On the 30th death-iversary of cult director Norman Von Ness, his son, Peter, hosts a film festival at the site of his father’s murderous last project, The Devil’s Fire. Hot young filmmakers flock to the isolated campground retreat, thrilled to compete for the top prize and eager to uncover the mystery of Von Ness’ last film – and it’s dead star, Carly Skye. When an actress, Kelly, gets injured on one of the sets, accusations fly between the female cast and their male director. Peter steps in to extinguish tensions, but as production resumes, something or… someone is fanning the flames behind the scenes. When a filmmaker goes missing before the final screening, the boy’s side grows suspicious of one of the actresses. Paranoia threatens madness as the campers struggle to discern fact from fiction. How far will they go to be survivors in their own horror movie?
This is the premise of the experimental horror film Sleepaway Slasher (2020). Because the project we have in the discussion here is best described as that, an experiment. Popular actor and director, and always ready for any kind of crazy filmmaking move that crosses his mind James Franco formed the Studio 4 Acting & Film School in order to let the participants get experience in making a feature film. in it, a series of writers and directors can take their version of the events happening in the set of that cursed fictitious unfinished 80’s cult movie. But this is not an anthology where each one of the filmmakers is responsible for a segment, this time the group of nine directors and eleven writers worked together as an assembly.
Alexander Birrell, Eugen Bräunig, Emma Hall-Martin, Hayley Monek, Martin Murray, Michael Newton, Christina Reilly, Ben Venturina, and Kerey Viswanathan are the directors, while Alyssa Amer, Kabir Chopra, Ryan Crash, Catherine Delaloye, Anthony DiMieri, Carrie King, Zoe Lasden-Lyman, Ericka Mitton, Mia Sorensen, Prashant Thakker, and Mariana Trevino are the writers.
Sleepaway Slasher (2020) is starred by Sara Silva, Shawn Thomas Diefenbach, Alana Johnson, Kimberley Aria Peterson, Yevgeniya Kats, Steven Anderson, Peter Angelinas, Steven Wody, Raleigh Cain, Mackenzie Gilmore, Conor William Wright, David Alan Madrick, and Demi Edwards.
Sleepaway Slasher (2020) had a domestic premiere on October 20, 2020, and now it’s available to stream via Indie Rights and on Amazon Prime. Here you can watch its official trailer.
