Written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, Sleepaway Camp is now recognized as one of horror’s classic slasher films; fans have managed to connect it to another iconic franchise, Friday the 13th, in interesting ways. Hiltzik’s only film, the movie has become a cult classic amidst the myriad of '80s horror movies, following the same premise of many of its contemporaries while still offering one of horror’s most infamous twist endings.
Released in 1983, Sleepaway Camp has garnered comparisons to Friday the 13th from the very beginning. With both being slasher movies set in a summer camp, it only makes sense that audiences and critics would draw parallels. But, what if the two movies are more closely related than just a similar setting?
One fan theory, presented on Reddit, posits that Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp take place in the same universe. It also suggests that Angela’s knowledge of Jason Voorhees is what ultimately inspired her to become a killer.
The first detail of this theory that sets the two universes together is the timing of both movies’ events. Friday the 13th takes place in June of 1980, Part 2 takes place five years later in 1985, while Part 3 takes place one day after Part 2. Through flashbacks presented in Part 3, the audience learns that main character, Chris, was attacked by Jason in the woods near Camp Crystal Lake two years before, in 1983.
Sleepaway Camp, on the other hand, begins its timeline in 1975, when Angela’s father and sister were killed and she goes to live with her Aunt Martha. It then moves forward to 1983 when Angela and her cousin Ricky are headed off to summer camp.
Because both movies take place at relatively the same time, it’s very possible that Angela—or at least her Aunt Martha—is aware of the murders at Camp Crystal Lake. It’s therefore also likely that many other children and staff at the camp, and even at the children’s school would talk about these stories, sharing the legend of Jason Voorhees to scare the kids and each other, respectively.
The next tie between the two film universes is the most obvious: the summer camps. Friday the 13th takes place at the notorious Camp Crystal Lake. While it’s never mentioned in the films where the camp is located, the real life filming location is a summer camp in Hardwick, New Jersey.
Similarly, Camp Arawak, the camp setting in Sleepaway Camp is never given a stated location in the film, but the real-life filming location is in Argyle, New York near Summit Lake. If one assumes that both camps share a location with their real-life counterparts, then Camp Crystal Lake and Camp Arawak are in neighboring states.
Because of how close the two locations are, it becomes even more likely that Angela would have heard of Jason Voorhees and the killings at Camp Crystal Lake. She may have even been told about a boy drowning in a nearby lake in 1957 as a campfire story or as a warning to be careful in the water when she was a young child, prior to the boating accident that killed her father.
While there are no direct references to Friday the 13th in the original Sleepaway Camp, critics and audiences immediately drew parallels. As such, the sequels that would follow in the Sleepaway Camp franchise lean more into the similarities between the two franchises.
In Sleepaway Camp 2, a camper has a Jason mask hanging from her backpack on the cover of the film, while two other campers dress up as Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger to scare Angela at one point in the movie. In the UK release of the same film, titled Nightmare Vacation 2, the cover shows Angela in the center with Jason and Freddy on either side of her.
Then, in Sleepaway Camp 3, Angela fishes a hockey mask out of the lake; another camper markedly notes that the date is Saturday the 14th. This obviously indicates that the filmmakers were aware of the similarities to the Friday the 13th franchise, but this detail could also be interpreted as the characters within the film being aware of Jason and Freddy as either existing movie characters or even real-life killers.
Because of the concurrent timelines and close locations, it makes sense that Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th could both take place in the same universe with minimal complications. Additionally, it makes sense that knowledge of Jason Voorhees could have inspired Angela’s killings.
Angela knowing about Jason Voorhees and the killings at Camp Crystal Lake could lead her to feel some connection between the two of them, as they were both abused children at summer camp. It could also spur her to adopt the killer as a persona to manifest her rage and pain by lashing out at bullies at Camp Arawak.
While it's possible that Angela could still have been inspired by Jason Voorhees even if he's only present in the universe as a movie character, the physical closeness of the camps' locations and quick succession of events makes it a more likely explanation if Jason is real-life killer in her world.
Jason Voorhees is clearly present in the universe of Sleepaway Camp, as is represented via references to him and his iconic mask in the later movies in the franchise; it makes sense that Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp could both take place in the same universe, so the theory holds up.
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