Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor has a unique place within the series, but is it canon with the other movies? John Carpenter's Halloween is considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and would accidentally establish a blueprint for other slashers to follow. Friday The 13th was one of the first out of the gate, and greatly increased the levels of gore and sexuality. Soon, a glut of similiar movies would follow, with some of the most famous being My Bloody Valentine and Sleepaway Camp.
While many of the early 1980s slashers have been all but forgotten, 1983's Sleepaway Camp is not one of them. The story follows cousins Ricky and Angela, who attend a camp being stalked by a mysterious killer. Sleepaway Camp is ed for its shocking ending, revealing Angela as the killer. Since the 1980s were something of a boom time for franchises, two sequels followed, with Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland being shot back to back. Pamela Springsteen - sister of Bruce - played Angela in both, with the films being a mix of black comedy and slasher.
Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor is a unique film for several reasons. Despite its title, Sleepaway Camp 4 was the fifth movie released. The story followed Allison, a supposed survivor from the original trilogy who is suffering from amnesia and revisits the camp in hopes of recovering her memory. The movie's production company went bankrupt during filming, meaning only around 30 minutes of footage was shot. This Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor footage was later compiled for a franchise boxset, and in 2012, the sequel was finally "completed" when a cut mixed the footage shot with scenes from the first three movies. Given its messy origin, is Sleepaway Camp 4 canon?
This is a tricky question, as it could credibly be argued it isn't. Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor is a mess; it's a patchwork of footage from the sequel's canceled production stitched together - sometimes very randomly - with scenes from other Sleepaway Camp movies. It doesn't even work as an effective highlight reel for the series, and even at 70-minutes, it can be a grueling watch. Sleepaway Camp 4's - which took 20 years to be released - big twist is that Allison is Angela, who has lost her memory following the third movie. This doesn't quite work as a twist, considering there wasn't a single survivor who appeared throughout the first three films, and that "Allison" is having elaborate flashbacks to scenes only Angela was present for.
Apparently, Allison being Angela wasn't supposed to be the twist of Sleepaway Camp 4. Had the film been finished, Allison would have encountered two other campers, with a character named "Anne" actually being Angela in disguise. While The Survivor is widely disliked among followers of the series, it can just about be considered canon to the original series. 2008's Return To Sleepaway Camp - which also got bad reviews - ignored the events of the second and third movies, but following that canon, Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor just about works - although many would prefer to ignore it.
