Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland Blu-ray Movie Review

"I've never chopped wood before. But I've chopped other things!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 3, 2025

Sandpiper Pictures is releasing 'Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland,' following the film's 2015 Shout Factory Collector's Edition, which is no longer available. The second sequel in the cult slasher franchise was directed by Michael A. Simpson and stars Pamela Springsteen as Angela Johnson (taking the reigns from the first movie's Felissa Rose), Tracy Griffith, Mark Oliver, Kim Wall, Daryl Wilcher, Sandra Dorsey, Michael J. Pollard, Miranda Cliff Brand and Haynes Brooke. 'Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers' was also released on the same day.

"It ended up that the killer was the shy 14 year old girl that everybody picked on. Only this girl, she wasn't a girl. She was really a he. His aunt had been dressing him up like a girl ever since he was four years old. They found him naked on the beach holding the chopped off head of another camper. About 30 people were killed and the camp had to be closed down."

Both the original Sleepaway Camp and its comedic follow-up Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers evidently felt they had some "'splainin' to do," taking at least a moment (as in the first film) or a bit longer (as in the second) to detail "reasons" behind the psychopathic tendencies of serial killer Angela (Pamela Springsteen). Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland pretty much throws caution to the wind, simply letting Pamela line up her victims and mow them down; literally, in one case. This tendency is on display from virtually the first moments of the film, when a young woman is chased by a garbage truck and ultimately dispatched, by Angela, of course. How did Angela know about this girl and her connection to the camp which will be this film's focus? How did Angela get a garbage truck, for crying out loud? Anyone who is looking for cogent answers to questions like these had best keep looking, for Teenage Wasteland is content to simply offer up an ironically sunny and at times almost cheerful array of rather gruesome killings, with absolutely no time wasted on such trivialities as psychological underpinnings and motivation.

Click here to read the rest of Jeffrey Kauffman's review of the film, which he suggests might be "unnecessary," adding, "this is one absurd killing spree that is all about the journey, not the destination."

If you've just come to the Sleepaway Camp series following the shock ending of the original 1983 cult classic, welcome! The series is an utter guilty pleasure, from its first film all the way through its final direct-to-video sequels. There are five entries in all: Sleepaway Camp, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989), Return to Sleepaway Camp (2008, despite being the franchise's second film chronologically) and finally Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor (2012). The fourth and fifth films have yet to come to Blu-ray, but quite frankly, you aren't missing much.

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As was the case with Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, I was slightly more impressed with the 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation of Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland than my colleague was in 2015. That either suggests we're dealing with an improved transfer (which is unlikely for Sandpiper) or good ol' subjectivity. No matter. There's enough to be concerned with that any midrange score is pretty dead on. The image is no stranger to faint and fleeting compression artifacts (even if it never amounts to a full-fledged problem), grain and overall clarity are occasionally inconsistent, and there is a touch of easy-to-ignore crush that slithers into the presentation. But there's plenty of good too. Colors are bold and eye-catching, with piercing primaries, splashy reds, sinister black levels, and nice contrast leveling. And when detail peaks, it peaks. Intermittent softness may prove annoying, but the majority of scenes are crisp and clean, with refined edges, exacting textures and a lack of nuisances like halos. Yes, you're sure to spot some print specks and blemishes here and there, but they fortunately amount to very little. As it is, there isn't much to outright complain about.

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

God I love the mower kill. Anywho, like Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland arrives with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless track. But while the former was a tad disappointing, this mix has more oomph on tap. Dialogue remains clear and intelligible, with smart prioritization, and the cheesy slapstick effects sound great, despite being back in full force. There's more power and punch to kills this time around, as well as more ambient subtleties in the film's forest soundscape. Nothing to write home about -- this is low budget 1989 sound design after all -- but enough so that there's not much chance you could squeeze more blood out of this body.

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the 2015 Shout Factory Collector's Edition release of Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland featured a rather large complement of extras, the Sandpiper Pictures release only offers an audio commentary with director Michael A. Simpson and writer Fritz Gordon, alongside the film's theatrical trailer. Missing is Part 2 of an hour-long franchise documentary, deleted scenes, a longer workprint cut of the film, behind the scenes footage and more.

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Angels are pretty, angels can fly, and here is the angel that'll make you die! You got no style and you got no cares; all ya do is fight and swear. So say your prayers and make amends, cause ya life story is about to end!"

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland is pure, glorious cheese and bulging-eyed camp from start to finish. Whether you enjoy it has a lot to do with how much you enjoy self-aware sequels pushed to the low-budget, low-returns extreme, cause other than a few killer kills, this one doesn't have as much to offer as Unhappy Campers. The Blu-ray offers decent video, solid audio, and a filmmakers' commentary. It would have been nice to see all the extras from the 2015 Shout Factory release moved over, but frugality seems to be Sandpiper's M.O.