How Did This Get Made? — “Sleepaway Camp” w/ Zack Pearlman (HDTGM Matinee)

Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas
Guest: Zack Perlman
Podcast: How Did This Get Made?
Episode Theme:
A raucous, joke- and debate-filled Halloween breakdown of the bizarre 1983 cult slasher “Sleepaway Camp”—a “bad” movie so memorable and confusing, it leaves the hosts desperately untangling its twisted plot, legendary final reveal, and baffling character relationships.

Brief Overview

In this special Halloween episode, Paul, June, and Jason—joined by comedian Zack Perlman—dive into the infamously strange and campy horror film Sleepaway Camp. Known for its shocking twist ending and wild blend of incompetence and accidental brilliance, the movie’s bonkers plot, questionable acting, and jaw-dropping content spark nonstop laughter, confusion, and deep-dive theorizing from the panel. The group tries to reason out the film’s labyrinthine familial relationships, discuss highlights including its ultra-bizarre characters and deaths, and celebrate its lasting meme-worthy legacy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Initial Impressions & Cultural Context

• None of the hosts had seen or heard of Sleepaway Camp before, but all agree it’s uniquely strange and “so bad it’s good.”
  • “It kind of feels like The Room, at the top. You're kind of like, oh, this is bad acting, it’s not really well shot. But this... was a real deal film.” —June (03:17)
• The film was actually a modest box-office success given its tiny budget, grossing $11 million on a $350,000 budget and even knocking Amityville Horror 3D out of first place.
  • “That is shocking to me. This movie is horrible.” —Jason (03:58)

2. Production Value and Camp Aesthetic

• Jokes are made about the amateur feel: the cast seemingly comprised of actual children and 30-year-olds, ubiquity of crop tops and extremely short shorts, and the “Long Island accents.”
  • “It feels like somebody’s like, well, my dad owns a summer camp, we could probably shoot a movie there... and get everybody we know with terrible Long Island accents.” —Jason (04:22)
  • “So many outlines of penises.” —Paul (04:51)
  • “They're not even shorts. They're just like penis holders.” —June (04:56)

3. Wildly Inappropriate Content

• The hosts are aghast and fascinated by the film’s overt pedophilia, sexualization of children, and inappropriate adult-child interactions.
  • “Between just the overt pedophilia... the over-sexualization of the under 12 set and the short shorts, I was like, this movie is insanity.” —Jason (05:01)
  • A camp cook openly leers at the campers with lines like (25:05) “Where I come from, we call them baldies,” and boasts about his interest in prepubescent kids, making everyone extremely uncomfortable.

4. The Infamous Camp and Characters

• The Baseball Scene: An extraneous, lengthy game where small kids play (and trash talk) against visibly older actors.
  • “It looks like 8-year-olds playing 30-year-olds.” —June (05:24)
  • “The baseball game is just a baseball game... no tension… it literally is a scene where someone hits a baseball and there's a kid... playing a handheld boxing video game.” —June (06:21)
• Creepy Mom: Provides an over-the-top, memorably bizarre performance, instantly dubbed “Krazo.”
  • [Clip played: Mom’s speech] (09:04-09:36)
  • “She was making a choice. And a final one at that.” —Paul (09:51)

5. Plot Untangling: Who Are These People?

• The hosts spend considerable time (13:00–19:00; 60:00–63:00) trying to piece together the family relationships, the meaning of the film’s mysterious “Doctor is coming” line, and ultimately the identity of Angela, the killer, and her connection to her "aunt."
  • “This is my understanding of the movie...” —Jason tries repeatedly to explain, getting hilariously tangled (13:54)
  • “We gotta walk to the end.” —June (13:54)

6. Signature Death Scenes

• Burned Cook (32:03–36:30): The lecherous chef’s death involves being doused with a huge pot of boiling water, which leads to an excessively long, scream-filled reaction.
  • “If you think about how long it would have taken an ambulance to get there, that man was sitting there for an hour and a half, screaming in the same position.” —Zack (35:09)
• Boating and Bee Deaths: Multiple campers die in convoluted ways involving canoes and swarms of bees (41:38–53:14).
  • “The amazing... line, ‘First I gotta take a wicked dump.’” —Zach (51:45)
• Meg’s Shower Murder:
  • “She leans back on the shower... and the killer stabs through the wall, from neck to ass... at no point does she step forward.” —Paul (48:36–48:50)
• Judy’s Curling Iron Demise:
  • “Judy was killed by having a hot curling iron stuck into her vagina.” —Jason (43:22)

