Sleepaway Camp II - Unhappy Campers
by Michael A. Simpson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brian Patrick Clarke, Pamela Springsteen, Ren?e Estevez, Tony Higgins, Valerie HartmanDirector: Michael A. Simpson
Producer: Michael A. Simpson
Producer: Jerry Silva
Producer: Krishna Shah
Producer: Robert F. Phillips
Producer: Stan Wakefield
Writer: Fritz Gordon
Writer: Robert Hiltzik
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-08-20
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Sleepaway Camp II - Unhappy Campers
Movie Review: The Best Worst Movies I've Ever Seen
Summary: 4 Stars
I've gotten into the habit recently of watching horror movie sequels back-to-back and then reviewing them. I thought perhaps I was being anti-social, so I recently watched all four SLEEPAWAY CAMPS on four consecutive dates with the same girl. See? I'm not antisocial. Just weird.
Sleepaway Camp -- The original movie is bizarre, to say the least. After a mild opening in which most of a family is killed with a speedboat, the movie cuts to two children, Ricky and Angela, being shipped off to Camp Arawak by Angela's mom, a ludicrously spacy woman. Angela, the surviving daughter from the movie's intro, appears to be mute. Ricky dutifully cares for her throughout the movie. Aside from an old black cook and a well-meaning but clueless counselor named Ronnie, the rest of the cast is almost entirely composed of mean, selfish, antagonistic people. But, phew! They start getting killed.
The first person to kick the bucket at camp is a lecherous cook who openly brags about his pedophilia. He's not kidding, either. When he is introduced to Angela during lunch, in his busy kitchen, the first thing he does is drag her into a supply closet with the intention of exposing himself (and probably more). Later, he has a large tureen of boiling water dumped onto his head. Zing!
The movie tries to make itself mysterious, but it's not hard to figure out who's doing the killing. Every time Angela is picked on in some way, the person eventually bites it in some overly dramatic and silly deaths. However, although the whodunit of it is not a big surprise, there's still a lot of mystery to the movie. Specifically, my date and I wondered how it ever got made. The budget appears to have been twenty dollars, and -- up to that point -- both of us claimed to never have seen such horrific acting. It was a stupid, poorly contrived, horribly done film, and the writer/director, Robert Hiltzick, had dedicated the entire thing to his late mother, a woman the dedication describes as "a doer."
We couldn't stop laughing. I don't think the film was meant to be so funny. Maybe it was. Maybe that's where the phrase "campy" came from. Either way, we enjoyed ourselves. Four (accidental?) stars.
Sleepaway Camp II - Unhappy Campers -- The very first thing that happens in this film: Angela (same character, different actress), is now a counselor at Camp Rolling Hills. Within the first two minutes of the film, she bludgeons a female camper and then cuts out her tongue, punishment for sneaking over to the boy's camp and telling scary bonfire stories. Angela, apparently, is like a camp chastity Nazi or something. My date is disgusted and already regretting her decision.
It's obvious right away that this film is not only far more graphic and explicit (when the girls aren't topless and joking about their breasts, they are trying to get slutty with each other's boyfriends), but it is also not interested at all in suspense or drama. Angela kills every single person without even a "how do you do?" That might sound like a spoiler, but this movie doesn't have any secrets or tricks up its sleeve. A camp of sinners and sleazeballs gets sliced and diced. The end.
There is a subplot concerning the two wholesomest kids in camp finding each other amidst all the devious tramps and the people being stabbed and drowned in outhouses, but these kids were apparently only halfsome, because, as I pointed out, they die along with everyone else. But I guarantee you, I didn't ruin the movie for you. No. This movie is just another dumb, horribly written and directed film that is actually pretty funny. Just as funny as the first one, though.
My date refused to finish it after the outhouse scene. Four stars.
Sleepaway Camp III - Teenage Wasteland -- In the first two minutes of this film, the viewer is treated to more pointless nudity and a death by garbage truck (driven by Angela). She is now on her way to Camp New Horizons, an ill-advised social experiment that forces juvenile delinquents and spoiled rich kids into tents together. This place is run by a dangerously idiotic couple and seems to have little to no funding. The only person with any degree of dignity is the camp's only counselor (!) a guy named Barney who is also an officer of the law AND the father of a camper who died in the previous film.
