hellholehorror The image was a bit messy in places, generally fine. Luckily there were no bad CGI effects to contend with. The dialogue sounds scrappy, hard to hear. Also it is not very involving to listen to. It reminded me of Hostel (2005) and Saw (2004) and all those eighties slasher movies. It was cheesy and stupid. They managed to create the most despicable cinematic characters of all time which I liked! This has the worst and least satisfying ending I have possibly ever seen. Believably horrible characters cannot save a dull and mostly forgettable sequel.

Heff2001 Ummm. Errrr. Uhhh. Okay, so I only kept watching to see how Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten and Paul DeAngelo would do at reprising their roles. Sadly, for them and everyone else in the film, they were stuck in a pile of crap so deep their talents couldn't shine through anywhere. Tiersten, who was a standout in the original and seemed to have natural acting chops, has nothing to go on. What was Hiltzik thinking? Our hero of the first film has grown up to be an obnoxious backhoe operator with a bad attitude and the apparent IQ of a mosquito? Huh? That actually describes everyone in the film: obnoxious and stupid. There's not a hint of character development. Everyone is so unlikable, you want them to get killed off as soon as they make their initial appearance. They're loud, can't stop screaming, personality conflicts to the hilt. The only saving grace would have been if Teirsten's clothes fell off somewhere along the way. But no! LOL. Seriously. It's like watching a train wreck in slo-mo. If there was an "in" joke, it flew over my head by a mile.And what was that last, post-credit scene supposed to be? Jeez, Louise. Why?Hiltzik, please, we know there's talent there. Make another film ASAP and be redeemed!

happyendingrocks For fans of the semi-infamous cheeseball slasher gem Sleepaway Camp who were perplexed why the creators of its two sequels (I refuse to count the unfinished slop bucket of footage that was later turned into a feature-length to bilk a few more bucks out of devotees) largely ignored their source material and handed over the franchise to Pamela Springsteen, a "proper" follow-up which re-teams the original director with a couple of returning cast members is a truly exciting prospect. Regrettably, though Return boasts a few bits of inspiration, this reunion is more irritating than exhilarating.The trip down memory lane here is by far the most enjoyable aspect of this misguided reprise, and even though the acting chops of the cast members who were present at Camp Arawak actually seem to have gotten worse in the last two decades, it's still fun to see Johnathan Tiersten (Ricky) and Paul DeAngelo (Ronnie) ham it up again. But that where-are-they-now? update isn't enough to build an entire movie around, and sadly little else about the film offers fans much to get excited about here.The biggest problem with Return is that it blatantly attempts to match the accidentally humorous approach of the previous Sleepaway Camp outings, which isn't something that can be willfully duplicated. The earlier SC's were enjoyable precisely because they were so endearingly dumb, but setting out to make a deliberately stupid movie, which we can only assume was the game-plan here based on the results, doesn't produce that same spark of quirky ineptness. The film tries way too hard to mimic the joyously cheap thrills of a mid-'80s slasher flick, but it is a pale imitation at best, and the evident self-awareness here simply doesn't gel with the spirit the film is desperately trying to conjure.While the references to the first Sleepaway Camp should be the main focus here, we're instead forced to endure the unbearable saga of a ridiculously unlikeable camper named Alan, who is teased and tormented mercilessly throughout the film and has a "secret place" in the woods where he cuddles with frogs and tells them all about his troubles. Alan's plight is probably supposed to generate our sympathy, but since he's constantly either whining or shrieking and is actually far more unpleasant, hostile, and aggressive than any of the one-dimensional teens who target him, we're sort of left to deduce that he pretty much deserves everything that happens to him. This blubbering sap is relentlessly exasperating, and his virtual omnipresence renders most of the movie nearly unwatchable. The impetus for his placement as the focal point of the plot is allegedly to lure us into believing that he is committing the murders to punish his transgressors for their sins, but even though the killer is concealed by a hooded sweatshirt, the first time we see the perpetrator it's completely obvious that the only way Alan could be under that cowl is if he had the supernatural ability to instantly lose about 150 pounds on command.A few decent gore spurts liven things up a bit, but there aren't nearly enough of them, and while there are dozens of potential victims on hand, the body count here is woefully paltry. The death scenes themselves strive to be grandiose and original, but most of them are so utterly impractical that they end up being silly. One kid meets his demise after a sharpened pole is thrust up through the floorboards of his cabin; the makeshift weapon misses him the first time, which prompts this obtuse lad to conjure the brilliant hypothesis: "Hey, that deadly spear almost impaled me! If I press my face up against that hole in the ground it came from, maybe I can see what's going on down there..." A few of the methods of dispatch require such intricate machinations and deft execution that they rival some of the torture devices in the Saw series. The boldest of them would take a least a couple of hours to orchestrate, but our killer is somehow able to rig these sophisticated death traps in a matter of seconds without anyone being the wiser.Granted, I know something like Return To Sleepaway Camp isn't supposed to inspire deep thinking. However, while I respect the ingenuity that went into, say, the bed of spikes murder, all I could think about when it happened was how long it would take for the killer to hammer what looks to be at least 100 nails through a bed frame to even set the contraption up. I was also fascinated that they had the foresight to predict that the intended victim would come back into the cabin alone despite leaving with a group of girls, and that not only would she immediately lay down on the bottom bunk in a perfect position for the killer to leap onto the overhead mattress and drive the spiked platform down upon her, she would also somehow fail to notice the black-clad lunatic perched up in the rafters about ten feet above her head.The telegraphed twist ending is so patently obvious that you'll have it figured out the first time the involved character is introduced, which unfortunately happens a few minutes into the movie. Still, if your driving force for seeing this is a fondness for the first film, the finale is a mirthful wink to the original that's worth sticking around for. You should also linger through the credits, since there's a fairly nifty final coda afterwards.Though I haven't praised too many aspects of Return To Sleepaway Camp, I don't want to leave the impression that it's entirely without its charms. I'm certainly not sorry I watched it, and while it's definitely the weakest of the quartet, the novelty value of the reprised characters is high enough to warrant a look for ardent fans of the series. Just try not to punch your television every time Alan comes on screen.

