Actors Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk have been longtime friends, and make their directorial debut on the slasher throwback Hell of a Summer. While it isn’t incompetent from a directorial standpoint, the writing of Hell of a Summer is so generic that it’s hard to admire the film — even for the love its filmmakers clearly have for the genre they are paying homage to.
The movie follows the counselors of a summer camp who find themselves under the attack of a masked killer. It’s a very straightforward slasher movie, and while one would almost expect the bare-bones nature of the premise to lend itself to a tongue-in-cheek satire of the genre’s tropes, Wolfhard and Bryk’s script is just another entry in the notoriously derivative genre.
Perhaps the biggest issue with the film’s script, though, is that the characters are so archetypal that viewers will never really care about their fate. The protagonist is likable enough, but we’re rooting for him for the same reason you root for every male horror movie hero: to survive, get the girl, and prove his bravery (or at least a lack of cowardice). As for the supporting players, they’re all as shallow as you could imagine.
Hell of a Summer is an homage that loves classic slashers, but doesn’t understand what made them work
It’s a shame, because Wolfhard and Bryk have managed to assemble a genuinely good cast for their debut. The duo play supporting roles themselves, but it is Fred Hechinger who takes the lead, and he’s endlessly charming and likable. The supporting cast also features turns from Abby Quinn (Knock at the Cabin), D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs), and more, all of whom are quite likable and feel perfectly cast.
There’s an interesting subplot in the movie about the protagonist being too old to be a counselor at the summer camp, but instead of turning this into an interesting commentary on arrested development, it’s just used as an “I wasn’t even supposed to be here!” excuse. The film is also full of the type of Gen Z humor that thinks it’s a lot smarter than it is (not that you’d expect any less from this group).
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The movie makes a fatal flaw in revealing its twist way too early. This feels like an attempt to subvert expectations and turn the film into a deeper commentary, but it massively backfires. Instead, when combined with the fact that viewers won’t care about the characters, it simply means that there’s little reason to stay invested in the story for the final act.
Ultimately, this is the type of throwback that is all style and no soul. Wolfhard and Bryk clearly have an admiration for the slasher movies of the ‘80s, but they seem to be content with making something that is a superficial carbon copy of the genre, rather than a movie that genuinely has the thrills that made slasher movies fun in the first place. Like Stranger Things, which gave Wolfhard his breakout, Hell of a Summer is technically competent, but gets too caught up in the aesthetic to work on any more substantial level.
Hell of a Summer offers absolutely no surprises, and ruins its chance at a satisfying twist by revealing its hand too early. You can tell that Wolfhard and Bryk had a great time making this movie, but that doesn’t translate into a particularly rewarding or entertaining experience for the audience when what they have created is so overwhelmingly generic.
Hell of a Summer screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, which ran September 7-17 in Toronto, Canada.
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Rating: 3/10
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