7. Angela’s (and the Movie’s) Final Twist

• After a sequence of increasingly nonsensical, “genderless” killings, the ultimate reveal: Angela is not Ricky’s sister but cousin, and in fact is really Peter—the boy survivor, forced to live as a girl by the insane Aunt Martha (59:29–60:00).
  • [June paraphrasing Martha’s monologue] (58:42–59:41)
  • “Angela gets up... Paul’s decapitated head rolls off her lap... She turns around to face everybody and has a tiny dick.” —Jason (59:41)
  • “That is bonkers. That’s how the movie ends.” —June (60:00)
• The hosts immediately try to retroactively make sense of the rest of the plot, gender confusion, and relationships, with no clear outcome.
  • “She’s been raised as a girl, so probably has a crush on Paul because he's a guy... That’s why the kiss is so... she reacts so weird.” —Jason (62:55)

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

Bad Movie Celebration

• “Let’s wallow in the mediocrity of subpar art!” —June (02:21)
• “It feels like the camp itself had a class called ‘let’s make a movie’—and this movie is the result.” —Paul (04:14)

On Plot Confusion

• “There’s no more difficult movie in our history to try and unravel.” —Jason (22:00)
• “Are we to understand that Ricky knows Angela is a dude?” —Paul (64:25)

Best Deaths and Dialogue

• “My favorite part is how angry that guy gets at the drop of a hat. He’s out of salt—fuck this salt!” —Zach, about the killer-cook scene (31:41)
• “All of the times where he wasn’t talking, it cuts back to the back of a body...it’s the same shot. No blood at all.” —Zach (51:03)
• “Hey, eat shit and live, Bill.” —classic in-movie retort quoted by June (51:25)
• “She just falls to the ground... so weird. So do you think the knife was holding her on the back and in the wall at the same time?” —Paul (49:37)

Shock at the Ending

• “She’s holding a knife, screams this bloodcurdling scream, turns around... and has a tiny dick.” —Jason (59:41)
• “That monologue, though, actually, when you read it, answers a lot of my outstanding questions.” —Jason (60:07)
• “That is bonkers. That’s how the movie ends.” —June (60:00)

“Second Opinion” Five-Star Reviews

• “This movie stops, and you’re never the same again. Five stars.” —Amazon review, read by June (68:20)
• “Watch this movie with a dog.” —Amazon review, read by June (70:36)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Boating Accident Opening: 07:41–12:00
• Untangling the Family Tree / Gender Twist: 13:00–19:19; 58:42–63:41
• Infamous Camp Cook / Boiling Water Death: 30:34–36:43
• Baseball Scene Ridicule: 05:24–07:41
• Judy & Meg’s Deaths: 47:26–49:50
• Bee Death (“Wicked dump!”): 51:37–53:33
• Angela’s Sexuality & Flashbacks: 54:20–57:17
• The Final Reveal (Angela’s True Identity): 57:40–60:00
• Sequels and “Return to Sleepaway Camp”: 65:34–66:48
• Second Opinions (Amazon Reviews): 68:20–71:25

Other Highlights and Running Jokes

• Wet Hot American Summer Reference:
  • The hosts note Sleepaway Camp as the direct inspiration for Wet Hot American Summer’s look and tone (40:43–40:56; 40:57).
• Recurring Bit on “Eating Shit and Living”:
  • The camp’s kid dialogue, dripping with genuine 1980s profanity and meanness (51:25).
• Fake Mustaches:
  • “Did you guys notice that cop at the end had the worst fake mustache?” —Zach (63:55)
• Angela’s First Words:
  • “She speaks like 45 minutes into it.” —Zach (67:05)

Conclusion & Recommendations

• The hosts (and Zack Perlman) universally recommend watching Sleepaway Camp—ideally with friends, on YouTube, for a blend of laughter, shock, and confusion.
• Jason notes: “Even if you’re not going to watch the movie, watch the last 10 minutes.” (65:25)
• The legendary ending cements the film’s status as a must-watch for lovers of cult cinema and bad-movie aficionados.

“If you have not watched this movie, you need to stop listening right now. Watch it now.” —June (16:35)

Follow-Up

• Zack Perlman can be found on Twitter as @ZackPurlman and on MTV’s The Inbetweeners.
• Next week: More cinematic weirdness with the How Did This Get Made? crew!

Happy Halloween!