‘Hell of a Summer' Review: Shallow Cuts
Setting a slasher at a summer camp is sort of like wearing sandals with socks: There's no law against it, but you'd better know what you're doing. A wry throwback horror movie like 'Hell of a Summer,' blatantly indebted to cabin-strewn '80s classics like 'Sleepaway Camp' and 'Friday the 13th,' screams for the confident guidance of a filmmaker enamored with the genre — someone like Eli Roth, say, whose grindhouse tribute 'Thanksgiving' exuded affection for old-school slashers in its every gout of blood.
Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, the writers, directors and stars of 'Hell of a Summer,' take a more conservative, and therefore more boring, approach to their horror homage. A largely forgettable cast of teens and 20-somethings hang around Camp Pineway cracking irreverent, Marvel-style quips as they wait to be butchered by a knife-wielding maniac, whose kills lack both the cruelty and inventiveness of even the most run-of-the-mill slashers of the genre's heyday. There's a coming-of-age angle involving Jason (Fred Hechinger), a 24-year-old counselor struggling to grow up, but it's vague and noncommittal, straining for something to say.
Wolfhard and Bryk don't relish violence or gore: 'Hell of a Summer' is surprisingly tame, with most of its kills kept tastefully offscreen. In the second act, an annoying teen with a peanut allergy comes face to face with the killer, who brandishes a jar of peanut butter menacingly — a perfect opportunity for a bit of gnarly comeuppance, except that the filmmakers cut away. It shows a fatal lack of conviction at a moment that requires slasher-loving brass. Where's the fun in that?
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