Given the long gap between Stranger Things‘ fourth and long-awaited upcoming fifth season, it’s no surprise members of its cast have kept busy with other projects. David Harbour made Marvel’s Thunderbolts*; Millie Bobby Brown has the Russo Brothers’ Electric State next on her ever-growing Netflix docket. But from what we can tell, only one Hawkins, Indiana hero co-directed, co-written, and co-starred in a movie during the hiatus: Finn Wolfhard, whose slasher comedy dropped a trailer today.
Hell of a Summer actually had its premiere at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival, which means between Stranger Things season four’s 2022 arrival, Wolfhard has also been busy with even more projects (including starring in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire). But we’re still impressed by the level of overachievement here. Check out the red-band trailer for his journey into the wacky terrors of summer camp.
The official synopsis reads: “Hell of a Summer follows 24-year-old camp counselor Jason Hochberg (Fred 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.”
That’s no coincident that the main character’s name is Jason, of course. The movie clearly rips several tongue-and-cheek pages from Friday the 13th—and Friday the 13th Part 2, both films about counselors being picked off before the camp actually opens for business—but has fun with other genre tropes too. Ouija, anyone?
Wolfhard (who co-wrote and co-directed with Billy Bryk) co-stars in a cast that also includes Bryk, Abby Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Pardis Saremi, Rosebud Bakeri, and Adam Pally. Hell of a Summer arrives in theaters April 18, just in time for you to start re-thinking all your camping plans.
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