Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland

As a kid I remember being so utterly excited to see sleepaway camp 2 and 3. I remember making my dad take me to the video store the day they were released. Now at 41 it's nice to see these guilty pleasures finally getting the attention they deserve. Although I've grown to love the original campfest the best. The sequels hold a special place in my black heart 3 is the less good of the 2 but still registers Angela Baker played by the awesome Pamela Springsteen as one of the forgotten movie maniacs. This time around she's infiltrated a group of teens on their way to the camp she wreaked havoc on before. They are doing an outreach program pairing inner city kids with rich ones. Melanie's sister Tracy Griffith stars as our heroine of sorts. The movie is fun with some great kills and leaves an opening for a continued franchise that sadly never continued. They did however do a fourth film decades later with the original Angela the amazing Felissa Rose.

7/10

Fairly early in the film, our lovable murderess asks, "Why did I think this year would be any different?" And this unlocks why part 3 still works: gone is the chipper camp counselor and her hopes of making good clean friends. Now, returning incognito as a camper, she realizes the world is a terrible terrible place filled with terrible terrible people. Round 3 of the chaos, and she picks up her axe with the same sigh and groan you might hear from a daughter assigned to "wash the dishes, make your bed, clean the toilets, and take out the trash." Why can't she find people who deserve to live for once?

That's not to say Sleepaway Camp 3 has lost its sense of humor. Far from it. It delights in exploiting a silly trust building exercise: Angela gets to tie up and lead her blindfolded partner through the woods. "You do drugs?" Angela quizzes her buddy. To which the girl replies, "Doesn't everyone?" Like the good girl-scout she is, Angie leads this poor misguided soul to miraculous deliverance, and I say miraculous because of how far fetched the murder is (but it's still a treat to watch.) Angela, herself, still has her sly wisecracks and all-too-honest answers to questions (questions like "where'd you learn to chop wood like that?"), only the delivery has changed from cheerful optimism to "why me?" (although she does sing the Happy Camper song over one of the murders.)

And this time she gets to play with more colorful, over the top, (read: annoying) fodder! We have a perverted old man, lazy hypocrite, a rapper, a rich snob, a dufus, a—why I am even bothering? Never mind, them. Angie'll get to them sooner or later (hurry up on the rapper … please, God, hurry up.) The group of campers split up into 3 smaller groups, and our heroine dispatches each sub-group one at a time and then shows up to the next group like a lost puppy, "I was told to switch with someone from this group" and the fun starts again.

Unlike most slashers, the kills largely take place in broad daylight giving the whole scenario a matter-of-fact quality that I liked. This *is* Angela's day job, after all. She's not Jason or Freddy – the girl has to sleep sometime. Besides, I like the idea of her moonlighting as a jazz musician or a dance instructor or a cop with Stendhal Syndrome or something.

Once again the series misses a number of opportunities to really rip into the genre's shortcomings (like poking fun at the gore obsession.) But the film's unwillingness to do anything significant with Barney (father of Sean in the previous film) bothered me the most. Here was a chance to actually build up a sympathetic character – someone we'd actually root for to stop Angela. Or perhaps even build him up as a character we really despise who could actually threaten Angela (early in the film he's asked what he would do if he came across Angela Baker. Without hesitation he answers, "I'd kill her.") War of the killers? Who do we root for – the wickedly fun Angela, or a revenge-driven father? This would take Sleepaway Camp into entirely new territory, allowing it to stand apart from the existing entries. But, nope, Barney exists as another victim for Angela, and after a brief unsatisfactory confrontation it's a moot point.

Like it's predecessor, SC3: Teenage Wasteland never hits the grand slam it should. But, what the hell, I love it anyway.

Having seen and loved the first two, I don't really know why it took me so long to finally watch this one. Man, I'm glad I did. Teenage Wasteland is every bit as good as it its predecessors and I laughed all the way through it. Here are a few of the film's highlights:

1.) Death by garbage truck 2.) Death by Lawnmower 3.) Death by flag-pole 4.) Arms ripped off, via Jeep.

The list goes on and on. Angela's one-liners are better than ever and it stays in the same vein as part two. Pamela Springsteen does another good job and they left room for a sequal, which, rumor has it, is in the works. Check it out.

Angela (Pamela Springsteen) returns to the same camp where she slaughtered the inhabitants the year before under an assumed identity. Renamed Camp New Horizons, the coordinators seek to bring together privileged kids from the suburbs & small towns with underprivileged kids from the big cities. Michael J. Pollard appears as one of the camp counselors. The other counselor is reminiscent of Paula Dean.

"Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland" (1989) is a rehash of the previous film (1988) with the same director/writer team and star (Springsteen), but of course a whole new cast of victims. The film even features cuts by the same semi-obscure 80's bands: Anvil ("Wild Eyes"), Obsession ("Methods of Madness" & "Killer Elite") and John Altyn ("Sleepaway"). The main difference is a focus on tent camping and the mixing of "rich" kids with "poor."

The movie's fun, but it lacks the mojo of the previous film. There's less depth as far as human interest goes: The characters and their relations are so exaggerated it's campy, which kills any realism. Yes, I realize it's an amusing 80's slasher flick set at a youth camp, but the two preceding movie's included gems in the coming-of-age context, which is largely lacking here. Still, "Sleepaway Camp III" has its entertaining moments. Tracy Griffith as redhead Marcia and Stacie Lambert as Jan are highlights.

The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot in Bremen, Georgia, about an hour's drive west of Atlanta (the same as Part II); with the opening scenes shot in Atlanta.

GRADE: C

We're no longer going by the name of Camp Rolling Hills. All respect is to Angela (Pamela Springsteen) Baker. The camp is now titled Camp New Horizons.

This time, Angela changes here identity to a New York under privilege female by the name of Maria Nicastro. Angela soon dispatches Nicastro by way of a garbage truck and takes her identity, so that she can be a camper at Camp Rolling Hills aka Camp New Horizons. It's the same location, but it is yet under another name. This is due to the "MURDERS," as Lily, the camp co-owner would put it.

Married couple Lily and Herman, who is played by Micheal J. Pollard, are the camp owners and they make a desperate move to try and bring some inner city under privilege teens together for an experience in sharing.

It probably would have worked, except for the fact that the real Maria Nicastro won't be showing up. Instead, Angela Baker returns for yet another bloodbath of slaying.

This one has the same campy humor, creative deaths and beautiful babes, one which would include Jill (Night of the Demons) Terashita. Again, I'm not sure whether I like this one more of SC2 more. Nonetheless, check out this sleeper of a slasher flick. 10/10