changedname This movie is brilliant, when I first watched it I thought it actually was an 80s movie because it looks and is exactly like that. I had to double and triple check that this was the 2008 movie as I couldn't believe it at first. This is how they should always make horror movies!!! I was really surprised when I came here and saw a relatively low rating and bad reviews. Okay, I don't mind if a person give it a 5, I can see why some people mightn't like it that much, but who on earth is giving lower than 5s? It's hard to believe that, they don't seem like fans of the original if that's their attitude as this is very close to the original in a lot of ways and better than it in some. I have to admit, I hated the "fart" scene at the beginning of the movie as well as many others. I also thought there were too many shots of boys in states of undress... and the whole thing is quite campy. I totally get that the fat kid with the frogs is very weird and makes things a bit uncomfortable and outrageous at times.... it's called ORIGINALITY. It's called being different. It's viewing something new that you didn't see tons of times before. The fat kid is like a monstrosity, like some weird ****.... which is what horror movies are all about. I think that as the movie wore on the fat kid scenes got better, less stupid. Again if this is all not your cup of tea, fine, but it's certainly not a "bad" movie whatever way you look at it!!! The death scenes were amazing, I don't think anyone will have qualms about these. One of them dragged a little, that's it. The characters weren't overly "mean" to each other, sure things got very heated at times... this is how the world works sometimes. And children can be very cruel to each other. Even if it's pushing credibility a bit at times, I was able to believe in all of the characters' actions in the movie. This is how horror movies work best, the music and atmosphere created are top notch. Maybe the plot could have been done a bit better, with more comprehensive explanations for things, and better mystery surrounding who was doing things. I can certainly see how the movie might have had more potential. But for some reason, the movie really just lured me into it in a way that's hard to explain. Maybe it's just the mood I was in, but it really got my imagination flying and had me in a lot of suspense about what was going to happen next.