*This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!*

“This summer’s gonna be huge for us…”

Hell of a Summer premiered in select theaters on April 4th 2025. The slasher horror comedy film stars Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk, and Pardis Saremi. It runs for approximately an hour and twenty-eight minutes.

As a group of teens get ready to set up summer camp for the season, a masked killer begins picking them off one by one.

Here is the trailer:

Hell of a Summer attempts to bring us some slasher nostalgia with its fun premise, but does it do enough to be worthy of your next watch? Let’s find out…

The Pros:

Entertaining concept.

I love slashers and when we add in an overused, but nostalgic setting like summer camp, this movie automatically starts out with three stars for me. I thought this film had a lot of potential to bring us some inventive kills while adding in some fun comedy.

Solid second half.

Even though this film was on the shorter side, it spent a lot of time in the first half focusing on excessive fluff. That being said, I think it did turn things around when we got to the heart of the plot, providing us with some entertaining moments involving the killer and our group in the second half. Not all of the humor landed for me, but I did laugh at some key parts.

The Cons:

Unlikable characters and not enough on screen kills…

I honestly couldn’t connect with anyone, making it extremely hard to root for them against the killer. This was extremely disappointing for me. I don’t know if it was a generation thing or what, but I literally could care less about who lived or died and the killer wasn’t that fun either…

My other big issue with this film was that the majority of the kills happened off screen. I know this is a horror comedy, but it’s dipping into the slasher end so I expected some gory kills. I think it would have helped this film in a lot of ways. The reveals were also just kind of meh…

So am I in or out?

I’m in about 75 percent…

Hell of a Summer has some fun campy moments, but it doesn’t fully capitalize on its slasher premise.

I’m being a little generous here with my review, but I do appreciate filmmakers willing to give us some new slasher material. I just expected more…

If you’re looking for a modern slasher to enjoy, I’d recommend Thanksgiving or Heart Eyes instead…but there are a few fun moments in this one.

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on Hell of a Summer in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!

Best,

Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl

THIS COMPETITION IS KILLER…

When former friends, Shay and Adriana team up to participate in a Halloween scavenger hunt with a cash prize, they temporarily put their differences aside to outsmart their opponents. However, they soon start to realize that a dangerous threat is playing their own version of the game, stalking them during each hunt.

Winning is now a necessity as their lives are at stake. As old wounds and memories re-surface, Shay and Adriana attempt to unmask the threat before the night is over, but soon learn that Scream Hunt is not done with them just yet…

My young adult horror thriller is out now! I hope you enjoy!

Scream Hunt is available here!

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