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Hell of a Summer is a Hell of a Good Time
Words by Emma A. Walker
The talented young actors, Finn Wolfhard (22) and Billy Bryk (25) have made their feature directorial debut with, Hell of a Summer. And we can assure you it's a Hell of a good time. The directing/writing duo also star in the film alongside mostly fresh faces, and the loveable lead, Fred Hechinger (Gladiator II, Fear Street 1994) is the heart of the film. The logline reads, “When 24-year-old Jason Honchberg (Fred) arrives at counselor weekend at his beloved Camp Pineway, his biggest problem is feeling out of touch with his teenage co-workers. Little does he know; a masked killer has murdered camp owners John and Kathy and is preparing to strike again”.
The modern day slasher is built upon the foundation of classic films like Friday the 13th and Scream with familiar tropes but with an amplified element of comedy. Wolfhard and Bryk took on the challenge of creating a slasher set in the present day which introduces a few modern roadblocks 1 the iPhone problem and 2 portraying Gen Z in a way that doesn’t feel like a caricature. The camp setting took care of the “iphone problem” that ruins most classic horror “how do we get help” moments. And the portrayal of the generation feels more authentic than most modern portrayals allowing for the jokes poking fun at Gen Z to actually land. The horror aspects are well balanced by the comedy that immediately follows.
The film is currently sitting at 3.2 stars on letterboxd with mostly positive reviews with slasher fans having a lot of fun with the film. It’s not a movie that’s revolutionary by any means, but does it have to be? It’s a strong feature directorial debut for Wolfhard and Bryk, the two young passionate filmmakers created a funny, well paced, enjoyable slasher as an homage to their favorite fillms. In my opinion they did exactly what they set out to do, and its a fun watch.
Never Mind attended an early screening event in Atlanta, GA on March 28th at the historical Plaza Theatre presented by Neon films. The event included free t-shirts, camp pineway, friendship bracelets, patches, posters and more. The line for the event wrapped around the block so far that once at capacity there was still an ongoing line around the historic theatre. Truly showcasing the excitement and anticipation for this films release. The screening itself began with an introduction by Finn, Billy and Fred. Finn shared his admiration for the Plaza theatre saying “This is the last stop on the tour. We have been screening this all around the country and it means so much that we can screen this film especially here. It's a very special theatre for all of us. It’s my favorite theatre. Last year when I shot [Stranger Things 5] I lived here and went here every single week, so to be able to screen our film here is really incredible.” The screening that followed had the audience roaring with laughter and jumping at kills. Once the credits rolled the trio (Finn, Billy, Fred) came out for a Q&A.
When asked about the beginning of this journey, Billy shared “Finn and I met on a set [Ghostbusters: Afterlife] and we both loved all the same coming of age comedies. And we both wanted to make films and were writing. So we started off saying it would be great to write this ensemble teen comedy. Because we were on set and it felt like summer camp, because everyones staying at the same hotel and you’re getting to know each other. So we thought it would be fun to write a summer camp movie and if you’re writing a summer camp movie you might as well write a summer camp slasher movie. And then the other weird coincidence was that I had written a short film or more of a sketch about a camp slasher and there was a kill list and they found out the kill list was ranked hottest to least hot. Iit was sort of about the guy in the sketch being offended that he was still alive and that he was ranked so low. I told finn that and he was like “dude I wrote the exact same scene” and he had almost beat for beat the exact same idea for a sketch.” Finn then chimed in and said “I don’t know what that says about us that we both wrote that [laughs]” Billy concluded, “we were like that should be something we should do something with. And 6 years later here we are.”
Fred who plays the lead, counselor Jason shared his first impressions of the young duo stating “These guys they wrote the script and I read it and thought it was the funniest, and so beautiful and completely character driven coming of age comedy that was also a slasher horror movie. And we met and it was supposed to be a 45 minute meeting and suddenly it was 4 hours later. The first thing I felt when I met them was I wanted to make movies with these two. And we felt like we had known each other much longer than we had even though we had just met.”
Finn discussed how the film is more coming of age/comedy first and horror second. “When we started playing with it they [the coming of age comedy and horror genres] really started to form each other and playing off each other and sometimes the funniest stuff in the movie comes from the horror that was just before it. So yeah I guess it's talking kind of about both genres.” His favorite part ot film was the beginning of the film when the two characters Jason and Claire were meeting each other again for the first time he said, “It felt like when we did it it felt like the heart of the movie sort of and really established a great base for the movie which is just this really sweet coming of age romance.”
Lastly, the 3, shared their 4 favorite films Letterboxd style.
Billy: Bottle Rocket (1996), Terminator 2 (1991), Drive (2011), and Badlands (1973)
Finn: Zodiac (2007), Shaun of the Dead (2004), School of Rock (2003), Michael Clayton (2007)
Fred: Escape From New York (1981), Mickey and Nickey (1976), Network 1976), and Toy Story 2 (1999)
Be sure to go see Hell of a Summer in a theatre near you!
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