Line #7 Trivia/SleepawayCamp


1	* AbilityOverAppearance: Judy was intended to be a blonde, to contrast against Angela's brown hair. But Karen Fields played the AlphaBitch so well that the character became brunette.
2	* ActingInTheDark: In order to protect the thirteen-year-old Felissa Rose in the scene of Artie attempting to molest Angela, they first filmed the reaction shots of her backing away, and then Artie's coverage when she was off set. She didn't know what was happening in the scene until she saw the finished film. Likewise, she was kept away from any of the graphic death scenes when they were being shot; although she had an idea the scenes would be intense.
3	* AwesomeDearBoy: Karen Fields played Judy just because she found it fun to play an AlphaBitch.
4	* CastIncest: Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten developed a romance during filming when they were playing cousins. They split up shortly after.
5	* CastTheExpert: The paramedics carrying away the injured Artie were locals. Their squad is seen written on their jackets.
6	* ColbertBump: The film was always regarded as a CultClassic, but it did get a minor boost in popularity after being featured on ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''. It was even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]:
7	-->'''Camper:''' Oh my God! [[spoiler:Angela's the killer and she was really a boy!]]\
8	'''Robert Hiltzik:''' Oh my God! Somebody remembered this movie and wrote a comedy sketch about it!
9	* {{Corpsing}}: Felissa Rose kept cracking up during the scene of the boys harrassing her ("yo Angela, why you so fucked up?"), because she found John Dunn and Tom Van Dell hilarious.
10	* CostumeBacklash:
11	** Jonathan Tiersten really didn't like the large hat he had to wear at the social, since it kept falling off because it was so big. He also thought it looked ridiculous and tried to appeal to the wardrobe mistress, but was told it was the director's orders.
12	** Felissa Rose, who was a GirlyGirl that liked her makeup and accessories, was a little put out at Angela's more demure look - with only the two hair-clips as anything fancy.
13	* CreatorBacklash:
14	** The director later said he regretted having [[spoiler: Angela kill the kids who threw sand on her]]. He wanted every victim in the movie to be an AssholeVictim and later decided that this was a bit DisproportionateRetribution.
15	** Special effects creator Edward French regrets how fake the body cast of Kenny is; apparently John E Dunn was nervous when it was being made and they had to make do.
16	* CrosscastRole: [[spoiler: Felissa Rose as Peter, raised as Angela]].
17	* DawsonCasting: Mostly averted with the cast. Katherine Kamhi was borderline as Meg; she was nineteen.
18	* EnforcedMethodActing: The man who stood in for [[spoiler: Felissa Rose]] in the final scene had to be drunk before he could properly film it.
19	* FollowTheLeader: While ''Sleepaway Camp'' does quickly evolve into its own entity, its summer camp setting, whodunnit structure and kills done via the murderer's POV drew lots of comparisons to ''Film/FridayThe13th1980''. Both films even climax with [[spoiler: a character being decapitated on the beach at night]].
20	* FriendshipOnTheSet: Felissa Rose describes all the kids on set hitting it off and being good friends. Karen Fields ironically enough was one of her best friends on the production.
21	* FunnyCharacterBoringActor:
22	** Inverted. Angela is TheQuietOne who says very little, and doesn't emote much. Felissa Rose by contrast is a GenkiGirl known for being very lively and bubbly at horror conventions. She also had a much bolder and more colorful sense of style than Angela's subdued look, and was rather put-out when she couldn't wear her usual makeup or accessories in character.
23	** Played straight with Desiree Gould, who in interviews was the complete antithesis of the ridiculous over-the-top Aunt Martha.
24	* InMemoriam: The movie is [[{{Dedication}} dedicated]] to writer/director Robert Hiltzik's mother, [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments whom he describes as a "doer"]].
25	* IronyAsSheIsCast: Angela, [[spoiler: as a biological boy,]] is flat-chested, with Judy repeatedly teasing her for it. Creator/FelissaRose grew up to be, well, [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CyZu3KqLGhA/?hl=en very much not]].
