It's not easy being a horror movie fan. After seeing some spectacular masterpieces you start to realize that there aren't many good ones, and you'll spend most of your valuable movie-watching time on lame tripe that contains no originality or jollity, desperately searching for another classic. But I've discovered that if you lower your standards a bit you might find some less-than-classics that are still fun and enjoyable, if not legendary works of art. I humbly submit "Sleepaway Camp 2" as a tolerable entry in the slasher movie archives.
First of all, as far as deranged mass-murderers go, you could do a lot worse than Angela, a demented transsexual camp counselor who flips out at the most minor rule-breakers and reacts lethally, all while sporting a smile and never feeling blue. Our cheery Angela is the most "can-do" serial killer ever. You'll never find a copy of "Catcher in the Rye" or "American Psycho" near her victims- but maybe "Life's Little Instruction Booklet"!
Next of all, it's got a lot of killings. Some movies give you three, maybe four killings, but this one has a crate-full of slaughter- burning, eye-gouging, stabbing, beheading and more. Main characters or peripheral characters, on-screen or off, pretty much everyone gets it in this movie. There's even a classic scene where Angela forces one loathsome character down the hole in an outhouse! (If that doesn't sell you on this movie, nothing will.)
Finally, the cast is pretty good. The heroine is the lovely Renee Estevez, who should be a bigger star. She's always super-likable, (most notably as Betty Finn in "Heathers"). The severely unstable Angela is brought to life by Bruce Springsteen's sister Pamela, and puts in a wonderful performance here.
I can't recommend parts one or three in the epic "Sleepaway Camp" saga, because they're pretty putrid, but part deux is a pretty good diversion from the standard cinematic defecation that's passed off as entertainment.
