Hell of a Summer (2025) - Film Review

      Hell of a Summer, 2025.

      Written and Directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk.

      Starring Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk, Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, Krista Nazaire, Daniel Gravelle, Pardis Saremi, Julia Lalonde, Matthew Finlan, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Julia Doyle, Susan Coyne, Rosebud Baker, and Adam Pally.

      SYNOPSIS:

      When 24-year-old Jason Hochberg arrives for counselor weekend at his cherished Camp Pineway, his main concern is feeling disconnected from his teenage peers. Unbeknownst to him, a masked killer has slaughtered camp owners John and Kathy and is poised to strike again.

      Young writers, directors, and stars Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk clearly have a deep-rooted fondness for horror movies. Their directorial debut, Hell of a Summer, serves as a playful slasher comedy. However, merging comedy and horror isn't easy; even seasoned filmmakers have struggled with it. This film suffers from a similar fate, largely coming off as a 90-minute exercise in questionable subversion and deconstruction of the slasher genre, interspersed with a masked murder mystery and some half-hearted commentary on the unappreciated seriousness of camp counseling amid younger peers focused on partying and hooking up.

      Fred Hechinger’s Jason Hochberg represents one of those counselors, possibly aging out of the position but eager to return for another season despite having tearfully bid farewell to the role last year. Accompanying him to the camp is his mother (Susan Coyne), who wishes he would pursue a more conventional career. One might expect the younger counselors to admire Jason for his yearly enthusiasm, but they either look down on him or fail to recognize him at all—an especially humiliating reality since the two youngest counselors were once campers themselves.

      Upon his arrival, Jason is unable to locate the camp owners (cameos by Adam Pally and Rosebud Baker), which he interprets as a test to see if he is ready to take on a leadership role. Claire (Abby Quinn) is the only counselor who supports him, viewing the others as immature fools. Meanwhile, brief introductions to the other counselors reveal them to be more defined by a single trait than as fully fleshed characters.

      Chris (Finn Wolfhard) and Bobby (Billy Bryk) are eager to connect with either fellow counselors or older campers, joking that women are attracted to power. Shannon (Krista Nazaire) finds herself caught in the middle. Mike (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, who can be seen soon in Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s brutally immersive Warfare, with anticipation for that film possibly leading Neon to finally release this one after acquiring it a year and a half ago at Toronto without showcasing it at other festivals) boasts about defying authority and knocking out a police officer. Miley (Julia Doyle) is a clueless vegan. Ezra (Matthew Finlan) is a nerdy theater enthusiast who appears to be developing a gritty version of Pinocchio. Ari (Daniel Gravelle) suffers from social anxiety, panicking over everything, including his peanut butter allergies when others consume it. Demi (Pardis Saremi) is a self-absorbed beauty queen isolating herself from the group. Lastly, Noelle (Julia Lalonde) is a spiritual person who believes that using an Ouija board might be beneficial.

      After these characters are introduced—largely through humor—a couple of dead bodies surface, signaling that a killer is on the loose and that one among them could be responsible. Since the film positions Jason as the oddball, cinema conventions suggest it would be too predictable for him to be the killer. Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk seem to attempt to have fun with this dynamic, taking these shallow characters and having them reach absurd conclusions about Jason simply because he’s a few years older, peculiar, continuously returning, and was the one to discover the first body.

      However, the humor and character interactions are forgettable and lack engagement, except for one clever moment involving a theater stage with Ezra under stress. A few laughs arise from Bobby pretending to be vegan to impress Miley. In terms of the killings, they are disappointingly lacking in creativity and gore, with several simply consisting of basic stabbings, some occurring offscreen. The film also bluntly emphasizes the foolishness of the counselors, recycling the joke about Jason, who is obviously innocent, supposedly picking his victims based on attractiveness. Throughout all this, there are no genuinely scary moments.

      The most frustrating misstep is the identity of the killer, featuring one predictable aspect (a tired misdirection) and another that is less so. Without delving into specifics, the motives seem hastily organized to the point that they lack credibility. This creates a strain, diminishing the flicker's remaining excitement. Besides the genuine chemistry between