Scream Factory has some good news for Sleepaway Camp devotees who have worn out their old discs: the label says it has located the negative for Robert Hiltzik‘s grimy 1983 slasher and is preparing a new 4K restoration. The announcement arrived by way of an Instagram post yesterday, showing off the rediscovered film elements with a characteristically brief tease: “We found the negative. 4K restoration coming soon.”
Beyond that, specifics are scarce. Scream Factory has not announced a release date, confirmed whether the restoration will land on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, or both, or detailed what, if any, new supplemental features might come along with it. The label’s prior Collector’s Edition Blu-ray, released in 2014, was already sourced from a 2K scan of the original camera negative, so it is not yet clear whether this is that same element being rescanned at a higher resolution, a different and more complete negative that had gone missing in the meantime, or some combination of the two.
Released in the thick of the early ’80s camp slasher cycle, Sleepaway Camp built its cult reputation less on its body count than on one of the genre’s most notoriously gruesome final reveals, and on the off kilter introduction it gave the horror world to Angela Baker, played by Felissa Rose. More than four decades on, the film still has enough of a following that a two line Instagram tease was enough to send horror outlets scrambling to cover it. Expect more concrete details, hopefully with a release window attached, as Scream Factory’s restoration moves closer to completion.
