When I walked into work today, I couldn’t believe what I saw sitting on my desk: a copy of “Return to Sleepaway Camp.” (Out on DVD by Magnolia Pictures Nov. 4) I’d known for awhile they were making another sequel to the 1983 slasher flick, but to see it in the flesh with the names of three of the original cast members — Felissa Rose (Angela), Paul DeAngelo (Ronnie) and Jonathan Tiersten (Ricky) on the release — made me start grinning. (That and the fact that in weird casting world, Vincent Pastore of “The Sopranos” and Isaac Hayes are in it.)

If you haven’t seen the 1983 “Sleepaway Camp,” and you’re a fan of horror movies, you need to rent it. I didn’t watch the original until years after it came out, when I was in college. But it was a movie I’d known since a kid — when I would admire the cover of the gym shoe pierced by a butcher knife while strolling the aisles of Blockbuster. So, finally, one day in college around Halloween, I decided it was time to watch it and sat down with three friends.

“Sleepaway Camp” is about a shy, awkward girl named Angela whose parents are dead and who lives with her Aunt Martha (Desiree Gould) and her cousin, Ricky. The aunt sends the two cousins off to Camp Arawak, where Angela’s weirdness gets her teased. But soon some of the nastier camp counselors and staff end up drying in gruesome ways. It might all sound like standard slasher fare, but there are couple of strange things awaiting: Trippy flashback scenes and then….the ending. I still remember the look on the faces of my friends (and my own dropped jaw) when Angela’s “little secret” was revealed.

Original writer/director Robert Hiltzik’s story follows a return to camp where the kids as usual torment each other and the counselors pay little attention. Greedy camp owner Frank and junior partner Ronnie try to keep everyone in line, but something sinister is about to put a slash in the camp activity roster. When campers and staff start disappearing, and ending up dead, paranoid Ronnie can’t shake the memory of the grisly murders that took place at Camp Arawak two decades earlier.

This is the first sequel that will stay true to the original story. The other sequels, “Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers” (1988) and “Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland” (1989) were not done by Hiltzik, but they kept some of the same characters. Angel Baker, though, was played by a different actress, Pamela Springsteen (sister of Bruce).

So obviously I haven’t watched “Return to Sleepaway Camp” yet, but once I do, I’ll be back with a review. Hiltzik also reportedly will release “Sleepaway Camp Reunion” in 2010, which will bring back Angela’s Aunt Martha.

Source: http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/entertainment/2008/10/october_horror_movie_picks_ret.html