Episode 2

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Published on: 29th July, 2022

A story about incredibly short-shorts, kids being assholes, seemingly accepted pedophilic tendencies, and poor Mozart.

Listen in as me and returning guest and horror cinephile, Sean, pull on those aforementioned '80s short-shorts, roast some s'mores, and chat about this subversive classic.

Written and directed by Robert Hiltzik (Sleepaway Camp, Return to Sleepaway Camp), IGN called the film a "super fun, crazy and [...] an incredibly memorable movie," while TV Guide said it was "simply irredeemable." Hey, no one reads TV Guide any more, so what do they know?!

It tells the story of traumatized and shy Angela Baker (Felissa Rose, Terrifier 2, The House that Wept Blood) and her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten, Toilet Zombie Baby Strikes Back, The House that Wept Blood) as they attend summer camp. But it is not all sun, fun, and flag football, because as soon as kids begin to bully and accost Angela, they end up dead in awful ways. Behind Angela's troubled childhood and death of her father, lie a major secret that only comes to light in the film's final moments. A secret that set audiences talking for years to come.

The film is currently available on DVD & Blu-Ray, Freevee, Crackle, Peacock, Plex, Tubi, Shout! Factory TV, and Amazon Prime.

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About the Podcast

Subversive Cinema
The show about the weird, whacky, and downright wrong entries in cinema history.
There are a lot of films out there, so it's only natural that a decent amount of strange content exists. These are the films we examine.

Each week, I sit down with a guest and we take a look a one of these weird, whacky, or downright wrong cinematic entries. Each of them has something about it that makes it special — I call it the "Subversive Sauce" — and that is recipe we try to break down.

Is it scientific? Absolutely not. Will you learn things you didn't know? Maybe. Might you hear about films worth checking out? Most definitely.

Tune in and see what the subversion is all about!
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About your host

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Art Hall

Art started in the podcasting ecosphere back in 2007 with the outrageous, yet short lived, scripted variety show "WBKR: Buckwilde Radio," which claimed listeners from over 20 different countries. After hanging up his headphones and heading west to move to Los Angeles, he kept podcasting in his heart but only made appearances rather than producing or hosting. It only took a global pandemic, boredom, and the pleading from his buddy, Joe, to get back into the mic booth.