Cruel Summer

Normally, I don't believe it when others claim that the positive reviews for a movie were written by people involved with the movie. For this movie, however, it is blatantly obvious. Seriously, one of the actors from the film, Will Horton, even admits on his page that he is in the movie and claims his performance is a breakout "performance."

This movie plays like something you would expect to be put together by someone with a camcorder and his friends from high school. The production value is low but sometimes that could be overcome with a good script and good actors. Unfortunately, this movie has none of those things.

Avoid this really bad film.

Trying to host a special party, a teen and her friends decide to hold a special 80s-themed party to help themselves prepare for their final year in school together, but when they try to carry out the party they find that a savage serial killer has crashed the party and must stop his rampage.

Overall, this was a rather enjoyable slasher throwback. One of the better elements here is the solid setup that puts this one completely in that realm of a genre throwback while still being a fun feature on its own. The wholly generic and familiar setup of the girl trying to throw a special party to celebrate their times together before school ends and getting caught up in the crosshairs of a vicious killer is a wholly worthwhile type of throwback feature in this scenario. The whole idea of the party taking place as a throwback 80s-style party with everyone dressing up, wearing clothing, and overall honoring the decade is a fantastic means of continuing that set up, and with everything furthered by the supposed prank and the naming of everyone involved it makes his work quite nicely. This works rather nicely with the strong series of stalking scenes here that come off rather nicely. Running the gamut from the familiar indie-style setups involving the killer taking out random strangers who are there solely for the body count such as the student on the road by his car, the stranded couple hitchhiking through the woods, or the nosey next-door neighbor that are based on the straightforward shock ambush feature that is countered nicely by the more impressive action scenes that occur once they start the game. This leads into the big finale where the truth about the killer is revealed and brings about some rather fun sequences where the chasing around the house leads into some fine brawls involving the threatening figures and remaining victims that have some great gore involved to have some positive points. There are some issues here that bring this one down overall. The main issue here is that this one spends so much time on the girls and their exploits at the house setting up for the party that it's hard to keep track of the rest of the cast at times. There's a real chance that the guys along with them are so interchangeable that they don't even register their names at points as you forget they're on the trip with everyone, making their panic at the disappearing bodies come off awkwardly with little context for why they would care. The other factor with this one is the inherently stupid final resolution of the killers which contradicts itself on several occasions, has way too many twists to keep track of in a short period, and rushes through everything so it just comes off as comical with how everything plays out, ending this on a sour note at the wrong moment to bring this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, and Brief Nudity.

You know a film is horrible when the actors in it rate it a 10 and write a stellar review, comparing it to Devil's Rejects. How pathetic. So embarrassing, actually. Do not trust these 10 star reviews. Look at the history of the people reviewing it. That says a lot when this is the only thing they've ever reviewed. This thing stinks and you will do well to stay clear of it.

I love campy, cheesy horror movies but this one looks like it was directed by a middle school kid in 2004. No idea how it has so many 10/10 reviews. I couldn't make it past the 20 minute mark if I'm being honest so if you're looking for a plot review, oops. Acting was so corny. Some movies suck and you fall asleep, this one was so bad it couldn't put me to sleep.

Thinking of how to find 600 words to describe such a pile of junk will be a challenge. Very disappointed in HorrorPack this month for featuring this movie.

You might enjoy this movie if you're really high or a fan of Bill Zebub films (Antfarm Dickhole anyone?)

Sorry Scott Tepperman but this was a major swing and miss for me.

They had four dollars and a dream. This is by far one of the worst movies I've ever watched. The acting is beyond cringe. The movie script had to have been written by someone who has never seen a slasher film. I literally only created an account to offer feedback to others to not watch this TERRIBLE movie. You would easily get more scared and get a better script by going through a McDonald's drive thru. I will always support budget movies but this one should have never been made. I know moving forward if I see this directors name to immediately click out and ignore. I'm sad I wasted over an hour of my life on this when I could have stared at a wall and had more enjoyment. But I mean they did their best with $4.