The dialogue and acting in this film make the first two look like Schindler's List. The characters make wild, irrational decisions. People are despicable for no good reason, and Angela never struggles with finding the time, energy, and secrecy to dispatch of most of them. She is aided by the fact that this camp, like the previous two, seems to have no schedule of events or basic supervision. In fact, budget constraints must be lower than ever, because this time around the place appears to be run out of two woodsheds. And yet, in the credits, there is this: Mr. Simpson's Porsche Provided by MEGDAL IMPORTS. Mr. Simpsons is the director, and to the best of my knowledge, neither he nor his Porsche appear in the film. Another horrible horror movie that we couldn't stop laughing at.
My date said that the acting was even worse than the first film. She gave it two thumb up. Me: Four stars.
NOTE: THERE IS APPARENTLY A FOURTH FILM SOMEWHERE OUT THERE. I COULD NOT FIND IT, NOR KNOW ANYONE WHO IS WILLING TO VOUCH FOR ITS EXISTENCE.
Return to Sleepaway Camp -- The creator, Hiltzik, was not responsible for parts 2 or 3. They were the work of writer Fritz Gordon and director Michael Simpson. For some wild reason, Hiltzik, who'd done NOTHING since the first film (according to iMDB), decided to make a REAL sequel to his first film. This is it, a movie so absolutely awful in every way, I found it nothing short of mesmerizing and have watched it twice again since.
It's obvious that Hiltzik is catering to his fans, because the first death is almost identical to the first death in the first film: rude cook dies by hot liquid. The head cook is, yet again, an elderly black man (Isaac Hayes who acts in every scene as if he has recently gone blind). Muscley, dim-witted Ronnie is back as the head counselor. Reprising his role from the original, Paul DeAngelo makes bad acting look like a fine art. I'm not joking. I could watch that guy overact for hours and hours.
The camp is run by The Sopranos's Vincent Pastore, and is once again filled with the most mean-spirited, vile children ever. The kids are so rude and unruly, when they are punished for their misbehavior (by being sent to their cabins), I'm surprised they don't just hit the counselor with a rock. The hammy acting will astound you. The dialogue will baffle and delight. Even the extras in this film are as weird and wooden as life-sized cardboard puppets.
The plot this time around is not very different at all. One camper, a kid named Alan, is the butt of everyone's jokes, and those who taunt and tease him end up meeting grisly ends. The thing is, Alan is the whiniest and most annoying movie character since Luke Skywalker. Played with absolutely no consistency at all by Michael Gibney, Alan is the movie's most confusing character. Does this boy have a mental disorder? Is he schizophrenic? Why does he love frogs so much? Why doesn't he ever, ever, ever change his clothes? Why is he such a jerk?
Yes. Alan is just as annoying and mean as everyone else, and yet when the camp gangs up on him and shoots spit balls at him or yells at him to stop making flamethrowers out of lighters and spray cans, he starts complaining that everyone is picking on him because "he's different." He chats with his brother about a mysterious "fever." "The doctor said there'd always be effects," Alan moans as he pets a frog.
It makes no sense. Nor does the rest of the film. The original actors who portrayed Ricky (Jonahan Tiersten) and Angela (Felissa Rose) reprise their roles here, which is a bit of a treat. Tiersten has obviously done no acting since the first film. He doesn't even bother looking interested, casually smoking a cigarette during a tense hunt in the woods for the bodies of slain children. Rose isn't exactly recognizable for much of the film, but it won't be hard to know point her out after about ten minutes. My date did it in twelve.
My date hated the film. So did my neighbor, who refused to watch anymore after about thirty minutes. But me? I couldn't get enough. It is, without question, the most hilariously awful film I've seen since Starship Troopers. I chuckle now just thinking about it.
I see that Hiltzik has started production on a SLEEPAWAY CAMP REUNION. Bravo, Mr. Hiltzik. I doubt very much that you'll be able to top the inane silliness, the incomprehensibly horrible acting, the deliciously cheesy plot "twists," but I'll be glad to watch you try.
Even if my date is no longer returning my texts.
Summary of Sleepaway Camp II - Unhappy Campers
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 08/20/2002Horror DVD Video
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