Return To Sleepaway Camp (2008)

Since I have some plans for later today, playing cards with a group of friends, I thought I would get a head start on getting movies watched, and reviews wrote up. Since I am broker than broke at the moment, I can’t rent a movie, so I went searching for something to watch for here on Netflix’s Play Now feature. This is a nice feature, since you can watch films via your computer, without paying extra for them (depending on your plan with them). I eventually decided on Return To Sleepaway Camp. The Sleepaway Camp films have always been a fun set to me. I never thought they were truely great films, except for the first film’s ending. Did anyone honestly guess the twist ending? Anyway, the sequels were the same way, never thought they were great, but they were a fun watch. A forth film was eventually planned, and shooting had begone on it. It quickly ran out of money though, even though not a whole lot was filmed. The footage that was filmed managed to show up on a special disk for the box set of the series. Then a few years ago, word got around that Robert Hitzik, the writer/director from the first film, was planning a sequel that would bring back some of the original cast members. This caused some excitement. After all, who better to bring back Angela than the man that started it all?

In Return To Sleepaway Camp, we start things off with a bunch of newspaper clippings, to catch us up to speed with what we will be walking into. It is basically a recap of events of the first film, and short history of the camp since then. From there, we head to Camp Manabe, where we meet the main character of the story, Alan (Michael Gibney). Alan is on the chumby side of things, as well as being pretty tall, who gets picked on a lot by those that are more popular. The kids that are more of the shy, quiet types, get picked on in turn by Alan. Even though Alan is really simply trying to fit in, it is hard to feel sorry for him. Alan rarely changes his clothes, even after they get dirty from different things. Since he wants to fit in, and wants Karen (Erin Broderick) to like him, he can be a little too trusting. Because of these things, and more really, it is easy to see why he gets picked on so much. Before long though, people start to get killed off. Is it Alan getting revenge? Or could it be that Angela has returned?

If you take the film as is, it appears that they ignore the sequels that were made with Pamela Springsteen. In interviews, which I didn’t get to actually watch, it is stated that this wasn’t the intention. There is supposed to be a bigger twist than what we got in the film, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t come out in the film itself. I bring this up first, because the whole film feels this way, that Robert Hitzik dropped the ball. It has been a while since I have been this disappointed by a sequel. There isn’t much that was done right in this film, at least it felt that way to me. To start, our main character in Alan is hard to get into, mostly because it is so hard to feel sorry for the guy. There are very few characters in the film that doesn’t come across as a bully in some way. I know when you get a big group of teens together, there will always be some that bully others. It just seems that Return To Sleepaway Camp centers on these types, and these types only. Another problem I had with the film is that it takes so long to get to any killing, and then the kills are just so bad. On top of that, they take forever to play out sometimes. I understand what Hitzik was going for in these scenes, tension. But instead of creating that, it comes across as plain stupid. The worst offence to this was a pointed stick coming up through a hole in the floor board. Never mind that the stick was too long to go straight up like shown in the film. It is the fact that after the stick misses the intended target, which is obvious that it would. The target then looks into the hole, not once, but many times after that. Sorry, but if a pointed stick just came from the hole, I’m not going to put my eye right over it numours times, let alone one time. I’m not saying I want the world’s smartest people in ever movie, but is anyone honestly that stupid?

The effects were okay at best. There were some that turned out pretty good, but nothing really jumped out at me. The best was saved for last in the film. There is at least one creative kill to be found, amazing I know. I will simply say it has to do with a bed of nails. It wasn’t that the effects were bad, just average I guess. They did make the film slightly better, so I can’t complain about them all that much. I do wish they would have shown more effects though. One kill is done by having the screen go completely black. I thought something had gone wrong, but no, that is the way it was filmed. On the other side of things, the acting was gernerally bad. Not all was lost, but for the most part it got very bad. Even though his character was very annoying, Michael Gibney does do a nice job playing it. When the actors were being their normal teen selves, if they are actually teens that is, the acting wasn’t all that bad some of the time. It was when they needed to react to something bad happening that it starts to really get bad. Either they do it in an over the top way, or in a no big deal way. Again, not all was that bad. I had heard that Felissa Rose, the original Angela, would be returning. She does just that, but is given such a small part of the film, it is truely a shame. To my surprise, she wasn’t the only returning cast member of the original film to return. Paul DeAngelo and Jonathan Tiersten can also be found. Isaac Hayes puts in a small performance as the camp’s cook, known as “The Chef”. Little bit of a South Park wink there. Vincent Pastore is also in the film, but like Felissa, isn’t given much of a role.

I don’t think I went into this movie with my hopes up to much for it. I wanted to like it, since I liked the movies that came before it, but I didn’t go into it expecting a great film either. Maybe the worst part about it is the people that explain everything away as “it’s just a horror movie.” I know horror films are known for their bad films, but that doesn’t excuse a bad film. There are plenty of horror films out there that are great. They may never win a major award, but so what?!? Another excuse people throw at Return To Sleepaway Camp, is that it was trying for the ’80s feel that so many other films tried for, and failed. It doesn’t take itself all that serious, which was fine with me. But with all that was bad about this film, it was actually painful to watch in places. I think it would have been better if that had just given us Angela right away. Isn’t that the whole point of the Sleepaway Camp films anyway? If you should decide to watch it anyway, keep watching through the credits. You will find an extra kill there. Suggested for those that feel they have to watch all sequels. Stupid people like myself in other words.

2 out of 5 Seriously? You call that a twist ending?