[Return To Sleepaway Camp]
Plot:Ronnie (Paul DeAngelo), now a co-owner of a new Camp becomes very suspicious when kids and camp staff begin falling victims to gruesome "accidents" again. Ronnie can't seem to shake what happened 20 years ago at Camp Arawak and with good reason. As he deals with his paranoia, a large cast of kids and camp staff run rampant with no supervision, making them perfect and easy targets for the killer.

Cast:Vincent Pastore, Jonathan Tiersten, Paul DeAngelo, Isaac Hayes, Felissa Rose, Adam Wylie, Chaz Brewer, Erin Broderick, Ashley Carin.

My Thoughts:Kind of not what I had in mind.

Review:After a nearly 14 year hiatus, and one incomplete sequel...the "Sleepaway Camp" series is back with "Return To Sleepaway Camp". The fifth installment of the series which began way back in the 80's when Felissa Rose was just a young pup...and I was a really young pup. In this return to camp, Ronnie from ''Sleepaway Camp" is the co-owner of a new camp. The camp has changed, but the kids haven't. These new kids are the same as you'd find in any "Sleepaway Camp" movie, only ALOT more obnoxious. Whereas in part one, two, and even three...the kids were alot more comical with their interaction with one another, in "Return"....they're downright mean...hence the tagline..."Kids Can Be So Mean".

Things play out well for awhile before someone is murdered in a vat of boiling hot grease, and we're left to suspect that the killings are starting again...and that Angela/Peter Baker might be on the loose again. But this iilm tries to throw us for more of a loop than the previous movies where it was obvious Angela was the killer. In this film, the main character is a chubby kid named Alan, who EVERYONE treats like crap....for no apparent reason other than he's chubby and kind of childish. In usual "Sleepaway Camp" fashion, deaths happen one after the other with everyone totally oblivious to any of them.

That is until one of the stoner kids is set on fire with gasoline and a ciggie...then Ronnie begins to worry that "it" is starting again. But the camps new owner played by Vincent Pastore tries to keep Ronnie hush hush because he's afraid he'll lose money if rumors of Angela Baker crop up again. Now Ronnie has to get to the bottom of what's happening before the killer "bottoms out" the entire camp population, which includes Ronnie. Unlike parts 1-3...this film lacks the charm necessary to be enjoyable.

Every "Sleepaway Camp" film ahd bad kids, which was the catalyst for bringing in Angela...to kill all the bad people. Hell, even Ally from part 2 was likeable in her own way. But I did not like any of these kids, and at some point when you're making a film...especially a slasher movie, you've gotta give the audience someone to root for. So who do I root for in "RTSC"? The weird kid Alan? Alan's douchebag brother? The mean girls? The asshole counselors? The grumpy camp owner? Or the annoying British or Australian or whatever guy?

Yep....this is a movie where you root for the killer against almost everyone! And I'm serious, I could not tolerate any of these people. Even Ronnie had more of a downside than an upside, and that's saying something. But what people watch "SC" movies for the most are the deaths. The gory, crazy, wacky, bloody deaths. Well....sorry to disappoint, but the deaths in this movie are for the most part, by far the worst of the series. I'm serious. And some of them are watered down and poorly done versions of previous deaths such as "rope-pulled by car-rips off limbs" as seen in part three, and "death by broiling" as seen in part two and performed on the "shit sisters".

One good death I can recall involved a bunkbed and some spikes, but that's as awesome as it gets on the dead teenager side of things. This didn't feel like a ''Sleepaway Camp" film beyond the setting, the cabins, the kids, and the music...some of it. But when you look at the base of the movie, the awesome deaths, the likeable characters, and the wisecracks by the killer....NONE of that was there. And I excuse the lack of wisecracks because in this film the killer is all dressed in black and never utters a word. However you will find one person in this film to root for, if anyone.

And that's one of the new characters, a police officer who is missing a vital throat organ due to too much smoking, and has to talk with one of those neck devices. But then again, anyone who smokes is automatically on my shit list for so many reasons so I even found myself rooting against him as well. So without any likeable characters, great deaths, or that typical "Sleepaway Camp" charm....are there any positives about this movie? Well, yeah....there's a cameo by Ricky (the original Ricky), and the very end is 5 minutes that will surely bring a smile to your face if you're a fan of this series.

But that's very sad because all together in an 85 minute film...there was about 15 minutes or less of positives, and the rest was all negative. I welcome another one of these films just to then can put "RTSC" behind them...and us. This series is 3 and 1 with me (1-3 being good, and five being bad). Four doesn't count because it was never finished, although rumor has it that they might. And seeing how part five ended in it's final scene, they just might have a jumping off point material and storywise for part four...should they ever decide to return to it. "RTSC" might act as 85 minutes of nostalgia to raving fans of the series, but to me...it was just a film that needed alot of work, and is the first real weak installment of the series overall.

Positives:The final 5 to 8 minutes, Ricky's cameos, the spike-bunk-bed death.

Negatives:The hyper-annoying characters no one to cheer for because everyone was annoying, horrible deaths with no creativity whatsoever, and the dialogue was not as clever and well-written as it was in previous installments.

Overall:One star out of four.





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