Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)

I liked "Sleepaway camp" because the death scenes were original. There's also hardly any slasher flick out there where the woman is the killer. In the tradition of the "Friday the 13th" films, this one is right on top as one of the best slasher flicks in the genre. I even liked it more than "Scream" and "Scream 2". (I haven't seen this movie in a long, long time, but I do remember loving it)

Fmovies: I think I'm starting to lose my taste for horror movies. For about the last ten years, horror has been a favorite genre for me, especially the old 80s slasher movies. I even enjoyed watching the bad ones, because it is so entertaining to see what kinds of new and interesting ways they come up with for killing promiscuous teenagers. But the whole Sleepaway Camp series struck me as so witless and boring that my only conclusion is that it must either be a prodigious disaster six movies long or I am just not into this crap anymore.

The second sequel is not even as good as the first sequel, which in its entirety is not even as good as the last shot of the original film. Once again, the acting is astonishingly bad from beginning to end, and they knew this too. Notice, after all, that there is a teenage girl wearing nothing but panties less than a minute after the film starts (with "Milk Shake" tattooed across her breasts, if you can believe that), then another one 15 minutes later, and rarely do you have to wait that long for the rest of the movie to see some bare breasted girl trying to act like it's perfectly normal for her to be hanging around half naked at camp.

Maybe it's because I worked at a summer camp a couple years ago and so I know how ridiculous the idea of Camp New Horizons is. The big idea this time is to take a lot of poor kids and put them in camp with a bunch of rich kids for an "experience in sharing." The result is a lot of ridiculous caricatures the likes of which would never survive in the real world, rich or poor (Snowboy???).

As far as the motives behind the killings, one of the things that I first appreciated about good slasher movies (even the good 'bad' slasher movies) was that there was always a reason the people were killed. It almost always had something to do with promiscuity or drugs or alcohol or something, but the audience was allowed some opportunity to figure it out. Not here. All subtlety is removed and replaced with a completely mechanical removal of undesirables ("Are you a cheerleader?" "Yes." "Are you a virgin?" "No." "Have you ever done drugs?" "Yes." "Strike three...").

Admittedly, some of the death scenes are certainly original, like the kid who gets his arms pulled off by the jeep and the girl who gets pulled up the flagpole and then dropped. I hadn't seen that before. But then you have ones that are creative but that just don't work, like the kid who doesn't wake up as a lit firecracker is pushed up his nose.

All in all, the first film is worth watching just for that ending, which is thematically disturbing but highly effective. Part 2 and 3, however, both have yawn-inducing endings, and personally I have no interest in finding out about parts 4, 5, or 6....

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

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland fmovies. I love this movie!! It's funny, gory, clever, and I love to watch it over and over again! Pamela Springsteen is the best!! If you like horror films, this movie is awesome! It's got all the classic elements of an eighties horror movie, including T&A, cheesy gore, quotable lines, and the ever popular heavy metal music. Kick ass! You should also check out Sleepaway Camp II. I'm telling you, these are some of the most entertaining horror films I've seen, and I've seen A LOT!!!

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.

Having seen and loved the first two, I don't really know why it took me so long to finally watch this one. Man, I'm glad I did. Teenage Wasteland is every bit as good as it its predecessors and I laughed all the way through it. Here are a few of the film's highlights:

1.) Death by garbage truck 2.) Death by Lawnmower 3.) Death by flag-pole 4.) Arms ripped off, via Jeep.

The list goes on and on. Angela's one-liners are better than ever and it stays in the same vein as part two. Pamela Springsteen does another good job and they left room for a sequal, which, rumor has it, is in the works. Check it out.