Massacre au camp d'été 2

It's not easy being a horror movie fan. After seeing some spectacular masterpieces you start to realize that there aren't many good ones, and you'll spend most of your valuable movie-watching time on lame tripe that contains no originality or jollity, desperately searching for another classic. But I've discovered that if you lower your standards a bit you might find some less-than-classics that are still fun and enjoyable, if not legendary works of art. I humbly submit "Sleepaway Camp 2" as a tolerable entry in the slasher movie archives.

First of all, as far as deranged mass-murderers go, you could do a lot worse than Angela, a demented transsexual camp counselor who flips out at the most minor rule-breakers and reacts lethally, all while sporting a smile and never feeling blue. Our cheery Angela is the most "can-do" serial killer ever. You'll never find a copy of "Catcher in the Rye" or "American Psycho" near her victims- but maybe "Life's Little Instruction Booklet"!

Next of all, it's got a lot of killings. Some movies give you three, maybe four killings, but this one has a crate-full of slaughter- burning, eye-gouging, stabbing, beheading and more. Main characters or peripheral characters, on-screen or off, pretty much everyone gets it in this movie. There's even a classic scene where Angela forces one loathsome character down the hole in an outhouse! (If that doesn't sell you on this movie, nothing will.)

Finally, the cast is pretty good. The heroine is the lovely Renee Estevez, who should be a bigger star. She's always super-likable, (most notably as Betty Finn in "Heathers"). The severely unstable Angela is brought to life by Bruce Springsteen's sister Pamela, and puts in a wonderful performance here.

I can't recommend parts one or three in the epic "Sleepaway Camp" saga, because they're pretty putrid, but part deux is a pretty good diversion from the standard cinematic defecation that's passed off as entertainment.

Before commenting on "Sleepaway Camp II" I need to put something clear. Valerie Hartman is a spectacular beauty; she's incredibly beautiful, sexy, charming, etc. She makes this movie worth a watch. That's how amazing she is. Also, her sex scenes are highlights. Yes believe it.

Now seriously, "Sleepaway Camp II" is a fun, entertaining, somehow gory Slasher flick. It's a sequel to a straight Slasher flick; I mean, the original had no black humor and was all about gore and the now infamous creepy ending. The sequel is more of a black comedy with some gore and cheesy one liners.

This is a pleasant watch for fans of Slashers with the occasional black comedy. Pamela Springsteen delivers a unique, comical performance but when she needs to be bad, oh, she is bad and wicked. She steals the show and I'm glad she is now somewhat a cult icon on the Slasher sub-genre.

The death scenes are very regular for these kind of movies but I must be redundant; the comical bits add something fresh to these death scenes.

Sincerely, I'm objective, and that's why I will recommend "Sleepaway Camp II" only for fans of the Slasher sub-genre. Avid Horror fans with more violent tastes most likely will hate it. It's the typical American Slasher filled with clichès, cheese, and horrible acting.

But overall this is a decent sequel with decent death scenes and funny sequences.

Angela is back...and now she is actually a female. You can always tell that you are in for a real treat when they give an overview of the first movie, kill someone, and show nudity in the first 30seconds of a film. Give the audience what they want. Bonus points for crazy killings such as the always popular drowning in a camp toilet, and paying homage to such classics as Friday the 13th. Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yet, this movie leaves one vital question...if they gave Angela a total makeover, why does she still look like a boy?

I consider "Sleepaway Camp" to be one of the best, most original B-horror films I've seen so far. The sequel is standard B-movie trash, which goes for broke in gory death scenes and gratuitous female nudity. It doesn't contain nearly as much originality as its predecessor. Nevertheless, it's mindless entertainment. And the frequently nude and topless females serve as fine eye candy. The acting is bad (except for Renee Estevez, who's halfway decent, and the guy playing Uncle John, who's pretty good), the cinematography is bad and the special f/x are extremely low grade. But what the heck? In this sort of film, those elements can be quite charming. But after a while, the cheesy horror grows tiresome (they could've chipped in just a tad more money for the f/x) and script is so devoid of original ideas that the film gets too lame for its own good. But if you're looking for a fun late night horror flick to watch during those sleepless nights, "SC 2" shouldn't disappoint. Even though I felt the first one was much more ingenious, the sequel serves its purpose. And I loved the new heavy metal theme song. It's one of those tunes that screams out, "This is not your father's horror movie!"

My score: 6 (out of 10)

I recently went out and bought the Sleepaway Camp set and watched them for the first time. I've got to go with the immoral majority here and say that SC2 was a fun movie. The acting was horrid and the "story" looks like it was thrown together over lunch but, the way the movie poked fun at the horror genre is something rarely seen. Most slasher flicks are funny but, that's cause they try to make a good movie. After seeing the whole set, they made this movie clearly to laugh at and have a good time watching it.

I did enjoy Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and would recommend it to friends. Like others have said, it's mindless gory fun. Hats off to the creators of SC 2 & 3 for making a funny/cheesy flick and letting us have a good time watching it.