Hell of a Summer

Directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, Hell of a Summer follows a group of camp counselors, including Wolfhard’s Chris and Abby Quinn’s Claire, as they’re forced to fend for their lives after a masked killer arrives on the scene. First-time filmmakers Wolfhard and Bryk, armed with their own screenplay, admittedly do an effective job of immediately luring the viewer into the progressively interminable proceedings, as Hell of a Summer kicks off with a fun, Scream-like opening detailing the fate of the aforementioned camp’s head counselors – with the promising vibe persisting through an affable-enough first act that effectively introduces the movie’s familiar yet agreeable protagonists. (Fred Hechinger, cast as the perpetually put-upon Jason, is especially entertaining here.) It’s clear, then, that Hell of a Summer‘s downfall is due to a meandering midsection devoid of compelling attributes, as Wolfhard and Bryk load the proceedings with one tiresome, hackneyed digression after another – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by a frustrating lack of gore and an emphasis on eye-rollingly lackluster instances of comedy. By the time the dimly-lit climactic stretch rolls around, which seems to consist solely of scene after scene of characters skulking in the dark, Hell of a Summer has confirmed its place as a throughly disagreeable slasher throwback that fares far, far worse than its various progenitors.

*1/2 out of ****