Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wastland (1989) - Review

I reviewed the original Sleepaway Camp for the month of October. Curiosity got the better of me in November, and I finally saw the sequel for the first time. Having reviewed both this year, I couldn’t just let the third movie go unwatched before the year was done. So I watched Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland and I’d say it’s doing what most horror franchises do by the time they hit the third movie: start running out of steam.

That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy myself. I still find it more active and entertaining than the original movie, as blasphemous as that sounds. It’s just more of what we got in part 2. For better and for worse.

Pros

• Pamela Springsteen is back as Angela

• Kills get a little more creative and absurd

Cons

• Angela, while the main star, gets sidelined by the personalities of the other characters a bit

• Terrible wigs

• Some sinners go unpunished

• Some confusing plot choices and small details that should have been left out

Plot & Thoughts

Angela (Pamela Springsteen) is back! That’s what the movie tells us before the title card drops and shortly after she already claims her first victim with a dump truck that she mysteriously managed to procure. Only a year after the events of the previous film, fugitive serial killer Angela Baker assassinates the teen with a terrible Tina Turner wig to impersonate her because this hapless victim was going to be a camp counselor at the very same camp that the murders took place. That’s right, someone bought that same camp, once again, and is trying to turn it back around with a new title and new staff, only a year later. I doubt that the red tape involved in purchasing such an infamous property that was still undergoing a murder investigation only a year later would allow this set-up to happen, but whatever. The point is, it’s Sleepaway Camp III, and Angela’s got some murdering to do at her favorite setting.

Angela arrives at the camp, incognito. Along with her, are the other prospective camp counselors consisting of rich white-kids from the country and troubled youths out of juvenile hall. They’re all teenagers in their 30’s, but Angela is the only one that anyone comments on being “older looking.” Her excuse of “extreme drugs” seems to work fine with the new owners and the policeman on duty there, however, and she’s able to blend in as “Maria,” relatively unnoticed. The owners decide to divide everyone up into groups for the purposes of “trust exercises” and getting the “staff” to know each other better before the camp officially opens. Angela goes off with her group and it’s no time at all until people start fornicating and ruining the sanctity of summer camp. Thus, her thirst for vengeance must be quenched.

You know how the rest of this goes. She systematically kills the rest of the staff for one reason or another until there’s only a couple left who happen to be the least sinful of the group. I’d argue that the climax is more exciting than the previous movie, but it all is a pretty by-the-numbers follow-up. The kills are slightly more creative/ridiculous, but I definitely preferred Sleepaway Camp II. The main reason is that Angela, while still a charming presence thanks to Pamela Springsteen, is somewhat sidelined by the other characters in part 3. In part 2, every victim was a common archetype without much personality. In part 3, they’re all still archetypes, but they’re more extreme versions, which makes them stand out a lot more and prevent Pamela Springsteen from stealing the show like last time.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

Sleepaway Camp was never going to reach the esteemed heights of class and popularity of other slasher franchises, but it did alright for itself nonetheless. The first one is a weird, watchable mess. The second one finds more solid footing with a different approach to the franchise and more comical attitude. Sleepaway Camp III recycles the ideas to make a pretty standard, but still watchable B-movie. Not good, not terrible, a bit forgettable, but still watchable.