Retro-horror fans will return to Camp Blood for four nights of 35 mm films at Lehighton’s Mahoning Drive-In Theater, located on Seneca Road.

Exhumed Films, a Philadelphia-area film collective, will bring the ninth Camp Blood to the theater.

Saturday’s sold-out event includes a 40th anniversary screening of “Sleepaway Camp,” with Felissa Rose in attendance. The actress, also attending Friday, played awkward and introverted Angela Baker in the cult classic.

Gates open at 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 6 p.m. this evening and Sunday. Camp Blood IX will also welcome Shelley Bruce and Bonnie Deroski (1981’s “The Burning”) on Thursday, and Judie Aronson (1984’s “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter”) on Friday.

The event, whose 10-film lineup also includes late-1970s/early-1980s titles “When a Stranger Calls” and “Madman,” will also include games, raffles, merchandise, cosplay and more.

“Camp Blood has consistently been the biggest event we have done at the drive-in since going retro in 2015,” said Harry Guerro, Exhumed Films co-founder/programmer. “‘Sleepaway Camp’ has become something of a phenomenon in the horror community, gaining more fans and popularity every year.”

Rose savors any chance to return to Camp Arawak, the primary setting of “Sleepaway Camp.” In the film, Angela and cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten) attend a summer camp where attacks and murders abound.

“Sleepaway Camp” gave Rose - born in New York City and raised in Woodbury, New York - her first professional acting role. The film was one of multiple auditions the then-12-year-old, who aspired to entertain since she was a young child, had in one day.

“I remember my mom coming in my room and saying, ‘you have three auditions,’” she said. “‘One’s a horror movie. They’re looking for a wide-eyed girl who’s flat-chested.’ We thought it was odd. We came to understand what that meant later.”

Rose left the “Sleepaway Camp” audition, during which she bonded with writer/director Robert Hiltzik, feeling good.

“It was a great audition. Robert asked me to stare, and then I walked out, confident I had gotten that part.’”

Reflecting on the film, “we got away with a lot of things in 1982,” Rose said.

Rose, who “may not have truly grasped the social commentary that I would later understand as an older person,” enjoys hearing different fan theories about the movie.

“It’s one of those films that has created a lot of conversation. At first glance, it’s a slasher movie. Suddenly, you’re left with the end that triggers a lot of questions.”

Rose, with a vast filmography to her credit, was absent from the 1988 and 1989 “Sleepaway Camp” sequels, also set to screen Saturday. She did, however, meet with director Michael A. Simpson right after she was accepted into New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

“When I read the scenes for Angela, I really sucked,” Rose said. “I wasn’t good at that character. It was the late ’80s. They were looking at horror in meta form. A lot took a comedy tone. I only understood the original Angela I played. It made sense to me.”

Simpson, Rose said, wanted Pamela Springsteen for the sequels, though “he gave me a read as a courtesy. NYU said they couldn’t accept me unless I reapplied, interviewed, auditioned again. It was too difficult to get in the first time.”

Rose, who enjoys Springsteen’s take on Angela, was “happy to go to NYU. If I wanted to become an actress, I wanted to learn the craft. It was the greatest experience of my life.”

Released in 2008, Hiltzik’s “Return to Sleepaway Camp” featured Rose. Returning to the franchise, she added, “made so much sense. It was fun, reliving what was my childhood all over again.”

As for the franchise’s future, Rose welcomes a remake or prequel handled with care and “an understanding of the material in today’s world.”

Rose - who appeared in 2018’s “Victor Crowley,” 2020’s “Camp Twilight” and 2022’s “Terrifier 2” - has movies such as “Go Away” and “Stream” due for release soon.

In the meantime, the California resident holds her iconic “Sleepaway Camp” character and horror - which evokes “a lot of sentimental feelings” - in high esteem

“I understood Angela. I was insecure as a young person, felt shy, was awkward. I didn’t feel I fit in. I felt protective of Angela. Maybe I was protecting that part of myself.

“That prepubescent time is hard,” she added. “It resonates with an audience even today because we’ve all felt those feelings at that age.”

Rose, who considers horror the greatest genre as “it transcends film and it’s an actual community,” likens horror fan events to “the family reunion you want to attend. Aside from being with my kids, it’s my favorite place to be. It’s my Disney World.”