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Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: June 9th, 2015.
Director: Michael A. Simpson
Cast: Pamela Springsteen, Renee Estevez
Year: 1988
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The Movie:
As you'd guess, this second entry in the Sleepaway Camp series, directed by Michael A. Simpson, begins in the summer time at Rolling Hills. It's a camp run by a group of horny teenagers similar to every other group of horny teenagers to ever gather around a campfire to tell spooky stories. This time around, the story revolves around what happened in the first movie, when a camper named Angela took out a whole lot of her fellow campers and some counsellors too. Given that everyone around the fire is male, one of the counsellors takes Phoebe (Heather Binion) back to the girls' area and soon enough, we learn just exactly who this counsellor is… it's Angela (played now by Pamela Springsteen and yes she is his sister) and she's back to her nasty murderous ways. Those other employees… Molly (Renee Estevez), Sean (Tony Higgins), Ally (Valerie Hartman), TC (Brian Patrick Clarke) and the others had best watch their backs!
Played with tongue very much in cheek this time around (which is odd considering that the first movie plays things pretty straight), Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers is nothing if not entertaining. We get a few top notch kills, complete with some fun and gleefully bloody gore effects, and we get all of the completely unnecessary and entirely gratuitous nudity that has always been a staple of the genre. The movie delivers pretty much what you'd want out of a slasher picture and throws in a few amusing laughs as well.
Springsteen does well enough in the lead here. She gives Angela a bit more charisma here than Felicia Rose was able to in the original, but then, the 'secret' from the original doesn't seem to matter much here and so Angela doesn't need to be the introvert that she is in that earlier picture. In fact, in a lot of ways this Angela seems like a completely different character -but as long as we're entertained, and we are, it doesn't really matter so much. There's something to be said for not overthinking these things, after all. Springsteen does, in fact, make Angela fairly likeable. You might not want to hang out with her in real life - she is a bit of a murderous psychopath after all - but as far as movie buddies go, yeah, she's got a sense of humor and she's cute and her personality is decent enough. Let's just assume that the troubled pre-teen killer of the first film became comfortable with her unusual lot in life and grew into herself.
Enjoy this one for what it is - a fairly twisted black comedy of sorts, one that knows just how silly it is and goes to reasonably great lengths to make sure you do too. The death scenes here get pretty creative - there are power tools, acid baths and of course, big sharp knives all ready and at Angela's disposal when she decides it's time to get to work. There's enough style employed behind the camera during these scenes to ensure that they're framed in interesting ways and that the lens captures everything that it needs to capture. The score works here too. This is low budget, yeah, like a lot of slasher movies of the period were, but it's fun. The movie was shot back to back with Sleepaway Camp III, which also starred Springsteen, but more on that in another review.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers debuts on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in a 'new 2k scan of the original camera negative.' Presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, this is a solid transfer that, despite some flaws, offers a pretty nice upgrade over the last DVD release. Detail and color reproduction are vastly improved here and skin tones look more natural as well. Black levels are good and the picture is quite clean, showing as much grain, albeit sometimes rather erratically, as you'd expect but free of any serious print damage. Sure, some minor specks do show up here and there but for the most part but there's nothing super serious to bitch about in that department. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the grain is erratic and sometimes things get a little hazy and a little squishy looking. It's not constant - some scenes look great - but darker scenes, the campfire sequence for example, are plagued by this. The good outweighs the bad though. If you've seen this movie before, you'll probably be reasonably impressed.
The English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track on the disc is also pretty solid. There's some decent depth to the track and there are no issues with any hiss or distortion. Dialogue is consistently clean and clear and easily discernible and the levels are properly mixed. The sound effects and screams have good presence and power behind them but they don't bury the dialogue when they co-mingle. The film's genuinely effective score has some impressive depth to it as well, and this is a pretty solid track all in all. Again, this is a noticeable improvement over the previous DVD release. Optional subtitles are provided in English only.
Extras on the disc start off with an audio commentary with Director Michael A. Simpson and Writer Fritz Gordon who talk about the challenges following up the original with this second entry in the run. They discuss casting Ms. Springsteen, talk about the contributions she and the other cast members made on the shoot, the locations used, some of the effects work and more. It's a lively and interesting talk that fans should appreciate.
We also get a twenty-eight minute long featurette here called A Tale of Two Sequels - Part One which features newly interviews with Simpson, cinematographer Bill Mills, editor John David Allen and a few others involved with this film. This is informative and well put together so if it coves some of the same ground as the commentary (how would it not?) fans won't mind so much. We also get a fifteen minute long look at the locations used for Sleepaway Camp & III and thirteen minutes of random behind the scenes footage with commentary from Simpson overtop to give it all some context.
Rounding out the extras are a Home Video Promotional Trailer, a (very) short film called Whatever Happened To Molly that ties into this movie's ending, and a Still Gallery. Menus and chapter selection are included, of course, and the cover art is reversible with the newly commissioned piece on one side and the theatrical one sheet on the flip side. All of this fits inside a nifty cardboard slipcover.
The Final Word:
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers can't match the original for shocks or the third film for over the top zaniness but it's a fun and entertaining slasher sequel that offers up some quality kills and some occasional moments of decent tension. Shout!'s Blu-ray debut offers a transfer that improves over the DVD release as it should while still leaving room for improvement. The supplemental package, however, is pretty great.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
