Hell of a Summer

It's not a slasher or horror movie, but it's not boring either. There were some funny moments, but that's about it. But it's definitely a great start for Finn as a filmmaker. It didn't give me what i wanted it to give me. I spend hall of the movie writing this review because i just wanted the movie to finish quicker. The story is a very simple one but it's about as generic as they come. I would skip this one. Don't call a movie SLASHER if you are not going to show the killing happening. It was a waste of my time. All together it was more of something for a streaming network rather than for the theaters.

Hell of a Summer wants to be Scream meets Sleepaway Camp, but ends up feeling like the pilot of a slasher show too scared to kill off its cast. The characters are cartoonishly dumb, the kills are mostly offscreen, and the gore is weirdly tasteful for something clearly inspired by '80s splatter.

There are a few fun editing choices-some clever transitions, a grill-sizzle jump scare-but the film leans too hard on its actors' charm and not enough on actual suspense or style. The killer reveal is predictable, the comedy's uneven, and the whole thing feels too safe to be a parody and too shallow to be satire.

Compared to recent slashers like In a Violent Nature or Heart Eyes, this one's just stuck in neutral. Not terrible, just a bit of a shrug.

Is it horror? No, not even remotely scary. Slasher? Nope, deaths are mild and most of the time off screen. Maybe it's funny? Fail. Dialogue and jokes were cheesy and amateurish. Even the characters were unlikeable. No personality, character development or growth. It was just bad all over. I was hoping for, at least, a funny slasher... but again... deaths were off screen and lacked creativity. And while the music was good, it made no sense. It had an 80s retro sound, but the movie took place in modern times since they all turn in cell phones. Nothing about this movie was good, it made 0 sense and had a cliche plot twist that's been done 100 times.

I saw the trailer for this film some months ago and it looked pretty good. As the horror fanatic I am, when I noticed that this film was out, I went ahead and watched it... It was not good at all.

The plot is the most generic thing that you can think off, a slasher in a camping in the middle of the woods. It also decided to throw away some Scream elements in there, which wasn't ideal, only making the film more predictable. The deaths are extremely bad and lack any sort of creativity. Also, for some reason, every one of them except two or three including the opening sequence are off screen. I mean, if you are going to make a bad slasher film, at least try to have some good kills, if not, it loses a lot.

The humor is flat, and the ending is predictable too. There's just nothing going for this, don't watch it.

The plot of the film is messy and uninspired. Most of the humor in the movie fell flat to me and it doesn't balance comedy and horror much at all. The story could've been told in thirty minutes if you cut out all the random running scenes where they go pretty much nowhere. The villain's costume was cool and some of the kills delivered but most of it was a canoe to nowhere. I still have to give credit to Finn for directing a theatrical release film at 22 years old but I just hope to see him evolve as a filmmaker and try on some different hats when it comes to storytelling. Honestly wait for this on streaming if you really want to see it.