Chauncey K. Robinson

I have a confession to make: The slasher sub-genre of horror is not my favorite. In fact, it is one of my LEAST favorite if I’m being honest. The only sub-genre lower than it is r*pe revenge “horror”—which has always seemed gratuitous and unnecessary to me.

The slasher sub-genre is often filled with paint-by-the-numbers uninspired movies. Wes Craven (RIP) breathed life back into it for a time with the Scream franchise, but since then we’ve mainly seen more of the same and a few Scream wannabes. So, I’m always skeptical when I see new slasher movie trailers. But I will admit I’m somewhat hopeful for Hell of a Summer after watching NEON’s official trailer for it.

Synopsis: Hell of a Summer follows 24-year-old camp counselor Jason Hochberg (Hechinger), who arrives at Camp Pineway thinking his biggest problem is that he feels out of touch with his teenage co-workers. What he doesn’t know is that a masked killer is lurking on the campgrounds, brutally picking counselors off one by one.

Verdict: It looks like a lot of fun. It’s a little self-aware, but not so self-aware that it feels like a Scream copycat. There seems to be a good amount of dark humor and some genuine scares. And for ONCE you can’t tell who lives and who dies in the entire movie from the trailer alone. Bonus points for that.

NEON will release Hell of a Summer in theaters on April 4, 2025. Check out the official trailer: