Hell of a Summer

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.

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.

It now makes more sense to me why it took until 2025 to release this 2023 movie. It's just not good. Below average in every category. End of review.

Fine, I'll say more. I normally enjoy the horror-comedy tone they were going for, but the comedic attempts at their best only made me smirk. The cast is extremely weak. The dialogue and story is as basic as it gets.

There is a decent opening scene with a cool kill. But then the kills are offscreen. Why? This is a slasher. I ended up quitting the movie after 45 minutes (about halfway through). But apparently most of the kills are offscreen. Just a baffling decision.

(1 viewing, 4/22/2025)

Hell of a Summer is a playful entry into the "camp slasher" genre, written and directed by Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard. Rather than leaning into the darker, grittier aspects of traditional slashers, this film feels more like a tongue-in-cheek homage-a lighthearted parody that embraces the tropes with full self-awareness. While some moments initially felt like weaknesses, they ultimately came across as intentional nods to genre clichés. It's not a horror film that takes itself too seriously, and that's part of its charm. Despite some of the criticism it's received, I had fun with it-and sometimes, that's all you need. Video review available on my YouTube channel.

This movie was sooo bad...the jokes were fIat. The story was bad/cheap...there were no onscreen kiIIs or gore...yes there was no gore or kiIIs...all offscreen with a couple or aftermaths and one onscreen kiII...easily could be PG without the cursing...the two best scenes are in the trailer...you are better off watching All five sleepaway camp movies...yes even the last two horrible sleepaway camp films made...also the kiIIer outfit is so bad...its like devil mask from Scream Queens...VERY BASIC....if you were expecting friday the 13th, the burning or sleepaway camp throwback...you will be sad...this was a comedy that should be on HULU...I saw Scream boat and even that awful super B movie was more entertaining than this...This movie simply does nothing at all except tell fIat jokes...out of the 100 jokes they told in this movie, onIy about 5 of them landed.