Hell of a Summer (2025) is written and directed by Billy Bryk & Finn Wolfhard. It stars Fred Hechinger, Billy Bryk, Abby Quinn, Finn Wolfhard, Krista Nazaire, Pardis Saremi, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Matthew Finlan, Daniel Gravelle, Julia Doyle, Adam Pally, and Rosebud Baker. The film follows Jason Hochberg (Hechinger), a dorky guy in his mid-20s who decides to return to his beloved summer camp despite the fact that the other counselors find his age a bit creepy. With the camp owners nowhere to be found, Jason takes it upon himself to act as camp leader, much to the dismay of his peers. Lacking even the slightest intent of taking Jason seriously, the various counselors proceed to party even if it means breaking all of the camp’s rules. When it eventually becomes clear that a masked killer is picking them off one by one, it’s up to Jason to rally his fellow counselors so they can fight back and hopefully survive until sunrise. The question is: can they let go of their petty teenage drama long enough to work together, or will it ultimately be the source of their demise?

 As Jason, Hechinger feels well-cast. He displays a natural awkwardness that feels appropriate for the character. In fact, he’s so awkward that it’s completely understandable why the other counselors don’t like him. This would usually be a person who’s tough to like, but his awkward nature is balanced by the fact that he’s the film’s only genuinely kind and positive character. His positivity does feel a little too cartoonish in places, but other than that, he mostly feels like a fresh take on slasher movie protagonists. 

As for the supporting characters, the film is a mixed bag. They’re all takes on the different archetypes that usually feature in slasher movies, but the characters who work are written with a satirical edge. For example, Billy Bryk as the token horny frat boy character is the source of the film’s best laughs and ultimately its most likable character. Usually this kind of unchecked horniness is a red flag, but in this context, he’s the only character (including Jason) the audience is able to trust. He’s so silly and hyper-focused on getting laid that there isn’t a second where we suspect that he’s the killer. It’s a staple of the slasher genre to treat sex as something that should be punishable by death, but most people see that idea as some major bullshit. It’s not the first film to do it, but I appreciate its modern attitude toward sex. Yes, you can be horny and a hero at the same time. 

My only real issue with the characters, other than a few unoriginal archetypes, is the romantic subplot involving Chris (Wolfhard) and Shannon (Nazaire). It’s underdeveloped and lacks nuance, but the real issue is that the film expects the viewer to attach themselves to it. The film mostly sets them up for a comedically dark fate, but by the end, it asks us to care about them in a more traditional sense. The film is clearly a horror-comedy, but abandons the silliness when focusing on this relationship. In a film such as this, the viewer desires the funniest and most interesting characters to survive. For some reason, the film thinks we want to see its most boring characters survive simply because they like each other. Romance isn’t particularly unique and doesn’t mean the lives of people in relationships are worth more than those who aren’t.

The film’s slasher elements are prevalent, but they’re almost entirely in service of the comedy. Even the most violent moments are played for laughs, but they often work because they take shots at some of the genre’s most overused tropes. Granted, this satire isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it does feel born from the minds of people who truly understand and appreciate the genre. The plot is something you’ve experienced countless times before, but it feels like an afterthought when considering the talented cast. Great characters played by performers whose comic timing effectively elevates the dialogue make a formula we’ve seen before feel entirely new. Even Jason’s arc, which highlights the film’s main theme of “coming of age,” is nothing new for the genre, but Henchinger pulls it off in a way that’s believable despite the character’s cartoonish behavior throughout most of the film. 

Overall, this is a surprisingly good horror-comedy camp slasher that finds a satisfying balance between its jokes and scares, but smartly doesn’t try to make them equal. Instead of being too scary to laugh or too funny to feel fear, the film chooses one. Yes, this results in some ineffective scares, but it’s easy to forgive when the comedy is elevated. It fails as a horror-comedy, but I’m not sure if that was ever the intention. As a straight-up comedy with horror elements, the tone is perfect. The only issue here is that a lot of the jokes won’t land if the viewer doesn’t have a strong knowledge of slasher tropes. In other words, its appeal is somewhat niche, but if you’re a part of the target audience, it feels like a real treat. B-