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SLEEPAWAY CAMP III
Teenage Wasteland
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Pamela Springsteen, Tracy Griffith, Michael J. Pollard
Director: Michael A. Simpson
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Studio: Anchor Bay
Features: See Review
Length: 80 Minutes
Release Date: August 20, 2002
“Where
did you learn to chop wood like that?”
“I’ve
never chopped wood before. But
I’ve chopped other things.”
The
third time isn’t necessarily the charm, but for the Sleepaway Camp series,
Part III has the biggest chutzpah. What’s
with that opening, anyway? Doesn’t
Angela normally dispatch of campers while they’re in camp?
Her excursion with a garbage truck is something we fans hadn’t seen
before…and maybe that was the point.
The
principal team returned from Part II to make Sleepaway Camp III:
Teenage Wasteland. That includes director Michael A. Simpson, writer Fritz
Gordon, and star Pamela Springsteen (still the best thing to happen to the
slasher pic since young Michael Meyers first walked down those steps a decade
earlier). The film retains the
sense of wicked humor that Part II introduced, but the primary goal of Part III
seems to be devising more gruesome and creative deaths than before.
So
gruesome were the killings, in fact, that Simpson had to excise a few frames
here and there just to avoid an NC 17 rating, which he did begrudgingly (fear
not, friends…check out what’s included in the features!), but even still,
Angela is in top form from start to finish.
The
ridiculous premise has Angela attending a new camp headed by a lecherous old man
(Pollard) and his wife, designed to bring both rich and underprivileged kids
together for an experience in sharing (I’m thinking yeah, all the rich kids I
knew in the 80s would be just chomping at the bits to go to such a camp!).
This experience in sharing includes ludicrous activities like
blindfolding and binding a kid so that his or her assigned partner can do the
leading around. It’s supposed to be an exercise in trust, but in fact, it
makes Angela’s work a whole lot easier!
It’s
more of the same…more beautiful women get naked before they get butchered
while Angela goes about “taking care of business” with her usual wry humor.
She may have had more character in Part II…in fact, a newcomer watching
this film first wouldn’t understand Angela’s motivations or attitude…but
Part III regards those aspects as a waste of time.
It’s streamlined Sleepaway Camp…it cuts away almost everything
that isn’t essential and concentrates on the aspects fans like most.
It’s
frankly too bad for us that Ms. Springsteen turned from acting into a successful
career as a photographer. She was
very, very good in making Angela very, very bad…easily the screen’s most
charismatic serial killer until Hannibal Lecter.
Have lawnmower, will decapitate.
Video
***
Anchor
Bay’s anamorphic offering is an improvement over Part II…the source material
seems a little better, and the images are noticeably sharper.
There’s less softness than before, and colors are improved, while the
transfer still manages to steer clear of grain and other problems.
Another nice effort from horror’s best studio!
Audio
**
The
mono soundtrack is serviceable, with no dialogue or sound effects problems and a
general freedom from noise, but as with most mono mixes, dynamic range is
truncated.
Features
***1/2
The
real highlight of this disc is 18 minutes of extended scenes originally cut when
the MPAA threatened an NC 17 rating. Just
about every death in the movie is a little bloodier than what you remembered.
Only the original live-take audio tracks exist with them, otherwise,
I’m sure Anchor Bay would have put these scenes back in for a director’s
cut! At any rate, it’s extremely
cool to finally see them the way they were meant to be seen.
The
disc also includes a solid commentary track hosted by webmaster John Klyza with
director Simpson and writer Fritz Gordon. As
with Part II, these fellows do the film justice with their memories, attention
to detail, and humor. There is also
a reel of outtakes and behind the scenes footage, the video release trailer,
stills gallery, and a cool Easter egg that gives you a local 1988 newscast clip
from Georgia that takes you to the set of the movie!
Summary: