The first time I saw SLEEPAWAY CAMP I was 19 years old. It was 1995 and I was spending alot of my time at my friends house. One day we were sitting around and she suggested we watch a movie. Considering her father had a collection of over 300 videos you would think it would have been an easy choice. But as we panned the 5 to 6 page list we had either seen or not wanted to watch every movie on the list. Then Mindy said "How about SLEEPAWAY CAMP? Did you ever see that?"...
When I was a pre-teen I wasn't allowed to watch horror movies. We would go to the video store with my mother on a regular basis but she always made us look for a movie under the PG section of the store. I would always wander off by myself, sometimes with my brother, to the horror section. I loved looking at all the movies I wasn't allowed to rent. I admired the cover art and read the back of each box. But there was always one movie I always wanted to see. The cover had a childs shoe with a butcher knife through it. I always thought it was a really bad movies since there was no description on the back of the box, and no pictures from the movie. Not bad as in terrible, bad as in so graphic and scary that not even the back of the box could have any information about it! It reminded me of the cover for that movie "555".
That day at Mindy's we watched SLEEPAWAY CAMP. It was my first time. I had told her I had always wanted to see it but never had the chance. That afternoon we watched the first half of the movie. From the second she pushed play and I heard the music and saw the title, I knew I loved it. I loved it before I even watched it. We had to stop watching it because her father was going to watch television before he went to work. So we finished watching it the next morning before I went home that afternoon. I will never forget my reaction after I saw the ending. I was wide eyed, teary eyed and my mouth was hanging open. I said only one thing. "That is scary."
Last night (May 17 2001) after 5 years, I finally got my hands on the first copy of SLEEPAWAY CAMP I had ever seen. I went out with Mindy and we stopped by her fathers house, tricked him into thinking she wanted to borrow a movie, and I snatched SLEEPAWAY CAMP from the pile and took it home. She told me to "keep it.. it's the one that started it all.."
SLEEPAWAY CAMP had an impact on me. I walked around the house in a daze still shaken up over seeing the ending. I was half dead from being up all night and that contributed to my state. Everywhere I went I thought I would see Angela. I went up the stairs and I thought she was there waiting for me at the top. I went to the bathroom and I thought she was standing in the shower. I even checked. I walked around corners scared I would bump into her. I was really scared! I went home with the same feeling that continued for a two week period. I had to sleep with the light on. Because if I didn't, I only imagined that face staring at me from behind in the dark.
From that point on, every time I went to Mindy's house, I would watch SLEEPAWAY CAMP. Literally every time. And I was there almost every day. I would just sit and watch it over and over.
Years later in 1998, I went searching desperately for a copy of SLEEPAWAY CAMP to buy. That's when I learned it had been discontinued. Then one day, Mindy called me and told me they had a copy at the video store she rents videos from. She asked the manager if she could buy it and he said yes, for $16. That was my first copy of SLEEPAWAY CAMP.
During that time I had a fanzine going called MR.BUN filled with my writings and such. My next issue was going to be SLEEPAWAY CAMP themed. I had pencil drawn Angela's scary face and written a number of lyrics (song lyrics) based on the movie. I was looking though phone books for cast members and watching SLEEPAWAY CAMP every night, sometimes back to back. I was taking notes like tallying up how many times Angela was picked on, how many times Ricky said a curse word.. Things like that. I didn't have the internet then. I was still making 'zines. The good old fashioned kind. Photo copied handmade fanzines. Unfortunately I never finished it and I ended up throwing all my blueprints away. That was the year my father bought a computer and I finally had axcess to the internet. I thought I could now fullfill my obsession, my dream and my then reason for living. *yea I know how pathetic that is*
I pegged myself the "#1 Fan" and still refer to myself as that, even today. I searched and hunted but found no website for the SLEEPAWAY CAMP movie. The only thing I did find was Marc's Land @ http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/psychology/533/sleepaway.htm and I immediately e-mailed Marc begging him to get the site up as I was in the process of learning how to make a site myself. I started with GurlPages and later switched on over to Angelfire. The idea was to create the SLEEPAWAY CAMP fanzine online but instead it turned into a website.
Last night I decided to once again talk about my first time watching SLEEPAWAY CAMP and how I got to where I am now with the website. Getting ahold of the original print I first saw gave me a sense of closure. I can finally rest. I have my movie, my website and I just thought I would share that with you again.
Originally written on May 18 2001