Jeff Hayes from
SleepAway Camp Movies.com!!!

Do you remember your initial reactions to the sleepaway camp films? Which one did you see first?   I saw them in sequence starting with the original late one night on HBO around 86 or 87. I remember it being unlike any movie I had seen before. It was very unique and had this unusual quality where you feel that some of the characters, although exaggerated, are more like real people and less like characters. And of course... that ending.

Tell us about how the website for sleepawaycamp movies became a reality. Were meeting fellow fans and lack of content on the internet at the time motivating factors? At the time I was new to the web and there wasn't much about SC online except for a few reviews here and there. I met fellow horror movie buff John Klyza on a FRIDAY THE 13TH message board, and we soon found ourselves discussing SLEEPAWAY.

How difficult was it to find the people involved with these three films and who was the first person you did track down?

Actually, in the beginning it was very difficult. It took me months of research before even making the first contact. The silence was finally broken when I tracked down Jonathan "Ricky" Tiersten in late 1998 and went to meet him in early '99. At this time, almost everything surrounding SC was a mystery and Johnny put a lot of rumors to rest about the film. He was really glad to hear that SC had a following and had a blast recalling his experiences on the film. I remember asking him if he would be up for playing "Ricky" again if we could get the next SC going and he was all for it. 4 years later it actually happened! How cool is that? He was the first link I made in the amazing SC puzzle. I did a detailed interview with him and we put it on the website. More and more fans began coming to the site as some of the mystery was being unfolded for the first time anywhere since the film was released back in 1983!

Do you have any interesting stories or experiences involving one of your interviews? Who was your personal highlight? They were all great to do, but I think the most fun was probably the original Felissa interview. She was, at that time, the biggest request from fans.  Everyone wanted to know what ever happened to "Angela". I heard rumors ranging from "she has 6 kids and lives in a trailer" to "she lives in Isreal". I ended out tracking her down in NY after sending a letter in the mail to an address I found, hoping it was her.

Tell us about how the commentary session came to be for the original Sleepaway Camp DVD? Were you contacted by anchor bay entertainment? Actually, I contacted Anchor Bay. Once I heard that they had acquired the DVD rights, I immediately contacted them about doing something special for the fans. At this point, Johnny was the only member of SC that I had found and I suggested that we at least do something with him for the DVD release. They said they would get back in touch with me once production on the transfer was closer. By this time I had tracked down Felissa and Robert.

Both you and Robert Hiltzik noticed a few cuts from that anchor bay version of the Sleepaway Camp DVD. Any plans on a newer DVD as a completely uncut & unedited release? And if so, what will your contributions be for it?

Was the positive reception to that reunion panel a surprise to you & the original sleepaway camp cast & crew?

As kids, my sister and I would occasionally spend the weekend over my Grandmother's house. We used to love it because Granny would let us rent horror films (which we weren't allowed to watch at home until we were teens) and we would all watch them and love them. It was Horror Movies-101 over there! I saw most of the 80's classics at Grandma's house. So the fact that Grandma's house held so many great memories of kick-ass horror flicks became a motivator behind making her house the setting for GRANDMA'S SECRET. Plus the fact that I always thought my Grandmother is an amazing actress who never got into acting because of the path life took her in.  She would always act out characters for us and I just knew I had to make her the star of a horror tale one day. So I took all that and mixed it up with my intrigue for the whole bizarre crimes/serial killer phenomenon and I created a unique little story. I wanted to mix a little SC into Grandma's gruesome stew so I asked Felissa to play the Newscaster and Robert to play Grandma's wacky neighbor. We shot their segments while we were in Texas for a weekend of midnight SC screenings.

Your short film 'Grandma's Secret Recipe' played in a Chicago theater before a screening of the original sleepaway camp for the first annual Flashback Weekend convention. How did that feel for you & did you ever think that a short film you were responsible for would play before the original sleepaway camp?

You've hosted the reunion panel for sleepaway camp at fango & had a table with Felissa Rose set up for the Flashback Weekend convention. What have your experiences been like with all the conventions? They are always fun! It is always a blast to meet SC fans and hear all their stories about how they fell in love with the movies and how much these movies mean to them. Robert is amazed every time. He once said to me, "every time you bring me to one of these conventions, I always imagine only a few fans will be there for this movie made 20 years ago and every time I meet hundreds of fans!! It's incredible!"

