Hell of a Summer is a 2025 horror-comedy film distributed by Neon Pictures, written and directed by Finn Wolfhard & Billy Bryk, and starring them, alongside Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, Kristie Nazarie, and Matthew Finlan. This movie is a silly, summer camp slasher film that dabbles just as much in the genre of coming-of-age comedies. I quite enjoyed it for that honestly, I laughed out loud a few times throughout this movie, but I feel like I should preface this review with that because I know horror fans who went to this hoping for more of a gory slasher flick and left disappointed. I didn’t get to catch this one on theaters unfortunately, I wanted to, but I was busy I guess when it first came out and it kind of came and went in its theatrical release. This felt like the perfect time of year to view it though anyways, everyone has just got out of school and June is right around the corner so it’s a great time for the summer camp slashers!
It’s wild to me that Finn and Billy wrote, directed, and starred in this movie considering both of these guys are just so young, Billy 25 and Finn 22. They actually wrote it earlier than that, they wrote the script together after bonding on the set of Ghostbusters: Afterlife but had a hard time selling it to a studio because Finn was only like 19 at the time. I feel like that deserves some kudos in itself honestly, these dudes had the idea and went after it immediately, and in my mind, they pretty much delivered as well. I don’t have a whole lot to complain about with this movie, it’s a short and fun ride, a 90-minute funny and at times bloody, easily digestible film. The characters were cliched, but they were actual characters that we spent time with and got to know because this movie played out more like a campy comedy with some slasher kills in the backdrop. Fred Hechinger played Jason who was our sympathetic lead, well he had my sympathy at least. He was the older, innocent but aimless outcast that wanted to be seen as leader to a group of uncaring teen counselors. Abby Quinn played Claire, the badass, kind of cynical outcast girl who didn’t vibe with anyone in the group besides the other outcast Jason. Finn Wolfhard and Krista Nazarie played Chris and Shannon, the young, dumb, and mad about each other couple. Matthew Finlan and Billy Bryk stole the show for me though. Finlan played a pompous, queer theater kid named Ezra who made me laugh several times throughout the movie. Bryk played the douchey kid named Bobby who wanted so bad to be seen as a ladies’ man and a badass but just tried way too hard and he cracked me up multiple times.
I settled into what this movie was and had a whole lot of fun with it. Enough praise though, right? Kidding, but on a real note. That’s not to say this movie isn’t without its flaws though, it won’t be for everyone, you have to kind of know what you’re going into. It’s a young cast with a young writer and director so there is a lot of “Gen-Z humor” if you will, but I found the majority of the humor in this movie pretty damn funny still, even if at times it was eye rolling chuckles. To the horror fans who haven’t seen this yet but are interested, just know this isn’t a creepy summer camp slasher movie at like any point. It’s a summer camp slasher sure, but that’s more so the backdrop to the movie, the setting of the film. There are kills, a couple scenes of some pretty good blood and gore, but a decent amount of the kills are off screen and there’s no real sense of terror or fear throughout the movie. All that said, I had a wonderful time with this movie. It’s like Scream meets Sleepaway Camp meets Dazed & Confused or something to that effect and it’s a great summer watch. It’s available to rent on Prime right now for a discount if you are wanting to check it out or if you wait, I’m sure in due time it will drop on a streaming service.
That’s all for this one. Till next time, be good to each other out there and have a great week!
