Next week, a chapter in the SLEEPAWAY CAMP franchise history comes to a close as the world will finally see the release of SLEEPAWAY CAMP IV: THE SURVIVOR* on DVD. John Klyza, editor of SleepawayCampFilms.com, and the mad mind behind the 2002 SLEEPAWAY CAMP "Survival Kit" DVD set from Anchor Bay, have been slaving over Part IV for a decade. The core footage for the third sequel was included as a bonus disc in the Survival Kit set, where it was exhibited in raw form, but Klyza and director Jim Markovic had grander plans for developing it into a full fledged film. Before heading to SleepawayCampFilms.com next week to order up a copy, enjoy our chat with Klyza about his monstrous creation, the culmination of years of determined work born out of a dedication to Angela fans who have been patiently waiting for THE SURVIVOR to come to fruition. In addition, you will find a never-before-seen shot from the production of SLEEPAWAY CAMP IV, and the DVD cover art.

FANGORIA: How did you find the part IV production footage?

JOHN KLYZA: We came across it accidentally when we were putting the boxed set together. 

FANG: What role does that footage play in your feature length version?

KLYZA: Back in the early 90s, director Jim Markovic put together a combination of the first three SLEEPAWAY CAMP movies, using the part IV footage from 1992 as a wraparound. That was done for promotional purposes to try and get the funding to make the movie for real. They only shot one or two days back in October of 1992. We pulled it apart, and working with an editor over the last three years, I wrote new scenes using the 1992 footage and scenes from the previous movies. We just kept on going through different cuts trying to create something as new as possible out of the existing footage.

FANG: Was anything new shot to flesh out the story?

KLYZA: Jim Markovic got a voice actress who sounds like Carrie Chambers, who was in the 1992 footage, and got her to record narration so we could make sense of the scenes. That links everything together. When they were originally trying to make this movie in 1992, it was going to be about 75% new footage and 25% old. Because we couldn't shoot anything new, two decades later, I saw my job as producer being to squeeze every last drop out of that 1992 footage. It is flipped now, 25% 1992 footage and 75% archive footage. We broke alot of the scenes from the old movies down into themes, and reconceptualized them, so they have different meaning. It's got fifty death scenes in it, so you can't beat that!

FANG: What kind of new territory does the film head into?

KLYZA: It begins at the end of SLEEPAWAY CAMP 3, with Angela dying in the back of an ambulance, and then goes on to this girl, Alison, who has been having nightmares. She goes back to the campground, which has been abandoned, and she is walking around, trying to figure out what her nightmares and memories are about. It is like, is she Angela? Is she a victim? She has flashbacks, and we try to put a cap on that mystery.

FANG: Is original SLEEPAWAY CAMP creator Robert Hiltzik involved with what you are doing?

KLYZA: No, not at all. The rights are split between two different parties, and what we tried to do with SLEEPAWAY CAMP IV was to try to tie 1, 2, and 3 together into a cohesive storyline. A lot of the fan complaints are over the difference in story direction and tone between the original and the sequels. Part IV was done by Markovic, a third party outside that part 1 vs parts 2 and 3 thing.

FANG: Any talk of re-shooting this as a new film?

KLYZA: Yes. We've been trying to do that, but we want to see how it goes with this first. It has taken twenty years to get to this point. It was important to get this part of the history squared away. We would like to get it shot for real. I did some writing on the script, because they had only done seventy pages or so back in 1992, so the writer asked me to flesh it out a bit. That was fun.

*Not to be confused with 2008's RETURN TO SLEEPAWAY CAMP, a direct sequel to the original, both directed by Robert Hiltzik.

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