HELL OF A SUMMER (2023) is a horror comedy playing off of the format of FRIDAY THE 13TH and other summer camp slashers. It’s not like a Jason movie, it’s based on the whodunit slasher model that was popular in the late ’90s, but that puts it in line with the first FRIDAY THE 13TH and SLEEPAWAY CAMP movies, so I’ll allow it. Anyway I have an interest in the topic, so I decided to see it even though it’s written and directed by two of the kids from GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE. Nothing against Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard, but there were already two SCREAM movies before they were born, so the chances that their commentary on the genre was gonna offend my old school slasher sensibilities seemed high. I had to turn off THE FINAL GIRLS for horror nerd reasons and that’s a well regarded movie. I’m sensitive.

But I’m okay with this one. It’s pretty funny.

Like many of the FRIDAYs it’s about the counselors gathering and getting into some shit before any kids get there. We know from a fireside prologue that the owners of Camp Pineway, John (Adam Pally, ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT) and Kathy (Rosebud Baker, TURNABOUT) will be permanently absent thanks to some psycho in a cheap devil mask. I like this intro because the couple have a really natural chemistry, making fun of and laughing with each other, really humanizing them in the brief time before they’re slasher fodder. Good adults in a slasher movie. It immediately gave me more faith in the youths behind the camera.

Sort of the central character is Jason, played by Fred Hechinger (EIGHTH GRADE, NICKEL BOYS). Much like his character in THELMA he’s a dude in his twenties who’s sort of in an arrested development stage, at least according to his mom (Susan Coyne, FRENCH EXIT), who wants him to take an internship instead of work as a camp counselor yet again. Everyone’s surprised he’s back because last year he said it would be his last and now here he is again. He’s mostly a comical character because he’s very awkward and oblivious to how much less emotional and excited about everything everyone else is. But his ex-girlfriend Claire (Abby Quinn, LITTLE WOMEN) seems to really like him for some reason.

Believing John and Kathy are coming late due to an emergency, Jason uses his age and seniority as an excuse to take charge of the camp. The other counselors include a pair of buddies played by the writer/directors – Wolfhard as Chris and Bryk as Bobby. Bobby is excited about potentially finding a girl and is jealous when Chris effortlessly starts a relationship with his crush Shannon (Krista Nazaire, The Hardy Boys). Also there’s vain influencer Demi (Pardis Saremi), her doofus boyfriend Mike (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – Bear from Reservation Dogs), a space case ghost-believer named Noelle (Julia Lalonde, CATCH A CHRISTMAS STAR), etc.

They do a good job of establishing and using setting-appropriate weapons in the melee – bows and arrows, an acoustic guitar, a Swiss Army knife, fire, bear mace, a peanut allergy. The cast is all very good, everyone gets funny dialogue, and they get some laughs out of the usually serious trope of a person knowing about the danger but not being believed. No one takes Jason seriously when he’s trying to tell them there’s a killer loose, then when they see for themselves they decide (for very stupid reasons) that he’s the killer. And even though there’s a murderer in their midst they find time to be scared of ghosts.

The twist in the movie is sort of making a satirical point, but it’s such an obvious one it brings the movie down a little. SPOILER ABOUT WHODUNIT. It turns out that the influencer is behind the murders and is trying to use them for fame reasons. You might think that makes it contemporary and is a reason to do another movie like this, except that Wes Craven did a much better (if technologically dated) version of the exact same idea in SCREAM 4, when Wolfhard was 9 years old. But to be fair the unmasking happens earlier than it would in a SCREAM movie so they’re able to play with the idea in different ways (such as switching up their plan and posting a video blaming Jason).

I must also report (since it’s my beat) that there are some fairly hackneyed jokes about vegans. Well, I guess about a phony who pretends to be vegan, but they make her say “namaste,” and I gotta object to everyone in the movie only referring to veggie burgers as “tofu burgers.” I also gotta call bullshit on the idea that these “tofu burgers” taste disgusting, although it is kind of funny that Bobby believes a bear started eating people because he didn’t like the taste of a “tofu burger” discarded in the woods.

This is by no means a strong recommendation, but the characters kept making me laugh throughout, so HELL OF A SUMMER is a decent comedy in my book.

Speaking of books, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD (2025) is based on one, the first in a trilogy so far. The author is Adam Cesare, adapted here by director Eli Craig (TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL) and Carter Blanchard (uncredited writer on INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE according to IMDb). There’s a subset now of these young adult horror books that they make into movies; it reminded me of DARK HARVEST, another one set in a small farm town with its own weird history and traditions. That one was more convoluted but more interesting, I think.

TUCKER AND DALE had a brilliant premise that was too absurd for it to be taken as an actual horror movie. This one I think tries to be legit horror with jokes. It does have enough blood that it received an R rating, but the story is so thoroughly in the young adult tradition that it feels like it’s for the youths to me. Which is okay – they need movies. Maybe this one’s none of my business.

