‘Hell of a Summer’ Is the Perfect New Slasher for ‘Friday the 13th’ Fans

The talented Finn Wolfhard is no stranger to the world of horror, with the 22-year-old actor having first skyrocketed to prominence when he began portraying Mike Wheeler in the 2016 Netflix juggernaut sensation Stranger Things. Wolfhard subsequently continued to embrace the spine-tingling genre when he appeared as Richie Tozier in the blockbuster knockout It and its chilling sequel It Chapter Two, both of which further cemented his status as a bona fide horror staple.

As fans anxiously await the fifth and final season of the streaming knockout, they can continue to enjoy Wolfhard in the comedy horror Hell of a Summer, which, like Friday the 13th, takes place at a summer camp whose counselors are targeted by a deranged, mysterious killer. The slasher marks both Wolfhard and Billy Bryk’s directorial debuts, with the Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-stars joining forces to write, direct, produce, and headline the exciting flick that made its electrifying debut on April 4, 2025; let’s take a closer look at the nostalgia-fueled slasher.

Read Our Review

Stranger Things alum Finn Wolfhard took a break from fighting terrifying creatures from the Upside Down in order to both direct, write, and star in the slasher horror comedy Hell of a Summer, which follows the colorful counselors at the rustic Camp Pineway as they gear up for yet another exciting summer overseeing a group of eager kids. Leading his fellow counselors is 24-year-old Jason (Fred Hechinger), who, despite being told it’s time to move on and pursue an actual job, has big dreams of creating a full-fledged career out of the beloved camp he’s gone to since his own childhood.

Jason tries to keep his rambunctious teenage counselors in line during its prep weekend, like the sex-crazed Bobby (co-director Billy Bryk) and the cool and popular Chris (Wolfhard), while also setting out to prove he is more than capable of running the camp and keeping it a well-oiled machine. Naturally, the summer gets off to a bloody start when a masked killer shows up and begins to violently pick off one counselor after another, leading Jason’s peers to suspect that he may be the one behind the brutal attacks.

Featuring a young and talented cast, including Abby Quinn (Knock at the Cabin), D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs), and Krista Nazaire (The Hardy Boys), the nostalgia-fueled flick pays homage to beloved slashers of Hollywood’s past like the iconic 1980 masterpiece Friday the 13th, while also entertainingly juggling both horror and humor. Bringing Hell of a Summer to the big screen was quite the feat for Wolfhard and Bryk, as the directing duo experienced some pretty big hurdles in their quest to create the film.

Wolfhard & Bryk Make Horror Movie Magic

Hell of a Summer was first announced to be in the works in 2022, with the then-19-year-old Wolfhard joining creative forces with his Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-star Billy Byrk for the horror movie. Both actors wanted to create a film that pushed back against the Gen Z stereotypes running rampant in the entertainment industry, with Wolfhard telling Variety in 2023: “Our number one conversation was how annoying it is to see new teen movies and how badly our age group is represented. And we’re like, ‘Why don’t we just do it?.'”

The slasher serves as both Wolfhard and Byrk’s impressive directorial debuts, with the pair taking huge inspiration from Edgar Wright’s 2004 zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, which Bryk described as “kind of the epitome of a film that does homage to classic horror films while also being a really great character-driven comedy.” The filmmakers felt a pull to properly represent their generation on the screen while allowing the characters to “be weird and narcissistic in the face of death,” with Bryk further telling Variety:

“I think that [Gen Z is] so often written and represented by people not of the generation. We both [have] read a million scripts where it’s like you’re reading what somebody else thinks a young person speaks or acts like, and I think that often can be very two-dimensional or cliche.”

Wolfhard initially had a difficult time finding a financier for the slasher, as many potential investors listed his age as a reason for passing on the flick and felt he was too young to direct. Despite the pushback, Hell of a Summer received a modest $3 million budget and first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2023, where it was ultimately named the second runner-up for the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness.

1:59

Related

Best Slasher Movies of All Time, Ranked

From Scream to Psycho, slasher movies are a pivotal part of the history of cinema, and here are the best of the best.

Jam-packed full of delightfully self-absorbed characters, refreshing dark satirical humor, and plenty of earnest tributes to celebrated slasher classics of the ’80s and ’90s, Hell of a Summer may not bring anything new or innovative to the horror table. However, it is still a great way to spend an hour and a half, especially for fans of the gory genre and its decorated cast members. In their positive review of the movie, Film Inquiry wrote, “Hell of a Summer is a campy blast of a film, blending the nostalgia of 80s camp slashers with coming-of-age teen comedies.” Hell of a Summer is currently in theaters.