‘Hell of a Summer’ is a diluted slasher comedy that’s light on gory murders, but finds humour in the classic horror archetypes.
Slasher movies had their heyday in the 1980s, but the horror subgenre is still getting some solid new entries each year. Even though their cliché to the extent that they generally take place in the same locations and everyone knows the rules of survival, they can still be very entertaining. After all, some attractive teens, a few good lines, a couple creative murders and a killer with motive can go a long way in making a good stab fest. Hell of a Summer is the latest offering, taking down camp counsellors before they even get to the group activities.
Jason (Fred Hechinger) is back for another summer at Camp Pineway, though most thought he’d finally stopped returning and moved onto adulthood. As all the counsellors arrive — old and new — Jason appoints himself leader when the owners are delayed. His love for summer camp is unmatched, which doesn’t make him very popular amongst the others. But when their first night of bonding by the fire is interrupted by the discovery of a dead body, they need to figure out how to survive the night. Things escalate quickly with pointed fingers and talk of torturing their prime suspect to get a confession, but each time they get separated someone doesn’t come back.
Written and directed by young up-and-comers and genre throwback veterans Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, it’s clear this movie was generated by genre fans who also appreciate horror comedy. It incorporates a lot of the slasher clichés, as well as nods to some of the classics. As the campers play whodunit, their list of suspects proves very short, leaving audiences to make their own decisions about who might be the killer. In the meantime, the creative duo also appear in front of the camera as horny best friends and first-year counsellors with Wolfhard portraying the nice guy, and Bryk playing his obnoxious friend trying to be one of the popular kids and failing miserably.
The film airs on the side of humour rather than trying to produce good scares. The kills aren’t memorable as most of them occur off-camera with only a few real special effects moments. But they do put some thought into how the killer appears on screen before taking their next victim, which effectively adds to the inherently eerie atmosphere. The characters, who each have distinct personalities that reflect some horror archetype, are introduced just enough to allow audiences to choose their favourites before they start being picked off. Those that remain carry the movie well, playing their stereotypical personas just over-the-top enough to be amusingly self-reflexive but not annoying.
Hell of a Summer had its world premiere in the Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Directors: Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard
Starring: Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn and Matthew Finlan
