Hell of a Summer

"Hell of a Summer" is a clever tribute to summer camp movies.

Bryk and Wolfhard may like these kids too much to let them die or be imperiled in memorable ways, but they don’t like them enough to develop their personalities beyond tic-y, schticky gags.

There are no establishing shots, no gradual build of suspense. But then, there are also no jokes, and the methods used to kill these characters pack no ironic punch.

Even as it strives to be a “Friday the 13th” meets “Wet Hot American Summer” romp, it lacks the punch of either of these respective genre classics. Instead, for all it throws at you, it’s neither consistently funny nor scary enough to leave a mark.

The cast keeps the energy up throughout, the goofy but resolute Hechinger most of all, and it never fails to amuse that each of the characters only cares about the murders so far as they reflect their own self-image.

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.

The comedic highlight of the film is Fred Hechinger’s Jason, the aforementioned unaware camper who shines because he sticks out as so far removed from the rest of the film.

“Hell of a Summer” is suitable midnight-with-popcorn-in-July-viewing, which is how many of us first encountered Jason to begin with.

Filled with classic slasher camp shenanigans and serves an impressive debut for the young filmmakers, despite a few under-baked ideas.

A few charming moments unfortunately can't save this mess of a movie. As far as camp slashers go, it doesn't commit to what makes the subgenre work well, especially in the kills dept. And the killer has zero personality.