HELL OF A SUMMER - Mark Reviews Movies

Hell of a Summer, Neon

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 3, 2025

The characters in Hell of a Summer exist somewhere between knowing they're in a horror movie and not really caring that they are. That puts the debut feature of co-writers/co-directors Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard squarely in the territory of comedy. There's certainly potential humor to be mined from characters in such a dire situation who are aware of exactly how they're in danger, while also coming across as if they have more pressing issues than imminent murder about which to worry.

Some of that comedy does come across and succeed here, as Bryk and Wolfhard's screenplay gives us an assortment of broad archetypes dealing with romantic entanglements, feelings of youthful uncertainty and ego, and trying to look cool to their peers. All the while, a masked killer is stalking the grounds of the summer camp where they have all assembled to be camp counselors for a group of campers who will be arriving in a couple of days. That fact might be pretty low on the list of concerns for these characters.

The whole affair, then, feels subversive in a general way, because the movie doesn't really have anything to say about the genre with which it's playing. That feels especially odd, considering that the filmmakers have chosen a premise that's a standard-issue one for a horror tale. They even name one of the characters Jason (Fred Hechinger), but apart from the idea that most of the counselors believe he must be the killer, there's no real acknowledgement that these characters are playing out a clichéd setup while they're in the middle of it. They don't even make the connection, for example, to the existence of an entire franchise that revolves around this exact setup and a masked murderer with the suspected counselor's name.

Maybe Bryk and Wolfhard thought such jokes would be too easy and obvious, and to be fair, they might have been correct if that was the case. It's difficult to buy, though, that these characters are somehow above or beyond the story in which they find themselves if they don't even know the basic type of story in which they are.

Instead, the movie kind of takes those personal concerns seriously at first. There is Jason, for example, who's 24 and still wants to be a camp counselor, despite the fact that his mother, who drives him to camp, and everyone around him think that's a little odd. He just loves the place, though, and would rather make a few hundred dollars each summer and live at home the rest of the year than find, you know, a more consistent, less seasonal, and better paying job anywhere else.

Jason arrives at Camp Pineway first, or at least, he's the first of the counselors to get there. Before that, we get the usual prologue, in which the camp's owners, played by Adam Pally and Rosebud Baker, are brutally killed. The violence on display here is relatively tame (apart from a jarring moment involving a character staring at where the killer might be, only to reveal that, given what's in her head, she's not looking at anything anymore). A lot of smash cuts suggest violence more than the movie actually shows it, and whether that's simple restraint on Bryk and Wolfhard's part or another sign that the filmmakers are trying to subvert our expectations remains an open question.

Unaware that the camp owners are dead and won't be coming to help them when things get hairy, the counselors just go about their usual business. Chris (Woflhard) has a crush on Shannon (Krista Nazaire), who also likes him, while Jason and Claire (Abby Quinn) have some awkward chemistry between them.

Mike (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) and Demi (Pardis Saremi) are the generic attractive couple, and Bobby (Bryk), Chris' best friend, is desperate to make some connection with any of the young women at camp. Suggesting but not really adding more self-awareness in the material, we also meet aspiring screenwriter Ari (Daniel Gravelle), who's currently writing a horror movie, and lifelong theater aficionado Ezra (Matthew Finlan), who's very proud of himself for getting to say the phone lines have been cut when the group realizes there is a killer in their midst.

The basic plot here is entirely predictable stuff. The killer—or maybe killers—picks off counselors one at a time, usually off-screen, and the survivors keep making worse and worse decisions about how to escape or stop the murderer. There are enough jokes and attempts at humor to know not to take the mystery or the horror itself too seriously, which is a very good thing when the characters are as oblivious, apathetic, or downright dumb—such as Bobby almost wanting to be killed out of belief the murderer is slaughtering only the attractive members of the group—as they are in this story.

It's all so barebones, though—in terms of the jokes, the horror elements, the characters, and even the social critique that comes with the revelation of the killer(s). Hell of a Summer is an amusing concept for a satirical horror tale that, unfortunately, barely goes further than a concept.

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