26	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: Billy's death scene (or the aftermath at least) had to be done on a completely isolated room to protect people from the live bees. And because it was so cold, the bees kept dying and had to be replaced.
27	* NoBudget: Only made for $350,000.
28	* RealLifeRelative: A lot of the cast and crew's relatives appeared as the campers getting off the bus near the beginning of the film.
29	* RealLifeWritesTheHairstyle: Frank the cop is wearing an obvious fake mustache in the scene where he returns to the camp. This is because Allen Breton had to shave it off in between filming days for another project.
30	* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
31	** Felissa Rose's mother protested about a couple of things that influenced the shooting process - and resulted in some additional {{Foreshadowing}} of the twist. [[spoiler: She did not want her daughter to be performing the death scenes, as she was too young. So the male Jonathan Tiersten acted as her double and stood in for her in most of the killing scenes. It's him wearing a wig in the scenes where Kenny and Judy are killed. His hands are used in most of the shots of only Angela's hands, again to hide the killer's identity]].
32	** Willy Kuskin, whose character is bullied, was a victim of bullying in real life, as a result, Frank Trent Saladino had to intervene when the other members took things too far.
33	* RomanceOnTheSet:
34	** Robert Hiltzik got engaged to Missy, the body double for Lisa Buckler (Leslie).
35	** Katherine Kamhi (Meg) and Thomas E van Dell (Mike) dated during filming.
36	* ThrowItIn: Ricky's rant to the boys throwing water balloons at Angela was something Jonathan Tiersten had improvised in his audition when Robert Hiltzik asked to "curse him out".
37	* TransCharacterCisActor: The killer is revealed as assigned male at birth but raised as a girl. In sequels, she identifies as a woman and has undergone sex reassignment surgery. She's played by cis actress [[spoiler:Creator/FelissaRose]] in the original and the fourth sequel. Cis actress [[spoiler:Pamela Springsteen]] played her in the second and third sequels.
38	* UncreditedRole: The man who stood in for [[spoiler: Felissa Rose]] in the ending has remained anonymous to this day. The actor was "a local college kid" who was paid "a couple hundred bucks" to play the role [[spoiler: after parental complaints from Felissa Rose's mother about having her daughter wear a prosthetic penis for the scene. As a result, they had to make a mask of Felissa Rose's face for the actor to wear. For the scene; the actor had to be completely shaved, stand on a beach on a freezing cold night, wear the mask of a 13-year-old girl, and he had to be naked for the scene as well.]] He drank several beers to calm his nerves and when the time came to do the scene, the poor guy was overwhelmed with stage fright and he broke down crying. Edward French, Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, and Robert Hiltzik understand that it was an intense and bizarre scene for the actor to do, spoke about him with the utmost pity, and they still respect his desire to remain anonymous.
39	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
40	** Desiree Gould initially wanted to leave the film, finding Aunt Martha's dialogue too bizarre to say with a straight face. The director responded "you're going to do this role if I have to mime the words for you". She later called the experience "fantastic".
41	** [[{{Series/ThirtyRock}} Jane Krakowski]] almost played Judy, but had problems with [[CruelAndUnusualDeath the way she would die.]]
42	** Jonathan Tiersten claims that Ricky's "mind over matter" speech, which ends with Mozart being tricked into doing a sit-up onto someone's naked ass, was much longer. He had nearly two pages of dialogue to memorise, but it was cut down.
43	** Felissa Rose recalls the second kiss between Paul and Angela was written to have him feeling her chest and undoing her bra. She's glad it wasn't filmed, finding it an odd thing to have in there in view of the twist.
44	** A shot of Judy [[spoiler: after she's killed with the curling iron]] was cut by the censors for being far too graphic.
45	** [[spoiler: Ricky originally died when Mel beat him at the end.]] Only during shooting did Robert Hiltzik decide to film [[spoiler: Ricky showing signs of survival.]]
46	** Felissa Rose was originally going to do the end scene [[spoiler: wearing a prosthetic penis]]. They eventually decided to achieve the shot with [[spoiler: a boy wearing a cast of Felissa's face]].

Context Trivia / SleepawayCamp