B-MovieDork

First of all, I am into micro-budget horror films. That being said, I rather enjoyed this movie. It definitely isn't scary, so if you're looking for something with a high tension factor, award-winning performances and a slick production, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. However, if you can enjoy a silly B-movie that tries a little too hard to be serious, therefore making it fun to watch and giggle along with, then I can think of much worse ways to kill an hour. There was some cool lighting and set design (or, rather, the interior painting of the house), a couple of surprising splashes of good performances (especially from the mom), a laughable script spoken with conviction (husband shows wife a partially- eaten brain, and she says, "Dispose of that thing this instant!" Or a police woman in her early twenties, who we meet only once, says to the mother, "Tend well to your family. This house will not accept you now.") and a woman near the same age as the mother and father playing the role of the daughter. This is a fun movie to watch while getting a good buzz on, just don't take it too seriously and don't expect anything miraculous.

4.5/10 stars

Ah, the infamous "real" McPherson Tape. Hugely controversial among the alien abduction enthusiasts, hundreds of people still think that this the real deal. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it isn't. Still, this is probably the most believable found footage movie I've ever seen, as it really does feel as if you're watching an actual VHS camcorder home video of a real Midwestern family in the early 1980s. The alien abductions themselves are not really the focus here. The focus seems to be the tension that this family feels while being scared out of their wits. I prefer this original version over the 1997 made-for-television remake, Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, which screamed "fake" right from the get go: awful acting, no chemistry between the actors/characters, overblown effects and laughable "documentary interviews" interspersed to insult the viewer's intelligence. Even though this original version is bare bones and lacking in alien action, it still manages to be taught, atmospheric, well acted, and most of all, believable. This has been next to impossible to find for decades, but thankfully someone has uploaded a pirated copy on the internet recently. If you are a fan of the remake, aliens/UFOs, found footage or just underground cinema in general, do yourself a favor and check it out. But just remember, its only a movie! There is no REAL "McPherson Tape" floating around out there. The name of the family in this original version isn't even McPherson, its Van Heese.

Luckily, I knew exactly what I was getting into before I even watched this. Essentially, this is nothing more than clips from the first three movies intermixed with the raw production footage for the unfinished 1992 sequel that was included as a bonus disc in the first round of Sleepaway Camp Survival Kit boxed sets.

Before you decide to watch this movie, you must first get it out of your head that this is going to be any sort of straight-forward narrative, or wind up being any type of real sequel to the first three films. It really helps to think of this as nothing more than a flashback episode of a television sitcom. It takes all the key scenes from the first three films and melts them together with a new, virtually threadbare story (Just like flashback episodes of Family Guy, Friends, Seinfeld, or any other television show out there). As a huge Sleepaway Camp fanatic, I sometimes find it difficult to decide on which film to watch. And on days that I can't decide, this will do quite nicely, because it is basically having your cake and eating it too. Is this the worst of the series? Absolutely. But is it so bad that I will never watch it again? Absolutely NOT.

And for the record, before any of you IMDb trolls start complaining about my review, I am ONLY a fan, and I DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT work for anyone involved in the production or distribution of these films. Not everyone who happens to like a movie that others seem to hate is a bigwig exec trying to dupe you into spending money.