Blogorium Review: Return to Sleepaway Camp

I need to address Return to Sleepaway Camp, which is probably the most misunderstood sequel this year (a year that included Mother of Tears, Saw V, Pulse 2, Diary of the Dead, Joyride 2 and uh... Lost Boys: The Tribe).

Return to Sleepaway Camp is less of a "part four" (or five, if you have the boxed set), and more of a Sleepaway Camp H20 for the series. Sleepaway Camp's 2 and 3 always felt like parodies of the first film, which is a cheap, occasionally taxing, amateurish slasher film with one hell of a twist ending. They're less concerned with following the original and more interested in turning the story of Mangela into a series of bad jokes ending in murder.

Return to Sleepaway Camp, on the other hand, is a true sequel to the original. This can be problematic, I'm afraid. Original director Robert Hiltzik hasn't changed his directing style much in the last 25 years, so the film has an awkward pacing that invites uncomfortable laughter. The acting is pretty bad (at best) and like the first film, the kills are kind of lackluster.

I have no idea why he felt the need to include Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos) and Isaac Hayes (he's Isaac fucking Hayes!), especially since the latter doesn't do much of anything, but the stunt casting isn't exactly distracting. Honestly, you're going to be too busy giggling at how goofy this film is, which is where the good news kicks in.

As bad as Return to Sleepaway Camp is, it's hard to deny the entertainment value. It might even be more watchable than the original film. One good thing Hiltzik does is continue to cast people that are believable in the setting (Camp Mana-something or other. basically it's Arawak but with a different name). Most "camp" movies are filled with campers that look like they've never left the city in their lives, including both Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3.

The kids in Return are pretty much all unknowns, and while the acting is bad, it at least feels authentic. They act the way kids would act, including the main dude, who I guess is supposed to be a protagonist. It's hard to say for sure because while everybody picks on him, he is a pretty shitty human being and honestly deserves the abuse. That, and he looks like Bam Margera's fatter little brother.

You're supposed to think he's responsible for the murders that start happening to campers but I have to say that little turd is never a possibility. Since this is a Sleepaway Camp film, and Paul DeAngelo and Jonathan Tierston both reprise their roles from the first movie, Mangela can't be far away.

One of the many joys of this awkward, stupid little movie is playing "which character is Mangela?", and I'm not going to pretend it's really hard to guess. This isn't a "wink wink" post-modern horror film, but rather a straight up attempt to follow up the original. Of course, when the original is less than the sum of its parts, then a sequel is going to look awfully silly 25 years later.

If Return to Sleepaway Camp was any longer than 86 minutes, I might tell you to look elsewhere, but if you're in the mood to giggle as a movie tries to scare you, there are worse places to look.