Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988): C+

Gender-confused Angela is back and crazier than ever in Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers, a sequel that finds the murderous androgyne taking a counselor job at Camp Rolling Hills after having undergone snip-snip sex change surgery to become a real woman. It’s the perfect summer gig for the guitar-strumming, camp song-singing psycho, whose bunk is brimming with horny teenage girls in need of a good stabbing, strangling or beheading. If Robert Hiltzik’s original was primarily concerned with identity, Michael A. Simpson’s more straightforward sequel is a conservative ode to sexual Puritanism, as Angela primarily punishes those driven by carnal desires. The film is far too pleased with its self-referential pose – nods to Freddy and Jason are wink-wink reminders that we’re watching a traditional slasher movie – but Pamela Springsteen’s jovial performance as Angela has a tongue-in-cheek cheeriness that amplifies the outlandishness of her increasingly elaborate murders. Never scary but frequently funny, it’s a follow-up that delivers more gore, more T&A, and more humor than its predecessor. And after Angela’s dispatching of always-nude hussy Ally (Valerie Hartman), you’ll never look at an outhouse the same way again.