Sleepaway Camp 3 - Teenage Wasteland (DVD)

...still kept their popularity. Sleepaway Camp, arguably lesser known, did it straight after the first film. Sleepaway Camp 2 was camp *cough* comedy horror at its best and worst. The third instalment, shot straight after the second part, follows the same blueprint. Can Teenage Wasteland follow the old horror movie rules and up the antae?

Angela (Pamela Springsteen), everyone's favourite transgender psycho camp counsellor, is back again ...
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Sleepaway Camp 3 carries on the tongue in cheek humour that the previous instalment had. The social commentary it includes as the basis of the film is amusing in itself. There's a whole lot of stereotyping going on and some great throwaway lines such as the cheerleader who likes films with good acting in 'like Care Bears' or the career minded young man who greets Angela with 'so you're underprivileged'. Then there are the wince inducing ... more

Making a 'serious' horror film is pretty hard work. First off you've got to suspend belief that some guy in a mask is killing horny teenagers and you've got to make it scary. The horror genre has often found it easier to do comedy horror. Nightmare on Elm Street and the Childs Play series both did this and still kept their popularity. Sleepaway Camp, arguably lesser known, did it straight after the first film. Sleepaway Camp 2 was camp *cough* comedy horror at its best and worst. The third instalment, shot straight after the second part, follows the same blueprint. Can Teenage Wasteland follow the old horror movie rules and up the antae?

Angela (Pamela Springsteen), everyone's favourite transgender psycho camp counsellor, is back again and ready to enforce her way of thinking onto a whole new unsuspecting crowd of teenagers. In the new camp there's a social experiment going on. Camp counsellors Herman (Michael J Pollard) and Lily Miranda (Sandra Dorsey), want to combine kids from the rough part of town with those from the more acceptable side of the tracks. Of course something like that couldn't possibly go wrong but, just in case things go awry, Angela disguises herself as one of the rough kids (genius!) and goes along to make things go acceptably. Of course it isn't long before Angela needs to kill again to teach people a lesson in good social behaviour. The social experiment just doesn't go well with the bickering between the two classes and the fact that neither of the counsellors seems too bothered, Herman in particular only seems bothered about one girl. Even a budding romance between two of the more sedate people of the camp does little to save any of the unfortunate young people who get to find out just how unforgiving Angela can be.

Sleepaway Camp 3 carries on the tongue in cheek humour that the previous instalment had. The social commentary it includes as the basis of the film is amusing in itself. There's a whole lot of stereotyping going on and some great throwaway lines such as the cheerleader who likes films with good acting in 'like Care Bears' or the career minded young man who greets Angela with 'so you're underprivileged'. Then there are the wince inducing humour parts such as the lovely little camp song Angela is only too happy to dish out much to the shock and indeed abject horror of her rougher companions. It also makes a few references to other horror movies. It has a rather unsubtle nod to Freddy and Jason where two of the cast dress up as them and battle it out a full thirteen odd years before the real Freddy VS Jason finally made it to the cinemas. Angela's little one liners and put downs for when she kills people are here again. While it may sometimes seem to go a bit too far when she has to come up with something to say every time she kills someone it is at least mildly funny, funny in a cheesily bad way of course, and this film can get away with it. The romantic subplot is often a curse for horror movies such as this simply because it's not wanted or needed. The one in Sleepaway Camp 3 luckily isn't too obtrusive and probably is there as a token gesture that people from different social classes can actually get on and not want to kill each other. While the film could have survived without it the plot does well to take you away from the madness around you until you are ready for more and, also, being Sleepaway Camp its not going to run smoothly.

As before the killings in the film are often the high points of the film. Angela just isn't a knife in the back kind of girl. In the third part we get many glorious methods of offing the teenagers including use of a flagpole and even the humble lawnmower is used as a method of death. Then there are a few decapitations and beatings that Angela dishes out just to not let the film seem too bizarre. For actual gore there's not too much, these kills are really meant for the comedic factor but that isn't to say some people won't wince or cover their eyes a few times. None of the kills quite match the methods used in the second part (the stuffing of a teenage girl down a leech infested toilet still leads the way) but they are still a bit more imaginative than some of the horror movies out there. There really aren't that many scares to be had in the film, this is more about the showing of the kills rather than any lead up, and the film only really turns serious towards the end. That said the one part that could be considered truly terrifying is the Herman sex scene. There are always sex scenes in horror movies but rarely with a leery old man and a slutty young girl in the picture but at least it isn't discriminating against age.

Considering it's a horror movie the cast isn't all that bad but obviously none are going to be up for Oscars. Pamela gives another good performance as Angela. They always say it's the overly nice people you've got to watch out for in the world and she certainly proves that theory true in the film. A mention has to go to Sandra Dorsey who gets a few laughs at playing a very dry and apathetic Lily who just gives up pretty much as soon as she starts with the whole bunch of kids. Not many more of them stand out as they are just there waiting to be killed. You'll be hoping Pollard will be killed before you need to see anymore advances he does on young girls but that's not to be. Also you'll need to put up with Snowboy's screehy voice for a lot longer than needs be, they really should have tried casting males when their balls had dropped.

You can fault Sleepaway Camp 3 in a number of ways. It's still just another slasher at the end of the day and save for the novelty of a woman doing the killing and the methods of which she does kill its still pretty ordinary. Scares are pretty much all sacrificed for the over the top kills and it would have been nice for the film to at least try at times to scare people. Of course it can't very well scare when a lot of the time the film is shot in the day, you don't always need horror films to add tension in the pitch black of night but in films like this where tension is thin on the ground it needs all the help it can get. Finally the film really is just like the sequel. This will obviously please fans of it because you'll be getting more of what you liked but it really should have tried a bit harder in terms of what it did to really make a mark on the series. The fact that Sleepaway Camp 3 was filmed just a few days after wrapping up the second part wouldn't have helped matters.

Just like its sequel before it no matter how bad it can get Sleepaway Camp 3 still has that certain charm about it that you just can't help to forgive its shortcomings. It gives you what you'd expect from a movie like this, blood, sex, silly dialogue and girls that like to remove their tops a lot of the time even if its decidedly cold looking outside. But it's not going to be high on the list of movies to see if you don't like horror films such as these. Sleepaway Camp 3 isn't trying to be anything other than a throwaway, trashy, silly film that you can have a laugh at with your mates. While the series continued (in a form) the third part marks the end of a trilogy of sorts it may not go out with a bang but it was an enjoyable camp out all the same.

SLEEPAWAY CAMP 3: TEENAGE WASTELAND IS

Still full of inventive kills
Totally silly and cheesy
More of the same

SLEEPAWAY CAMP 3: TEENAGE WASTELAND IS NOT

High on the scares
A film that likes the dark
Quite as good as Unhappy Campers

Part of the HALLOWEEN SEASON 2005. See the Season in full at my website www.reel13.homestead.com
 

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