We at PopHorror got a chance to interview Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk, and Fred Hechinger for their new slasher film Hell Of A Summer We discuss how previous camp films helped inspired the look of Hell Of A Summer. We also discuss Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 as inspiration for the Do it yourself aspect of Hell Of A Summer.
Synopsis
Hell of a Summerfollows 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.
Here’s a look at the trailer!
On To The Interview…
PopHorror: AJ Friar, PopHorror.com. How are you guys doing today?
Finn Wolfhard: Good, how are you?
Billy Bryk: Well, how are you?
PopHorror: Doing good. So Finn and Billy, this question is for you. When we think of summer camp movies, we usually think of Wet Hot American Summer and from the slasher genre we think of Sleepaway Camp, right. So did Hell of a Summer all come about? Did any of those films kind of help inspire this film location as well?
Finn Wolfhard: Absolutely, yeah.
Billy Bryk: Definitely. A huge part of it that we haven’t even really talked about much today was the idea of how fun it would be to film on a summer camp and hearing stories about the filming of Wet Hot American Summer and this young group of people coming together to make a movie. This is not one that set at a summer camp, but how they made Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, there was something so inspiring to us about that way of filmmaking and coming together with a small crew and making films.
So a big part of it was that we love summer camp, we loved the camp slasher genre, but also selfishly we just wanted to make a movie at camp. And I think that was a not insignificant factor…-
Finn Wolfhard: No, definitely.
Billy Bryk:: …in deciding to write this movie.
PopHorror: And Fred, this was for you, how was it like working with Finn and Billy on Hell of a Summer as well?
Fred Hechinger: It was like a true delight. I love these guys and they really are like, I was thinking what you were just talking about is building that camp and the way that you built the environment really is this thing of playing-
Finn Wolfhard: By hand.
Fred Hechinger: Yeah, or you build the energy-
Finn Wolfhard: Like micro.
Fred Hechinger: Yeah.
Finn Wolfhard: I know what you saying.
Fred Hechinger: Playing to the strength of how you can conduct a group. And what’s so funny about groups, group dynamics are so weird and funny and I think you could sense stuff and then dial that up and dial that down and yeah, every day was so fun.
PopHorror: Finn and Billy, this is for you again. Did any of the genre films of the ’80s and ’90s help kind of inspire the production design and the set designs of this film as well?
Finn Wolfhard: Definitely.
Billy Bryk: Definitely. The idea that a lot of those films in the late ’70s and ’80s were made sort of with limited resources and how, for example, the first Halloween, it’s lit so deliberately where they just didn’t have a lot of light to light up the scene. So they had to be so careful with what slash of light comes through what curtain, and it allows you to see a certain aspect of the film. It’s so brilliantly lit and choreographed and designed. So those were a huge stylistic influence on us. Because we also didn’t have a ton of resources, but beyond that, we felt there’s something really sort of classic and timeless about these truly dark horror films of that era. So yeah, it was a big influence.
PopHorror: And also for Finn and Billy, this film is being distributed by Neon, which is just killing it lately. How does it feel like having a studio like them back you up on this project?
Finn Wolfhard: It’s like the greatest compliment there could be. I mean, they just… Anora just won Best Picture and they’re riding so high and the fact that they’re putting out our slasher movie is pretty amazing. And it shows their versatility as a company and also their love for film and their love for supporting young filmmakers too, and taking chances on stuff.
Billy Bryk: The fact that they’re doing a real theatrical wide release for this movie is so special to us because this is the type of comedy that we think is obviously best experienced in a crowd, but also was just going to see late night comedies with my friends growing up is some of the greatest memories I had of my adolescence. So it’s a dream come true to make this movie and for it to come out to the world in this way and to be playing in theaters, it’s amazing.
PopHorror: Well guys, thank you so much for joining me today.
Billy Bryk: Thank you.
PopHorror: Congratulations on the movie.
Hell of a Summer is in theaters now! Get your tickets via Fandango for a theater near you!
