a fifth one, Sleepaway Camp: Berserk, though the latest news seems to suggest it's only in the script phase-- and now that a remake is in the works, it's probably never coming at all.
Honestly, the only proof you really need of its cult status is the ridiculously detailed Wikipedia page, which goes into outrageous detail about all four films and cites the multiple punk and metal bands that have been inspired by the movie that terrified them as children. It's impossible to imagine a remake of a film beloved for its camp that captures any of the same unintentional hilarity, but that's the remake game-- you jump on anything with a recognizable brand name no matter how much sense the idea makes.
If you're just catching up on the trend, you can watch the entire movie-- twist ending and all-- below. Though fair warning, it's probably not the same without a group of people with you to throw popcorn at the screen.
