Hell of a Summer is the directorial debut form actors, Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard. Finn Wolfhard known for Stranger Things and It, Billy Bryk known for small roles in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Saturday Night. Starting off I have a bias for camp slashers as that’s what got me into horror movies with the original Friday the 13th. So, seeing the trailer and who was directing really got me excited to see this movie, probably because I was needing a new camp slasher.
Anyway, Hell of a Summer is about teen (and a 24-year-old) camp counselors the day before camp opens having a fun time until they find out that a killer is there with them. This is a comedic horror movie, and you can feel that right away with this movie. The movie is about 85% comedy and 15% horror, so while the marketing showed it being about 50/50 it didn’t turn out to be that… but I’m not complaining.
Starting with the positives, EVERY CHARACTER is a lot of fun, and I loved them all. I thought every character had a fun personality and every actor/actress did really well in their roles. I specifically really enjoyed Billy Bryk (Bobby), Finn Wolfhard (Chris), Abby Quinn (Claire), Krista Nazaire (Shannon) and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Mike). A lot of the comedy was great and felt natural, there were a few moments where it felt forced but I’m leaning positive on the comedy because more times than not I found myself laughing. I also thought the reveal of the killer was done very creatively especially sense the who done it element really feels overdone.
With the negatives because I am not mixed on anything, I thought the kills were done horribly. I would’ve enjoyed seeing some camp themed kills but every kill in this movie could’ve been from any setting, such as a suburban area. A SMALL SPOILER but while yes there are kills in this movie, no one gets killed on screen and when you say your movie is a slasher, everyone is going to expect some cool kills. This could’ve done without the horror parts of this movie, but to a certain extent I’m happy they added it.
Overall, this is a good debut movie. While it could’ve used more horror, this movie was pretty funny, and I would recommend it. I’ll give it a 3.5/5 as this movie was entertaining. It’s not great but it was good.
