Director: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard
Cast: Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai, Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard, Pardis Saremi, Rosebud Baker, Adam Pally
Screenplay: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard
85 mins. Rated R for horror violence, language throughout, and some sexual references.

The camp slasher has become a significant part of our collective culture, especially for American horror audiences. I didn’t care much for camp as a kid, and maybe this calls back to our hatred of the past time. Actors-turned-directors Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard have teamed up for a Next Gen take on the camp slasher with Hell of a Summer, a movie that takes the same style of generational prodding as Bodies Bodies Bodies to lesser success.

Jason Hochberg (Fred Hechinger, Gladiator II) is returning to Camp Pineway for another year as camp counselor, though as a man in his mid-20s, he’s been repeatedly mocked for not growing up and doing something with his life. When he learns that an unfortunate “emergency” has left him without the camp owners (they were murdered the night before, unbeknownst to the counselors), Jason now has to keep the counselors on task and safe, though a serial killer with a devil mask has other plans.

Having met on the set of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Bryk and Wolfhard realized that they share a lot of commonalities in their love of film, and they decided to craft a summertime camp slasher. COVID-19 and financing difficulties made for a delayed start and a long road to the cinemas, but I applaud the two directors for embracing their vision.

When the film is operating as its best, it’s akin to Bodies Bodies Bodies, intentionally mocking the current generational response to a horror scenario and mining it for comedy. Unfortunately, it gets lost in its search for a tone, never fully committing to horror or comedy, and missing the mark in its scathing depiction of cross-generational interpersonal relationships. It’s watchable, but there’s something that doesn’t quite click together.

The plot and mystery of the slasher is put together rather nicely. It’s a more layered story than I had anticipated and, upon learning new information, I was able to look back earlier in the film to a few moments that had set events in motion. While it isn’t revelatory in its depiction of the summer camp slasher, it had me guessing more than I had expected.

Hechinger is becoming the king of whiny lead characters, and I mean that with all respect. He’s not been afraid to play schlubby losers with a heart of gold (or completely maniacal rules as in Gladiator II), and I applaud his challenging characters for being far more enigmatic than the initial description would have one believe. Hechinger is fun, and while I like to see performers stretching out, he’s certainly carved a niche that he’s been able to mine in some pretty interesting roles.

Hell of a Summer can’t decide how to juggle its horror and comedy balance, and it ends up feeling a bit unsatisfactory as either. I love the idea of a camp slasher eschewing the ideals of the subgenre with a talented cast of younger performers who weren’t around for the heyday of this type of film, but I don’t think the movie drives hard enough toward honoring those films or distinguishing itself from them.

2½/5
-Kyle A. Goethe