You recently shot a documentary following the production of "Return To Sleepaway Camp". And your site & convention appearances have stirred interest in fans for this sequel. Was it a surreal experience being on the set of a sequel that you directly and indirectly helped get made?

We lost power one night due to a hurricane. This forced cast and crew to walk around the giant camp with flashlights and eat by the campfire! Wow, throw some murders in the mix and that sounds like a premise for another SC sequel. Another night, I had driven in to town to get some photos developed. When I got back to the road that led up to the camp, a giant dark blob began running across the street about 10 feet ahead of me. It all happened so fast that when I finally realized what it was, I was startled for a few seconds. It was a big black bear!!!

A few nights later me and Paul DeAngelo ("Ronnie") were chatting outside behind the dining hall about our remote location. I told him about the bear. He asked me, "Was it as big as that trash compactor over there?" (pointing to the trash compactor). I said, "It was a lot bigger than that!" He was shocked! The rest of the night he was telling everyone about the bear I saw and kept looking into the woods to make sure Yogi and company weren't coming. Then a few other cast and crew who had seen bears in these woods at one point or another told us of their experiences. And the rest of the night, Paul was nervous about bears!! It was too funny. He kept his fingers crossed that one wouldn't creep out of the woods on his ride to the hotel after shooting that night. As for a spooky side-note: down the road from the camp was an old house that many of the crew claimed was 'haunted'. The local legend was that a man died in the house years ago and was eaten to the bone by his starved cats! Although the house had been vacant for years, Vinny Pastore swears to have seen a woman looking out the window one night on his way to camp! Hmm, I think Angela is out there!

When i came down to the 'Return to Sleepaway Camp' set, I was there the same night as the band, CKY.  How did they get invovled with the new sleepaway movie?

Deron Miller of CKY is a Huge SC fan!  Deron and his manager wrote me an e-mail shortly after we started production and asked if there was any way CKY could take part in the movie.  I told Robert and Anthony, the Line Producer, about them and told everyone to read the cool article Deron wrote for the website.  They have a good following and a lot of their fans are into movies like SC.  Some buzz started to build and a few days later the arrangements had been made and they were set to come out to the set for a weekend to shoot a cameo.  I shot some cool Behind The Scenes stuff with the guys and Felissa where Deron reveals how his love for SC inspired him to put Felissa's "Angela" face on the cover of one of their singles.  I ocassionally get emails from CKY fans who tell me that after discovering SC through Deron, they went and rented the movies and now they are diehard SC fans as well.

While I'm sure the film is far from complete, do you and the rest of the people involved in 'Return To Sleepaway Camp' feel satisfied with the sequel you've shot? I think the cast all did a teriffic job acting. Robert Kubrick (I mean Hiltzik) did numerous takes of every shot to make sure he got what he envisioned! The story is fun and moves a lot like the original. Many of the deaths are really innovative and wild. And some of the punch is gonna have people talking for a good while! So if all that magic translates into the film, as it looked like it did on the set, then fans are definitely in for a very satisfying sequel.

How did you feel about the most recent Weekends of Horrors appearance in which you hosted a 'Return To Sleepaway Camp' panel? Hmm, that was interesting. There we were, on stage after having given the world's first look at footage from the movie. The audience had many questions - BUT, after they heard a few of Robert's responses, many of them decided not to ask. See, Robert likes to keep things really mysterious - and that's cool, but he kept things so hush-hush that some folks were actually getting frustrated because all his answers were "maybe", "we'll see", and "anything is possible". Now put yourself in that situation.

Any plans for more short films or a possible full length of your own?

For sure! Grandma 2 is coming. And I recently completed my debut Feature Length horror tale: BLOOD BROTHERS (which took 4 years to make). It's sorta like a cross between a serial-killer drama and a slasher flick with some supernatural undertones. It takes place during a 4 month period where 2 serial killing brothers use bloody murder as a therapy to cope with a trauma they can't shake from their past. Crazier yet, one of the brothers feels a supernatural bond to the trauma that gets psychologically stronger with every murder. Is something trying to make contact with him through his murderous obsession?