Dead teens at summer camp. On some level, that’s all you really need to know. Can I assume that if you’re reading this sentence, you understand what a “Friday the 13th movie” is? The truth is, no matter what other elements you add or subtract, the end result amounts to dead teens at summer camp. You can nuance and finesse it until everybody gets prune fingers from the camp lake, but you’re just not gonna get Schindler’s List out of “dead teens at summer camp.”
Ok, so how does this film differ from your standard Friday the 13th punishment? Hmmm, well the killer is unknown, so it’s more of a mystery and less of a Reacher-sized psycho freak in a hockey mask. There’s good and bad there. Hell of a Summer had less sex, and less truly graphic violence. So maybe Friday the 13th lite? Although that’s not quite fair as I came to loathe all Friday the 13th stupidity whereas I was mildly curious as to how Hell of a Summer would resolve.
Summer camp. Summer counselors. Pre-camp get-together before the kids arrive. The true adults are missing. We the audience know these two were killed off in a pre-title spree. So it’s just very young adults who show up. The self-appointed leader is Jason (Fred Hechinger), who has such neediness baked into his personality that he’s hard to like even when he’s clearly the best human among them. Shamefully, I preferred Bobby (writer/director Billy Byrk), a teen so shallow he’s actually upset at not being a victim when the killing starts. Why? Because he thinks the killer went after the most attractive people.
To this point, Bobby has already faked veganism in an attempt to score and then wondered aloud if the vegan burger he threw into the woods attracted a homicidal bear.
The other 
writer/director is Finn Wolfhard, the only name in the cast I knew, which made it a shame that his scenes weren’t juicier. Chris (Wolfhard) proves mostly lovesick, which is a lame place to be when murder is out and about.
Sadly, Hell of a Summer feels like a bit of a nothing, film-wise. For all I loathed Cocaine Bear, that film is one I’m going to remember; this film is not. This film evolved to be much less a Friday the 13th project and more of a “Scream in the Woods” kind of thing, which would have been the right move to make if there were anything truly memorable about this film. No matter how much clever it wanted to be, Hell of a Summer feels mostly like stupid teens making bad assumptions and bad decisions and paying the price for it. That describes a lot a lot a lot of horror films.
Several teen show up for pre-camp
Where a killer has made a personal stamp
They could *not* act like jerks
But that’s not how this works
When everyone has the IQ of a lamp
Rated R, 88 Minutes
Director: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard
Writer: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard
Genre: Dead teens at camp
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: How much do you enjoy the “spam in a cabin” trope?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “This is Friday the 13th lite”
