Review of Return to Sleepaway Camp (2008) by Tim M — 02 May 2009

Last year finally saw the release of the fourth (completed) film of the cult slasher series, [u]Sleepaway Camp[/u], entitled [u]Return To Sleepaway Camp[/u], which was completed in 2003, but couldn't find a distributor until 2008. Writer/director Robert Hiltzik, the creator of the first [u]Sleepaway Camp[/u] (his only other film to date), makes his return to the series. Now, if you're familiar with my Crap-Tacular Film Club, you'll know I never considered these films masterpieces; shamless showcases of excessive gore and mindles sex and nudity mixed in with that 1980's campiness (no pun intended). But, in the new milenium, did Hiltzik bring the series to a level on par with the likes of [u]Halloween[/u]? Well...no.

Taking place many years after the original campground horrors at the hands of the series' slayer Angela, "Return" finds the camp up and running and partially owned by one the original's survivors, Ronnie (again played by Paul DeAngelo). Once again, you have a weakling camper, a young boy named Alan this time, who is the subject of numerous humilating pranks by camper and counseler alike. Soon, body after body after body begins to pile up. Who is responsible? Is it the tormented Alan? Is Angela back on the prowl? Or, is it one of the many others the film pints a finger at?

It's been twenty years since Hiltzik last wrote a (greenlit) script, and this one shows signs of writer's rust, and his writing wasn't exactly polished to begin with. One thing you have to know about this film is Hiltzik wrote it as if Parts 2 and 3 never happened, which, to the uninformed viewer, makes the film very, very confusing and account for most of the film's numerous plot holes (yes, there things that are confusing and are never explained). Most of the film is the aforementioned pranking, until about the last twenty minutes when the killings go into overdrive. This was the point, while writing the script, that Hiltzik must have remembered he was writing a horror movie, not an autobiography about how much camp must have sucked for him.

The worst part about this film is the writing and handling of the central character of Alan. The problem here lies in both the writing and the performance itself; in fact, it's almost like I'm sure who to blame. Hiltzik makes the character a bully as well as a bullied. He picks on someone, then he gets picked on back. Not exactly a way to build sympathy towards a character. The charcter as a whole is that great, but Michael Gibney's performance as Alan makes him downright annoying. Gibney reduces his teenage character to the emotional maturity of a three-year-old. Like the other characters in the movie, you also hope he runs off crying into the woods and never comes back.

I guess I'm the foolish one to expect quality out of a [u]Sleepaway Camp[/u] film. I guess I thought the long time between films might have done the series some good. Now, the only good it can do is not re-appear ever, ever again.