Classic Movie Reviews: 'Sleepaway Camp 2 & 3'

Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988) and Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland (1989)

Directed by Michael A. Simpson

Written by Fritz Gordon

Starring Pamela Springsteen

Release Date August 26th, 1988 and August 13th 1989

Published July 20th, 2023

I notably did not care for 1983's Sleepaway Camp when I watched it recently and said so, loudly, in a review, linked here. I found the film unpleasant, awkwardly crafted, and acted with all of the energy and life of your average commercial for a local funeral home. There are few if any redeeming qualities to the original Sleepaway Camp and if it didn't have it's shock ending, the reveal of Angela being a teenage boy named Peter who'd been abused into playing the role of a shy teenage girl, Sleepaway Camp would have ended up on the ash heap of horror history.

That schlocky, exploitative and gross ending appealed to the low tastes of many more forgiving slasher fans and thus, we still talk about Sleepaway Camp 40 years after it was released. I guess I could also credit the film for the bizarrely watchable, high camp performance of Desiree Gould as Angela's wildly over the top Aunt and abuser, but that's a very minor bit of enjoyment amid the misery that is Sleepaway Camp. There again though, I must pause to offer one more positive feelings regarding Sleepaway Camp; it gave us Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3 and the glorious performance of the sadly forgotten, Pamela Springsteen.

Yes, Bruce Springsteen's little sister, Pamela, starred in Sleepaway Camp 2 & 3, taking over the role of Angela from young Felissa Rose. It's a major upgrade. Springsteen's chipper slasher killer is a dark comic delight. With her big toothy grin and unhinged dedication to the goodness of going to camp, Springsteen's Angela is a complete refresh of the summer camp horror movie. Springsteen's take on the character is absolutely delightful, a bizarre combination of blood soaked violence and the eager enthusiasm of the ultimate apple polishing, teacher's pet.

The story of Sleepaway Camp 2 is incredibly basic. A new camp has opened not far from the former Camp Arawak and the campers and counselors are eager to share the legend of Angela/Peter and her bloody rampage. Just as a new group is sharing Angela's story, Angela just shows up and immediately sets about punishing those that fail to live up to her standard as a happy camper. There is no attempt to hide Angela's villainy from us while the cluelessness of the campers is another fun bit of either intentional meta-comedy or poignant bad movie acting.

The film rides the line between knowing and too knowing incredibly well, especially in Springsteen's performance. Springsteen plays every scene with the same chipper dedication and her wild-eyed nuttiness is the key to taking throwaway horror clichés and refreshing them with new, for the late 1980s, energy. We'd simply never seen a performance quite like that of Pamela Springsteen's smiling, wacky, comic energy take on a horror villain. It felt fresh and new then and it still stands out all these years later. I find her to be completely hilarious and it appears to be entirely intentional while still maintaining a level of gore that befits the genre.

Angela is inventive in how she murders the people who defy her notion of camp spirit. One scene finds her having burned one victim alive on a makeshift barbecue only to then wake up a second victim in the same predicament to the sight of a charred corpse. Then Angela happily lights this victim on fire as well, celebrating her task as a victory for camp spirit and a defeat of the kind of sin and degradation that she apparently has embraced ever since her horrific experience at Camp Arawak.

So, how did Angela get by between 1983 and 1988? We don't actually find out. Campers share rumors of a sex change and an escape from a mental institution, and Angela herself claims to have been 'cured' of something, but we never learn the nature of Angela's sexual persuasion. She's childlike but with the authoritative zeal of an adult whose read the bible and the rules of camp and holds them both holy. Did she get a sex change? The movie doesn't seem to care about that so neither should we, I guess.

If you think that you will find any answers in Sleepaway Camp 3, you are mistaken. Though, once again we are made aware of Angela in lore, the film is only dedicated to Angela's murders and her deeply held defense of camp spirit. Sleepaway Camp 3 finds Angela assuming the identity of a young woman being sent to an encounter camp for troubled youth. This camp is being paid for by the government and run by a pair of hucksters looking to make a buck off of helping 'troubled youth.'

The camp is located in the same camp site as the previous Sleepaway Camp movie and watching Angela wistfully recall singing "I'm A Happy Camper" in the mess hall is a darkly hilarious moment. Springsteen's expressive eyes make the moment near perfect in terms of horror comedy, that wonderful disconnection between happy go lucky nostalgia and a murdering psychopath. The little touch of director Michael A. Simpson lingering on this scene, letting Angela revel in her unearned nostalgia is bizarre and hilarious.

From there, Angela dispatches a bunch of randos in ever more elaborate fashion. The most memorable of the kills in Sleepaway Camp 3 finds one of the camp counselors buried up to her neck in the ground. Angela runs over this woman's head with a lawn mower. Her headless corpse may not logically match with the way she died, but props to the make up and effects team that created a pretty ghastly looking headless corpse, it's a memorable horror visual.

In the most traditional filmmaking sense, are the Sleepaway Camp sequels any good? Not really, they aren't particularly well made. But what they lack in art and beauty, they more than make up for in DIY spirit and the joy of presenting a performance as good as the one delivered by Pamela Springsteen. Her version of Angela may not have much of any arc but she's effortlessly funny, charismatic, weird and a little scary. Springsteen throws herself into the action of Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3 with such abandon that her excitement radiates off the screen. She's insanely watchable and the dark humor at play is so much fun to watch.

For fans of camp horror, Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3 are true camp classics. It's 'Camp' in all sense of the word. Sleepaway Camp 1, 2, and 3, were the classics on our most recent episode of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast. Myself and my co-hosts Bob and Jeff, watched and talked about all three of the Sleepaway Camp movies, I'm aware that there are more but they don't have the best reputation, along with Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning. You can listen to the newest episode of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a review, we will read it on the show.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter, at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you've enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my work here on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip.