Five years of waiting and this is what we get? How could Magnolia Pictures put their names on this? Inside you'll find Horro Guy Keenan's thoughts on RETURN TO SLEEPAWAY CAMP, which finally arrives at retailers everywhere on November 7th. "I hear Hiltzik is working hard on a sixth film for the series - if it’s anything like this fifth film I’m going to have to set up camp some place else.." Ouch.
I have been a pretty big fan of the SLEEPAWAY CAMP series for a while now. I remember picking up the “exclusive” box set released at Best Buy (the one that had what was left of SLEEPAWAY CAMP 4 on it) the day of release. Sure it was pretty crappy next to the other films but, it wasn’t really finished, so to me it didn’t really matter. Fast forward a few years later, I hear from a friend that he’s working on the set of SLEEPAWAY CAMP 5 (“Return to” was not attached yet). I begged him to get me on set but things were always holding production up and I never got a chance to visit…
…yet after viewing a finished copy of the film this evening, I am very thankful I didn’t waste my time and money to drive up there.
It's summer camp as usual at Camp Manabe where the kids torment each other for fun while the underpaid camp staff provides as little supervision as possible. Greedy camp owner Frank (Vincent Pastore) and junior partner Ronnie (Paul DeAngelo) do their best to keep everyone in line, but something sinister is about to put a slash in the roster. When campers and staff mysteriously begin disappearing and turning into gruesome corpses, paranoid Ronnie can't shake the memory of a series of grisly murders that took place at Camp Arawak where he worked 2 decades ago. Has a "ghost" from the past come back to haunt him?
One thing I will give the writer and director of this film (Robert Hiltzik) is that it looks like it could have been shot back-to-back with the other SLEEPAWAY CAMPs. The type of film used, along with the sets, made it look like it was straight out of the ‘80s.
One of the major differences come in the acting; the original films weren’t at all is the campy and cheesy. They must have picked up these kids at the ‘Tara Reid School of Acting.’ Though, there is one exception. Isaac Hayes plays the camps head chef (GET IT!?) for about ten minutes and then disappears (I’m sure that was money well spent). The main character, Alan (Michael Gibney), is so annoying and such a bad actor that you can’t stand him from the get go. At points of the film you are supposed to feel sorry for him, but the whole time you just want to see him die. At the end of the film you sit there wondering why you focused on this kid for 98 minutes.
A few members of the original cast show up and their acting is just as bad, if not worse. You can tell half of these actors have not been in any films since the original SLEEPAWAY CAMP. It’s atrocious. Their screams and shock-like expressions just make you roll your eyes in embarrassment for them. I’m not asking for an Oscar winning performances here or anything, but these guys don’t even try. It’s as if Hiltzik only did one take for every scene in the film. Maybe he just spent too much money on the old ‘80s look?
I can’t begin to count all the plot holes there are, including the long drawn out scenes that go nowhere. And you can only watch a girl with a rope around her neck scream for so long until you’re bored, which brings up another flaw… the editing. The cuts from scene to scene are so incredibly sloppy.
It also doesn’t help that none of the kills in this film are spectacular (like its predecessors), in fact, at times they are just laughable in a very bad way. Most of them are camera tricks I’m sure you and your little brother tried out with your first video camera. “You cut to a scene of an eye and then you cut back and there is a stick in it! Ho-ho-ho!” I have seen better gore in high school student films.
That’s what really irks me about this flick. They had the budget to get freaking Isaac Hayes on the film but not enough to do a descent follow-up to one of the most under appreciated horror films of the early ‘80s. I love the old SLEEPAWAY CAMP films and their campiness, but there is that fine line between campy and just straight-up awful and RETURN TO SLEEPAWAY CAMP crossed it. I hear Hiltzik is working hard on a sixth film for the series - if it’s anything like this fifth film I’m going to have to set up camp some place else.
This reviewer instantly lost ALL credibility when he said the other films weren't at all about camp or cheesy acting.
Parts 2 and 3 were PURE CHEESE and CAMP. Were you not paying attention at all?
Saturdaythe13th, I just said right above that "I love the old SLEEPAWAY CAMP films and their campiness". I know Parts 2 and 3 were all about being pure camp but 5 is just awful, AWFUL acting.
If this is a DVD review, where is the rest of it? I see nothing about the special features, music from the film, menu screens? Maybe this is just a review of the unfinished download version that leaked?
Awful, awful movie. I completely agree with the review here. Alan is by far the most unlikeable "protagonist" since...well, ever. I can't think of a single movie I've seen that I was so let down by. The original three were great 80s camp (in the 'summer camp' and 'cheese' sense) films, and don't get enough recognition. This is just garbage.
5th..6th....there was a finished 4th film? The footage I have in my Anchor Bay boxset hardly counts as a finished film. Besides, 'Return' is NOT a sequel to parts 2 and 3. It is a DIRECT sequel to the original. So this film is actually Robert Hiltzik's Part 2. NOT part 5....not even part 4.
I agree about the DVD review...what about the features, etc. This should have been called 'Return to Sleepaway Camp' opinion instead of review.
Some people must not have a sense of humor...this was one of the best bad films I've seen in a while. Completely inept in every way, but absolutely entertaining. I laughed more at this than at any comedy I've seen in years.
This is one of the most DESPERATELY bad movies I've ever seen. The main character, Alan, screamed and cried obnoxiously through the WHOLE fucking movie.
This movie was pretty terrible but I still loved it. It was cool because Hitzik meant for this to be the official sequel to the original film. I don't think CKY was embarrassed with the film because they were in it for a second, they were named after the films, and Deron Miller is married to Felissa Rose now. Alan's character pissed me off throughout the entire movie though... Fuck that kid haha. I heard there is a possibility for another sequel? something like "Sleep Away Camp:Reunion" Know anything? Let me know...
Sidenote: What if they re-made the original? Could they even get away with the ending anymore?
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I have been a pretty big fan of the SLEEPAWAY CAMP series for a while now. I remember picking up the “exclusive” box set released at Best Buy (the one that had what was left of SLEEPAWAY CAMP 4 on it) the day of release. Sure it was pretty crappy next to the other films but, it wasn’t really finished, so to me it didn’t really matter. Fast forward a few years later, I hear from a friend that he’s working on the set of SLEEPAWAY CAMP 5 (“Return to” was not attached yet). I begged him to get me on set but things were always holding production up and I never got a chance to visit…
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