Movie Review: 'Hell of a Summer' a Terrific Directing Debut for Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk

Hell of a Summer

Directed by Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk

Written by Finn Wolfhard, Billy Brylk

Starring Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard

Release Date April 4th, 2025

Published April 4th, 2025

Hell of a Summer stars Fred Hechinger as Jason Hochberg, a 24 year old man in his eighth year as a camp counselor at Camp Pineway. As we are introduced to Jason, even his mother is dragging him for his unwillingness to move on from his beloved summer camp. This is not a theme and will not be important, but that’s okay, Hell of a Summer isn’t a deep movie, it’s merely an homage. Jason is not our main character, he’s part of an ensemble who are on hand to be fodder for a masked killer in a tribute to classic summer camp horror movies.

Joining Jason at the camp are best friends, Bobby and Chris (Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard), Chris’ love interest, Shannon (Krista Nazaire), an influencer named Demi (Pardis Seremi), her boyfriend, Mike (D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai), a drama kid named Ezra (Matthew Finlan), a wiccan named Noelle (Julia Lalonde), a vegan named Miley (Julia Doyle), and a pretentious filmmaker named Ari (Daniel Gravelle). Oh, and I almost forgot, there is a love interest for Jason as well, Abby Quinn delivers my favorite performance as Claire, a sweet girl who can’t seem to get Jason to realize she likes him,

With our camp counselors introduced, we can now get to our killer or is it killers? You will need to see the movie to find out. Hell of a Summer is not deep, it doesn’t go for big themes. What the film does go for is very funny dialogue. Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk have terrific ears for dialogue and while everyone kind of speaks in the same voice, it’s a very funny voice. I laughed a lot during Hell of a Summer. The sense of humor in Hell of a Summer is pitch black and whip smart. Billy Bryk gets many of the best lines in the movie and his dimwitted narcissistic character earns those lines, delivering them with just the right nitwit enthusiasm.

Fred Hechinger is such a terrific foil for all of this. While he is a bit of an overly familiar movie type, the old guy desperately trying to be accepted by the kids, even as he’s only 24, it borders on cringe Hechinger makes it work. This tropey character only avoids becoming obnoxious because Fred Hechinger finds a core of sweet natured, puppy dog naivete that prevented me from disliking the character. I also liked his nervous, obliviousness around Abby Quinn’s Claire. They have a sweet chemistry and I enjoyed them together as much as I enjoyed everything else about Hell of a Summer.

Hell of a Summer is an homage to horror movies set at summer camps. It has all of the classic summer camp horror tropes, it’s got solid blood and gore, and clever callbacks and payoffs, scenes that set up a motif that will come up again later. Admittedly, the motivation for the killing is a little weak, but the movie doesn’t lay a great deal of weight on the motivation. Hell of a Summer is about recreating the vibe of a summer camp horror movie filtered through the witty, broad, dark humor of a pair of bright young filmmakers having a blast while playing with the tools of filmmaking.

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