Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor

Sleepaway Camp IV never existed. It was supposed to, but didnt. What anyone who got the Sleepaway Camp box set got was a bonus DVD of scenes that were shot for the movie, but it was never finshed, and what was left over was a bunch of random scenes which barely tied in together.

If you bought the Sleepaway Camp DVD Boxset from Best Buy then you probably have the exclusive Bonus 4th DVD which contains the unfinished footage for Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor.

Sleepaway Camp IV is not a movie, in fact the production was shut down after only a few days. Very little film footage was actually shot, and the footage which was shot is more like rehearsal footage. It's interesting to watch once, but it's not something you'd really want to watch over and over again...

Here in the UK this 4th disc isn't available as it was in the US as part of a Best Buy exclusive offer with the boxset. Being a bit of a completist a friend of mine in the US kindly sent over his copy, insisting the whole time that it was really quite poor, and still I was excited about getting a glimpse of this incomplete sequel.

I think the first thing that has to be said is though the running length is 30 minutes, you are perhaps only getting 4 or 5 different scenes (totalling maybe 7 minutes if that), but with numerous takes. Some are mundane shots like a person running through the same patch of woods, or screaming, over and over again. So don't be deceived into believing what you will have is 30 minutes of storyline or character development which ends abruptly. Nope- there's so little here that even the trailer struggles to be coherent...and fails.

It is harsh to judge based on just a few minutes of footage but it doesn't FEEL like a Sleepaway Camp movie. It lacks the atmosphere of the first film, the humour of parts 2 and 3, and with only 3 characters on film there's no hint of a camp, so even the setting feels wrong, and far more isolated. It sadly reminded me of those cheap TV soft core films (you know the kind- Red Shoe Diaries type of thing) but set in the woods. I don't know if the film intended to go down the skin flick route but that's the impression you get.

So my advice- if you get this as a freebie, fine, view away and sigh in relief that this film was never completed. If you are a completist (and I know it's hard to be talked out of buying things!) please don't spend too much money tracking this one down.

LOL ... Has anyone ever seen the trailer for this film? I have never laughed so hard in my life...I think both my lungs popped. It looks like a film crew went out in the woods with three actors and shot a bunch of footage and then edited it together. Its almost like one of those trailers that was put together to present at a studio as a "visual aid" for a possible idea for a movie. And the guys echoed voice was priceless.

This is not a movie.

Okay, so the story behind this "film" goes like this. The studio supposedly went bankrupt while this was in production. As a result, only about 30 minutes was actually shot.

In 2012, someone pieced together footage from the other films and made it into what we ultimately got. What we got was one big "flashback" of things we already saw.

There's exactly one original scene in this and it occurred within the last 5 minutes. That scene was total crap as well.

NOT A SINGLE KILL IN THIS UTTERLY USELESS "movie."

Don't waste your time. THE TITLE TO THIS IS VERY MISLEADING. DO NOT WATCH!

This gets a LennyReviewz Score of: 1/10***

***I would give it a 0 if I could.***