Directed by Michael A. Simpson
Starring Pamela Springsteen, Tracy Griffith, Mark Oliver, Kim Wall and Daryl Wilcher
Looking through the archives here at Lick Ness Monster Central, it seems like I've reviewed every other Sleepaway Camp movie with the exception of this one...so what the hell, here it is - Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland. Auspicious introduction, I know.
If I sound reportedly less than enthused, it's because this movie is a little drab. It's not TERRIBLE or anything, just drab. For vastly different reasons, the first two flicks in this franchise are infinitely memorable. The first for its cheese factor, way-out-there characterizations and ending, and the second for its meta humor. This one is more or less a by-the-numbers micro-budgeted slasher flick with some interesting wrinkles that would be hard to miss. Writer-director Michael A. Simpson definitely knew that he had a winner with Pamela Springsteen as transgender spree killer, with the Boss' sister turning up the nuttiness factor to previously unheard-of levels. So she's back, and the movie is better for it. With that scatterbrained rant out of the way, let's get to the movie.
No wasted motion here, as within minutes of the movie starting, we get an amazing nude scene featuring the gorgeous Kashina Kessler and a kill scene as Angela Baker - having escaped the police after the massacre at Camp Rolling Hills in the second movie - mows down this victim with a truck. Yeah, we've got a different vibe going on in Teenage Wasteland, as we haven't seen anything like this in this trilogy before. Taking this chick's identity is only phase one in the plan, however, as soon Angela is posing as camper Maria at a camp run at the Rolling Hills site.
And now for a Lick Ness Monster side interlude: I have never - not once - commented on anything social or political here on the blog, even when the movies that I review do that very thing. From day one, I've wanted this to be like the party cabin in a slasher film, and that junk has no place in this world. And that's never going to change - because we're all friends. ;) I say this because this is another area where Simpson changes things up in this go-round. The second movie had meta-humor, and this one has attempts at social commentary.
See, the new Camp Rolling Hills is now Camp New Horizon, a site where a sort of experiment is being run. See, they've gathered up a bunch of well-off high schoolers and a bunch of troublemaking hooligans and want to try to make them get along. We get an interview scene early on here as each character introduces themselves. The only two who don't immediately stand out as future Angela fodder are rich girl Marcia (Tracy Griffith, the sister of Melanie, continuing the series trend of casting famous siblings) and East L.A. gangster Tony (Mark Oliver). Both characters are likable enough, but truth be told...they're fairly forgettable. Fortunately, there ARE a couple of ace victims that stick out in their brief screen time (or, as Jim Ross would say, maximizing their minutes). Both of which fall on the troublemaker side - the weirdly named Arab (Jill Terashita) and switch-wielding tough guy Riff (Daryl Wilcher). Riff in particular is pretty damn cool, and he also gets brownie points for being aces at a horror convention I went to. Class act.
Plotwise, more or less it's a repeat of what we got in the last movie. Angela offs everyone who she views as amoral, covering up their deaths with a Dark Knight-esque series of plot contrivances and conveniences. Many years ago, I said that the kills in this movie weren't creative and someone blitzed me for it. And it was semi-deserved. There are some good, cringeworthy death scenes in this flick, particularly that "switching the cocaine with battery acid" trick or whatever the hell it was. Having said that (and keep in mind I haven't watched this movie in a few years), there were way too many protracted bits of Angela just whacking someone to death with a stick or something. I'm not a gorehound horror fan; I tune in to be scared and for good quirky characters. But in a slasher flick, I really do think each death needs to be a good, creative set piece, and I think this aspect of the flick is kind of a let down.
There really isn't anything technically WRONG with Teenage Wasteland. The setup, for how convenient it is, is actually pretty effective. Springsteen once again devastates as Angela, seeming like the happiest person in the world while she's decapitating people. Simpson again handles this movie's ridiculously low budget with aplomb, making it look fairly decent while also introducing some solid emotional stakes in the form of an on-site police officer who is the father of one of the victims in the previous installment. Nonetheless, everything in this movie just feels kind of...samey, I guess, is the word. Again, it's not BAD, it's just kinda there.
** out of ****. If you've seen and liked the first two Sleepaway Camp movies (and tons of horror fans do), this one is worth a look. If you haven't, there's no reason to go out of your way to seek this out.
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