I realized this the other day. It turned out that the next movie review I was going to write would be my 2700th review on this site. I did write several years of reviews before EYG moved to Word Press, but those are gone into the recesses of the internet.
What would be the 2700th review on EYG? Yes, it was Hell of a Summer, the new film written and directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk.
Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things was one of the few actors I recognized from the movie (although, there was also Fred Hechinger who was just in Kraven the Hunter).
A group of counselors go to Camp Pineway to prepare for summer camp and to discover that a masked killer was knocking them off.
Now this is not an original concept for a slasher movie. Plenty of them are set at a summer camp. However, this felt kind of like a bit of a satire of those movies as there was a lot of humor etched in the situation.
Yes, none of the characters were very well developed, but, again, you can say that in any of the slasher movies, and much of that was played for laughs.
The film was paced well and never slacked off. There were some funny bits and some characters who you really were cheering to get killed by the killer, especially Bobby (Billy Bryk). The story was simple and straightforward and checked all the boxes you would need for a slasher flick. Was it great? No, but it was an enjoyable enough film to pass the time on a Saturday afternoon.
3.2 stars