Quinn (Katie Douglas) is a teen girl who moves with her physician father (Aaron Abrams, “Assistant,” RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE) from Philadelphia to Kettle Springs, Missouri after the death of her mother. I laughed and then turned to a pile of dust when Dad was rapping along to “I Ain’t No Joke” in the car and Quinn said, “You realize that the ‘80s are as far away from me as the ‘40s were to you, right?” Like me, it doesn’t sound right to him at first, he has to do the math.

On the first day at her new school Quinn is unfairly sent to detention by a crazed teacher disrespectfully named “Mr. Vern” (Bradley Sawatzky, ORPHAN: FIRST KILL). There she meets the popular kids, who have a popular Youtube channel where they do pranks. The girls are kind of mean to her but a boy named Cole (Carson MacCormac, SHAZAM!) is nice and she seems to think he’s dreamy.

I guess I don’t honestly know what modern young adult books are like, but I assume they are exactly like this: everyone in the town knows and talks way too much about a brand of corn syrup called Baypen because its founder built the town and there was a factory that burned down and Cole and friends were suspected of causing it so the Sheriff Dunne (Will Sasso, BOSS LEVEL) always harasses them. The part I believe the absolute least is that the corn syrup famously has a mascot who’s a clown named “Frendo” and everybody knows about that and there’s merch. It all seems very reverse engineered from the title, which in my opinion is already a little forced.

Like all book or movie small towns there is a special holiday and festival that’s a huge deal to everybody, in this case Founder’s Day which has a big parade with giant Frendo puppets, etc. It’s a good day for the teens because Cole famously throws an awesome party after the parade. It turns out he is a rich kid and the son of Mayor Hill (Kevin Durand, COSMOPOLIS, ABIGAIL, KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES), who’s the grandson of the founder.

At the party Cole takes the mic to distance himself from the traditions of his family and also announce the main theme of the movie:

“I know my great-grandfather founded this town, but let’s be honest, we’re the future here, right? So let’s not subscribe to some backwards-ass belief of what a town should be, and instead let’s think ahead and dream up what comes next, and let’s have a good fucking time!”

I think it’s a little ironic that he’s only able to make this speech because being the founder’s great grandson gave him money to throw these elaborate parties which made him popular enough that everyone lets him make speeches. Also it’s ironic that the DJ then puts on (according to the subtitles) “Wicked and Weird” by Buck 65 which according to computers is from 2003, before these kids were born.

Anyway, obviously somebody wearing an evil clown mask that’s supposed to be Frendo the Clown has been murdering people over the years, including now. But it’s pretty clear right away that this is not just about a clown slasher. As Quinn tries to tell her dad, “There is something fucked up about the old people in this town.” There’s a twist a little more than halfway through that suddenly (SPOILER FOR A TWIST A LITTLE MORE THAN HALFWAY THROUGH) there are a bunch of clowns. This whole Frendo thing was a lie. The title was a lie! It should be called A WHOLE BUNCH OF CLOWNS IN A CORNFIELD and the tagline should be “Like… I’d say eight or more.” Of course they get to have different weapons – crossbow, pitchfork, very long chainsaw. They’re still clowns with evil expressions, so they’re not very cool. I think Art the Clown has transcended the threshold from corniness to horror icon but these bozos shouldn’t quit their seasonal jobs at Spirit Halloween.

This is a perfectly watchable movie, and a good looking one (director of photography: Brian Pearson, URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT, MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D, AMERICAN MARY, STEP UP ALL IN). A very crucial thing it has going for it is just a strong, likable screen presence in the protagonist. There are also some pretty fun kills: Impaling a guy on a scythe and lifting him all the way in the air, impaling a young woman on a pitchfork and lifting her into a light fixture so she gets shocked, interrupting a guy doing bench presses, holding a saw against the bar, slamming it down so his head pops off and perfectly lands and closes inside his cooler. Also a good scene about joking around playing with a severed head thinking it’s a prop. And there are some good lines.

Both of these movies give the impression of being sort of an old school slasher throwback or tribute, but they both have the HATCHET type setup where it’s a big group of young people who stay together and run around in a big group. To me that’s very different from the cat-and-mouse feel of your FRIDAY THE 13THs and what not. But I guess these are pretty much comedies, and I think they’re pretty successful at what they set out to do.

Much more than HELL OF A SUMMER, CLOWN(S) IN A CORNFIELD gets very labored when it tries to get its point across. I think it has more impressive craft to it, but I still preferred the other one because it didn’t require as much patience. One of your main characters shouldn’t get to make two separate speeches pointing out what the theme is supposed to be, in my opinion. And the whole idea of the conspiracy in the town seems more like a story for an episode of a 22-minute Fox Kids horror anthology show than a theatrical feature film you’re supposed to be 17 or older to see.

Which brings up an uncomfortable question: since so many horror movies are specifically about being young, am I gonna ever grow out of the fuckin things? Only one way to find out, I guess. (Keep getting older.)