Hell Of A Summer (2025)

 

**This review contains spoilers**

The Story- Jason (Fred Hechinger) returns to Camp Pineway, assuming the role of camp leader. The head counselors, Kathy (Rosebud Baker) and John (Adam Pally), are nowhere to be found, but Jason eagerly accepts the task of running the camp.

Jason faces a number of irritating challenges during his failed attempts to organize activities for the group. The team of counselors, including Mike (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Demi (Pardis Saremi), Chris (Finn Wolfhard), Bobby (Billy Bryk), Shannon (Krista Nazaire), Miley (Julia Doyle), Ari (Daniel Gravelle), Noelle (Julia Lalonde), and Ezra (Matthew Finlan) all ignore Jason’s attempts to unite the group for a fun summer camp experience.

Claire (Abby Quinn) tries to support and protect Jason. But the counselors will have bigger problems to worry about, after a bloody dead body pops up, and a killer wearing a devil mask appears. Does Jason have what it takes to protect and save the group?

My Thoughts- Jason is a loser, but he’s also a likable loser. Yes, it’s easy to laugh and poke fun at a grown man, who’s weirdly excited and happy about returning to summer camp. But taking on the role of a head counselor means A LOT to Jason. He needs to grow up and find a real job, and Jason has a bad case of arrested development. There’s no denying Jason really needs to take those first big steps into the real world, but he’s a good and genuinely nice guy, who just wants to enjoy life before he’s sucked into the meat grinder known as adulthood.

Fred Hechinger really delivers a solid performance as Jason. It’s easy to believe he’s this socially awkward guy, and I did get a few good laughs out of Jason’s failed attempts at trying to crack jokes, or Jason’s cringy comedian act. I wanted Jason to succeed, because he takes a lot of crap from the other counselors, but he never lashes out, and he doesn’t have the urge to seek vengeance. Providing a positive and safe summer camp experience is important to Jason, even if he has to risk his life to accomplish those goals.

Two killers! Revealing Demi and Mike as the killers works as a solid and surprising twist. They’re both narcissists, but Mike comes off as more of a goofball and an airhead. Demi? She’s genuinely more nasty and aggressive. Demi basks in the glory of being the cerebral mastermind behind the murders. She wants all the credit, and Demi desperately seeks the fame that’ll inevitably come with being one of the survivors of a bloody massacre. 

One of my favorite moments in the movie happens towards the end. Jason is tied up. He’s pleading with Demi to come to her senses, because he still doesn’t believe she’s a bad person. Jason wants to believe Mike is the puppeteer, who’s controlling her. Demi’s response? She mocks the idea of needing to be guided and controlled by a man, reminding Jason that she’s a strong and fierce woman. Pardis Saremi’s snarky and hopeless victim act before she tears into Jason is just perfect, easily one of the best scenes in the movie. 

A good number of dead and mutilated bodies throughout Hell Of A Summer, but the characters still have depth and different personalities. Whether it’s Matthew Finlan playing the pretentious play-actor, Julia Lalonde’s Noelle believing she’s a clairvoyant, or Finn Wolfhard’s Chris filling the role of a normal and nerdy kid, Hell Of A Summer makes an earnest attempt to avoid the easy way out to raise the kill count with disposable characters. It’s mostly easy to predict who’ll make it to the end alive, but you’re still able to care about the main cast of characters, and you can at least believe in the possibility of everyone having a shot to make it out alive.

The humor and the jokes are fairly consistent, the overall cast is solid, and Pardis Saremi is easily the standout star in the supporting cast, playing a vain social media influencer with a dark side. Hell Of A Summer is a harmless slasher comedy, featuring a nice twist for revealing the bad guys. There’s a good balance for slasher movie elements, the comedy, and the approach to deliver an unconventional coming-of-age film. Also, I’ll give some bonus points for a handful of creative and gruesome kills. A knife dipped in peanut butter used to kill someone with a peanut allergy? Yikes! 

Is it predictable in certain spots? Yes, but Hell Of A Summer is still a fun film that’s not afraid to be fully self-aware, while leaning into a lot of horror cliches. Tires are slashed, cars won’t start, and Ezra happily saying “I’ve always wanted to say that!” when the group finds out the phone lines are down is just hilarious. 

In the end, the villains got what they deserved, and the survivors enjoyed their happy endings. That’s more than enough for a silly film that wasn’t trying to be a groundbreaking movie, or reinvent the formula for slashers. Also, it’s impossible to ignore the irony for the majority of the group pointing their fingers at Jason for being the original suspect. A man named Jason is being accused of murdering camp counselors? That sounds familiar, and maybe they could’ve used one a shot of a hockey mask, but I guess that would’ve been too much.

Rating- 7/10