6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Angela is back, in the form of an angry inner-city camper on the hunt for blood. Camp New Horizons, on the recycled grounds of the former murders, intends to pair high class teens with underclass counterparts. Angela, however, has a different plan. Will it be door number one, number two, or number three?
Starring: Jill Terashita, Michael J. Pollard, Tracy Griffith, Mark Oliver (I), Haynes BrookeHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Did your parents ever ship you off to summer camp, or have you in fact shipped your kids off to such a facility? I went to summer camp twice in my childhood, once in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City and a bit later on one of the San Juan Islands, and was not particularly happy there either time, suffering through indignities like communal bathrooms or insane amounts of mosquito bites, not to mention less than thrilling camp “grub.” Of course, the saving grace is I (and hopefully you and/or your kids) never had to interact with Angela, the troubled anti-heroine of the Sleepaway Camp trilogy. As is discussed (carefully, so that no actual spoilers are revealed) in our Sleepaway Camp Blu-ray review, the first film ends with a patently shocking “reveal” (literally and figuratively) which seeks to recast much of what has gone before in a new light. While the actual efficacy of that shock is debateable, the “surprise” awaiting viewers at the end of the first Sleepaway Camp has remained one of the film’s most memorable contributions to horror lore. The fact that this supposed denouement is in fact a little nonsensical when you get right down to it may help to explain why it’s at best only a tangential element in the two follow-up films Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, newly released in tandem by Shout! Factory’s horror imprint Scream Factory. What’s perhaps more unexpected than the lack of focus on what the first film at least attempted to make a salient plot point is the 180 degree turn in tone between the first film and the two sequels. While the first film wasn’t exactly in the same cut (sorry) and dried slasher mode that was so prevalent in the eighties, Sleepaway Camp still played things fairly straight and narrow, albeit with a few goofy elements thrown in for good measure. The two sequels on the other hand play things largely for laughs, setting up minimal plot contrivances to offer Angela (Pamela Springsteen, little sister to a certain Boss man) as avenging angel taking out a variety of boorish characters.
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Alert readers will notice I've scored both Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland and Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers with a 3.0, which is not to imply these two look identical, and in fact I'd probably up this to a 3.25 if I were able to. The element utilized here doesn't have the overly dupey look that was on display with Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, but ironically it has a bit more damage in the shape of scratches and negative and positive dirt than the other film. Colors are better saturated and more accurate looking overall here, and the grain field is slightly more kempt, resolving rather nicely in sunlit moments, less so in darker ones. There are still some very grainy moments in daylight scenes, though, including the opening scene with Angela's first victim. Clarity is a bit better on this outing than on II, helped by the fact that quite a bit of the film plays out in brightly lit, outdoor locations.
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is a bit more boisterous than its immediate predecessor, offering good support for the film's wacky sound effects and not exactly Shakespearian dialogue. The film has some decent late eighties' rock as source cues, something that helps to establish a bit of sonic force along the way. Fidelity is fine and there are no problems of any kind to report.
Everything from how outré Michael J. Pollard is to how gleefully sanguine the campers react to yet another strange disappearance from among their ranks provides Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland with the requisite elements of cult classic status. I personally find this film a lot funnier than Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. Technical merits range from decent (video) to excellent (audio), but once again Scream has assembled a really impressive supplementary package, one that will no doubt make most ardent fans overlook any other shortcomings. Recommended.
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