Hell of a
  Summer 

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review:JA Kerswell

Sadly, just like the fast food a character chucks into the woods, HELL OF A SUMMER is something of a nothing burger. Despite being set in the present day, the setup is classic ‘80s: teenage counsellors head to a remote summer camp for orientation before the kids arrive, and start getting picked off one by one by someone in a devil mask. It looks great, but tonally, it is all over the place. The humour is often cute rather than laugh-out-loud funny; it can’t decide if it’s a gore movie or not, and ruinously it spends too much time on interactions between the counsellors over suspense and mystery.
 
Jason (Fred Hechinger) is only 24 years old, but he’s a veritable dinosaur as a returning counsellor to Camp Pineway for the summer. Affable, but bumbling and nerdy, he is the kind of person who doesn’t make much of an impression on many of the other returning counsellors, apart from a couple who remember him swearing never to return after last summer. All the other counsellors—like their slasher brethren before them—largely conform to one-note teenage stereotypes. From the Goth girl who claims she’s clairvoyant to the horny teenage boy who hungrily pursues the girls. However, as it’s set in the present day, it adds in a narcissistic Instagrammer, a theatre kid, a fake vegan and a guy with a nut allergy (which admittedly leads up to a unique death scene when the killer puts a knife in a jar of peanut butter, albeit off-screen). 

Perhaps suggesting where the makers of HELL OF A SUMMER's heads were at, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you were watching a Gen Z version of MEATBALLS (1979) for its first half (or, perhaps, more likely inspired by WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (2001) and its recent small screen spinoffs). Although the movie opens with a great double murder scene (of the head counsellors by a moonlit lakeside), the film settles into what feels like an interminable meet-and-greet of its extensive cast. This section is breezy and the young cast are likeable enough, but any hope that the film will match the wit, the heart and intrinsic understanding of the subgenre of THE FINAL GIRLS (2015) quickly evaporates. Unlike that film, HELL OF A SUMMER sidelines any real slasher action until it manages to generate some suspense in its middle section before its largely fumbled conclusion, where everyone is still cracking jokes even after the first bodies have been found. That wouldn’t be a problem for a horror comedy if the jokes landed, but too many face-plant quicker than a disco bunny being chased through the woods by Jason Voorhees.
 
The film throws up a few novel touches, such as the scene where the character consults a Ouija board to ask victims who the killer is. However, it never feels fully developed. Its uneven approach to the material is evidenced by its inconsistent use of violence. Many of the deaths are off-screen to begin with, but there are also instances of splashy gore, including a particularly messy axe to the head. Worse, however, is its damp squib of the killer's (or killers’) motivation and reveal, which has simply been lifted from one of the SCREAM films—and isn’t carried through with enough gusto to be convincing, even in a campy way.
 
HELL OF A SUMMER was co-written and co-directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, who play best friends Chris and Bobby, respectively, in the film. Wolfhard, of course, is probably best known for the '80s-set sci-fi/horror phenomenon STRANGER THINGS, which possibly explains how he was able to secure a $3 million budget, and the film looks as good as it does. Not surprisingly, it leans into a similar aesthetic feel as the TV show (albeit without the occasional frisson of genuine menace of that series). To be fair, humour is, of course, subjective. Perhaps a Gen Z audience will be more in tune with the film’s sensibilities. However, given that the movie wrapped in late summer 2022 and didn’t get a theatrical release until 2025 it suggests that its eclectic take on the slasher comedy made it a tough sell to distributors despite the presence of Wolfhard.
 
I don’t want to be too hard on the movie. As I said, it looks great and captures the feel of retro summer camp better than any recent film I can think of. Some of the humour works and the young cast are in fine form, but unlike the best of horror comedies, it doesn’t balance the laughs (or lack of) with genuine suspense and horror in the way that, say, the best of the SCREAM series does. 

BODY COUNT 10: 
Female 5 / Male 5

1. Male found with a guitar neck pushed into his face
2. Female has machete stabbed into the back of her head
3. Female killed (method unseen)
4. Female killed with cleaver and later found decapitated
5. Male killed (method unseen)
6. Male killed (method unseen)
7. Female stabbed in the back and hit over the head with a rock
8. Male whacked in the head with an axe
9. Male is stabbed in the neck with a penknife
10. Female shot through the eye with an arrow
11. Male is garotted
12. Male is stabbed to death
13. Male has his tongue pulled out of neck wound
14. Male is stabbed in the back
15. Female is stabbed repeatedly in the back
16. Female is hit in the stomach with a battle axe

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