Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland

Angela (Pamela Springsteen) returns to the same camp where she slaughtered the inhabitants the year before under an assumed identity. Renamed Camp New Horizons, the coordinators seek to bring together privileged kids from the suburbs & small towns with underprivileged kids from the big cities. Michael J. Pollard appears as one of the camp counselors. The other counselor is reminiscent of Paula Dean.

"Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland" (1989) is a rehash of the previous film (1988) with the same director/writer team and star (Springsteen), but of course a whole new cast of victims. The film even features cuts by the same semi-obscure 80's bands: Anvil ("Wild Eyes"), Obsession ("Methods of Madness" & "Killer Elite") and John Altyn ("Sleepaway"). The main difference is a focus on tent camping and the mixing of "rich" kids with "poor."

The movie's fun, but it lacks the mojo of the previous film. There's less depth as far as human interest goes: The characters and their relations are so exaggerated it's campy, which kills any realism. Yes, I realize it's an amusing 80's slasher flick set at a youth camp, but the two preceding movie's included gems in the coming-of-age context, which is largely lacking here. Still, "Sleepaway Camp III" has its entertaining moments. Tracy Griffith as redhead Marcia and Stacie Lambert as Jan are highlights.

The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot in Bremen, Georgia, about an hour's drive west of Atlanta (the same as Part II); with the opening scenes shot in Atlanta.

GRADE: C

We're no longer going by the name of Camp Rolling Hills. All respect is to Angela (Pamela Springsteen) Baker. The camp is now titled Camp New Horizons.

This time, Angela changes here identity to a New York under privilege female by the name of Maria Nicastro. Angela soon dispatches Nicastro by way of a garbage truck and takes her identity, so that she can be a camper at Camp Rolling Hills aka Camp New Horizons. It's the same location, but it is yet under another name. This is due to the "MURDERS," as Lily, the camp co-owner would put it.

Married couple Lily and Herman, who is played by Micheal J. Pollard, are the camp owners and they make a desperate move to try and bring some inner city under privilege teens together for an experience in sharing.

It probably would have worked, except for the fact that the real Maria Nicastro won't be showing up. Instead, Angela Baker returns for yet another bloodbath of slaying.

This one has the same campy humor, creative deaths and beautiful babes, one which would include Jill (Night of the Demons) Terashita. Again, I'm not sure whether I like this one more of SC2 more. Nonetheless, check out this sleeper of a slasher flick. 10/10

The first movie in this series is the one with the twist, that made it a cult hit. I thought I watched the second one recently but must have skipped it so I'll have to watch it soon. This one is ok, but still filled with bad acting and nothing to set it aside from any other slasher.

As a kid I remember being so utterly excited to see sleepaway camp 2 and 3. I remember making my dad take me to the video store the day they were released. Now at 41 it's nice to see these guilty pleasures finally getting the attention they deserve. Although I've grown to love the original campfest the best. The sequels hold a special place in my black heart 3 is the less good of the 2 but still registers Angela Baker played by the awesome Pamela Springsteen as one of the forgotten movie maniacs. This time around she's infiltrated a group of teens on their way to the camp she wreaked havoc on before. They are doing an outreach program pairing inner city kids with rich ones. Melanie's sister Tracy Griffith stars as our heroine of sorts. The movie is fun with some great kills and leaves an opening for a continued franchise that sadly never continued. They did however do a fourth film decades later with the original Angela the amazing Felissa Rose.

7/10

If you ignore the fact that the busiest serial killer in the world has no problem putting on a pair of sunglasses and going back to the camp where she killed dozens of people, you will enjoy this movie. The premise isn't any sillier than the Friday The 13th movies and people seem to love those. At one point Angela fishes a hockey mask out of the lake and then asks what day it is. Wouldn't you know it's Saturday the 14th! I almost laughed. Once again, Angela manages to kill everyone at camp without arousing anyone's suspicion. It's the same plot as the first two movies but it still works. If you saw the first two, you have to see this.