Strangers ThingsstarFinn WolfhardandGhostbusters: Afterlife’sBilly Brykhave gone through hell to bring back the coming-of-age comedy, combining laughs with horror in this year’s unorthodox slasher outing,Hell of a Summer. Following its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival back in 2023, the killer comedy that takes aim at slasher tropes was released in theaters earlier this month on April 4, courtesy of Neon.
Speaking in anexclusive interview with MovieWeb’s George Edelman, Billy Bryk revealed how they approached the balance between comedy, horror, and humanity inHell of a Summer, with the actor stating that, together with his co-writer and co-director Finn Wolfhard, they hope to bring comedies back to the big screen in a big way.
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“We grew up just loving comedy movies. That was sort of what we all bonded over was these classic coming of age comedies or ensemble comedies. And you’re right, there aren’t enough. It seems to be a bit of a dry spell for comedy and for theatrical comedy.”
Billy Bryk Is Grateful for ‘Hell of a Summer’s Theatrical Release
Since the COVID pandemic, release strategies for movies have seriously changed. Mostly for the worse. A lot of movies that would originally have been given theatrical releases are now instead sent straight to streaming, while the gap between when a movie is released in theaters to when it becomes available at homehas shrunk considerably. Continuing, Billy Bryk declared his delight overHell of a Summerbeing given the chance to shine on the silver screen. An honor that is becoming increasingly rare, especially when it comes to comedy.
“I’m so excited that Neon has committed theatrical release with this film, because I think seeing comedy in theaters is so important. And like almost all of my favorite movie going experiences as a kid was going to comedies with my friends.”
Written and directed by real-life best friends Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk in their filmmaking debut,Hell of a Summerstars the duo alongside Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Bryk, Wolfhard, Pardis Saremi, Rosebud Baker, and Adam Pally. The comedy-horror flick has beenmet with divisive reviewsfrom both critics and audiences alike, who praised the ingenuity of Wolfhard and Bryk, as well as Hechinger’s lead performance, but took issue with some of the movie’s attempts to play with slasher tropes. You can check out the official synopsis forHell of a Summerbelow.
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.
Hell of a Summer
