Second Look: Sleepaway Camp 3 Review

I reviewed Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland way back on June 29, 2009 here. However, since I've had extra time on my hands lately (the last 15 months of no job) I decided to look at the third sequel in the Sleepaway Camp series.

When I was a kid I used to rent horror moves from the Korean owned rental store and out of all the neighborhood kids, I was the only one that they trusted to rent horror movies. This one I always wanted to rent for the raunchy poster that they had up on the wall. It's of a large breasted female holding a knife. I especially loved this film's poster more than the others just because of how sexualized it was. While I did appreciate the other two, especially the second one because it looked like a porno film cover, this one I enjoyed far more. That's not to say that the movie was far better, but it definitely was engraved in my memory a lot better.

Sleepaway Camp 3 came out in 1989 and was amidst a great deal of slasher films coming out at the time. The film was edited upon release due to the fact that the MPAA wouldn't give it an R rating, but the semi-full version is available on dvd. I'm not sure if the Sleepaway Camp 3 VHS tape has the full edition, but it should be interesting to see if it is.

The film starts up with some random girl trying to get to summer camp but is completely taken out by a rogue garbage truck being driven by none other than Angela Baker! I was cheering for it like a 9 year old marking out for John Cena. The camp this year is completely run down and is thrown together in order to help urban teenagers coexist with upper class kids.

The camp is hilarious, Camp Horizons as it is called is nothing more than a repurposed older camp with none of the original bells and whistles that Camp Rolling Hills had. For those not familiar with that camp, it's where Angela knocked out a ton of campers in the first and second film.

The death count rises on this film, and it really is light on the plot. Sure there are a few connections to the previous movies, but it's not exactly an Oscar contender either, and we shouldn't expect it to be. The kills are similar to all the ones we already saw, and they vary from slightly gorey to full blown gore, but never really as good as the previous movies. As you can expect this film goes into full throttle towards the end with Angela attacking all the survivors and trying to get away with yet another camp slaughter but it just isn't going well.

The closing of this film is awesome, with Angela being in an ambulance and takes care of business. The ambulance scene, despite the close quarters, is quite good and well lit, far better than 90% of this film, in terms of contrast and style. The film ends with what we supposed is a dead character, but is she?

Watching it again definitely made me appreciate certain nuances of the previous film, not necessarily this one. While I absolutely love the movie poster, I don't love the movie at all. In fact, this is the weakest of the series and really only makes me want to watch the second film. The second film is so much better and really could finish off the series completely. I wouldn't mind a new updated version if it was done right. Yes, I know they made a straight to dvd one with the original director, but it's not nearly as good as the second film entry. In fact, the updated one is just a remake of the original in a lot of ways with most if not all of the original cast.

I loved the original for its make up and weird gore effects. I love the second one for being more of a slasher film. The third one, well...the third one has the coolest poster, and that's that. I recommend buying the Sleepaway Camp Box Set with all three films, as I did, but not necessarily just one of the films. Oh and if you love vhs, pick up Sleepaway Camp 3 on VHS and see it in all the original glory.


Buy Sleepaway Camp 3 Here