Hell of a Summer: A Bland Retread of a Familiar Formula (DVD)

The Film:

As I've said time and time again, horror is perhaps the most difficult genre to do anything the least bit original in, which is exactly why some writers & directors don't even try. Instead, some will simply try to copy something that's already been done, leading to some projects that are just complete ripoffs, though at least some filmmakers will refer to it as an homage. We've seen this happen a lot in the past, particularly back during the slasher craze of the '80s, which was sparked by the massive success of John Carpenter's masterpiece "Halloween."

Nowadays, it's no different, which brings us to Billy Brik & Finn Wolfhard's "Hell of a Summer," a slasher outing that makes no secret of what popular franchise it's trying to be like as we watch camp counselors get murdered by a mysterious killer. The interesting thing is, even when a film is blatantly copying another or using its exact same formula, there's still room in there to at least try doing something a little different with it. The question becomes, will these first time writers & directors attempt to give us any kind of variations within the confines of the formula, or will this simply be a bland retread of something we've already seen dozens of times before?

The film opens with the brutal murder of Camp Pineway Owners John and Kathy by a masked assailant in a devil mask. A short time later, a group of camp counselors arrive to prep the place for opening, including 24-year-old Jason Hochberg (Fred Hechinger), who has attended the camp several times and now appears to be in temporary command after finding a note about an emergency from John & Kathy. Other counselors include Demi (Pardis Saremi), a social media influencer, Ezra (Matthew Finlan), a theater kid, friends Chris (Finn Wolfhard) and Bobby (Billy Bryk), and Jason's ex-girlfriend Claire (Abby Quinn).

Later that night, Jason, who is having second thoughts about returning to the camp, finds Demi murdered in her cabin and immediately raises the alarm. After it's confirmed by the others, everyone panics and tries to flee, only to find that their cars have been sabotaged & their phones stolen, leaving them stuck far from help, with a killer on the loose that's far from finished.

As mentioned, copying or attempting to pay homage to a rather cliched formula is not necessarily a bad thing because there are some filmmakers who like to take that opportunity to do something a little different than what audiences have seen before. Take for instance Drew Goddard's "The Cabin in the Woods," a film that takes a very familiar set-up and turns it completely on its head to deliver a fascinating meta experience that gives us something rather new and unexpected. So, with that in mind, when someone comes along with something that looks like a blatant "Friday the 13th" ripoff, you shouldn't dismiss it right off the bat because you never know how the filmmakers are going to use the oh-so-familiar scenario.

Unfortunately, when it comes to "Hell of a Summer," writers/directors Billy Bryk & Finn Wolfhard opt not to do anything different with the standard camp slasher whatsoever. They have thinly-drawn characters show up at a camp, have several of them get murdered one by one, and then casually reveal who's been doing the killing without any particular fanfare (complete with a rather lazy reason behind the entire ordeal). Wanting to pay homage to classic slashers is one thing, but putting one together in as perfunctory a manner as this just makes it feel as though the filmmakers were being somewhat lazy copycats with no real inspiration behind it.

There was certainly potential here. Even if they weren't going to try and do something different with the formula, they could've at least tried to make it a little more fun & exciting, but the beats are so overly-familiar, especially to horror fans, that it doesn't even have much of a chance to do that. To be fair, this is Bryk & Wolfhard's first attempt at a feature film, and it definitely feels that way. It feels like a first attempt in which they set out to prove they could make a movie in the first place, but one where the writing was sadly left behind as an afterthought. If they do try again, hopefully they'll put a little more effort into that most important aspect. That way, they'll end up with something a little more memorable, instead of something that just comes across as a cheap copy.

Video/Audio:

"Hell of a Summer" comes to DVD in a 1.85:1 transfer of mostly decent quality. The image is a little hazy throughout the brief 88 minutes, which is to be expected of the format, but it's still quite watchable. As far as the audio goes, the 5.1 Dolby Digital track is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in excellent quality. Overall, taking into consideration that this is a DVD, NEON has done a pretty good job in both areas for the release.

Special Features:

Feature Commentary with Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard, and Fred Hechinger

Fireside Chat (3 Minutes): A very brief featurette that has the cast discussing the film.

Pineway Bus Tour (19 Minutes): A behind the scenes featurette of some of the cast on the press tour.

Blooper Reel (7 Minutes)

Conclusion:

Billy Bryk & Finn Wolfhard's "Hell of a Summer" had the potential to do something a little different with the standard camp slasher formula, but sadly they opted to give us a rather bland copycat outing instead, following very familiar beats and making no major attempts to deviate from what audiences have already seen many times before, ultimately turning their debut feature into an unfortunate & forgettable retread.

Score: 2.5/5

Now available on DVD.

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