Amazing Fantasy Fest Coverage
Slasher Days of Summer review
The first ever screening of Slasher Days of Summer in front of a full house highlighted the opening night of Amazing Fantasy Fest.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Slasher Days of Summer
Directed by Kristen Skeet
Written by Kristen Skeet
Starring Alyssa Grace Adams, Eugene Bofill, Paul McGinnis, Sarah Jeanne, Chad Ridgley, Gabrielle Nunzio and Taylor Martin
Slasher Days of Summer Review
Positioned as the opening night closer, locally produced Slasher Days of Summer was screened in front of a sold-out crowd full of cast, crew, loved ones…and the lucky movie goer who could procure themselves a seat. The atmosphere for the screening was among the best of the fest. Many members of the cast and crew were on hand for a post-viewing Q&A including Director Kristen Skeet and stars Eugene Bofill, Paul McGinnis, Alyssa Grace Adams, Shanda Gardner and more.
Camp Sack-In is reopening thirty years after tragedy. What could go wrong? Well…aside from a masked killer targeting everyone in and around the campsite. Slasher Days of Summer is a pure slasher comedy. It is at its best when it isn’t taking things seriously. Which is almost always. Some standout performances highlight a movie that goes for the funny bone as often as it goes for the jugular.
There was an old idea in slasher movies that every few minutes audiences had to see a kill or some nudity. The advent of the internet has made the latter less and less a part of the genre. It’s largely felt out of place since Scream deconstructed the formula almost thirty years ago anyway. Slasher Days of Summer puts a different spin on the idea. It stuffs so many kills and jokes into the production that you could almost confuse it with a slasher version of Airplane.
The secret to Zucker/Abrahams slapstick comedies was never having a high hit rate on their joke attempts. It was stuffing in so many of them that the whole picture took on a unique feel. The tone of the piece was “comedy”. It was the A story and the B plot. Slasher Days of Summer may not fall into the slapstick/deadpan comedy category…but it forges a similarly earned tone by throwing a non-stop series of kills and jokes at the viewer. It doesn’t all land, of course. It doesn’t all have to.
Slasher Days of Summer has a couple of secret weapons to elevate the parts that don’t. It’s killer, The Woodsman (Eugene Bofill) is fantastic. An unstoppable killing machine, sure…but Bofill is a charismatic force that jumps off the screen. The Woodsman generates some of the biggest laughs in the film through the sheer force of Bofill’s reactions. He isn’t alone in popping off the screen.
Paul McGinnis (as Camp Sack-In counselor Kevin) is a natural screen comic. His stuff lands at a high rate. Shanda Gardner’s camp running Billie brings an accomplished comedic charm to her role. Alyssa Grace Adams provides the closest thing to a traditional final girl that Slasher Days of Summer utilizes. She pulls it off well…but could have used more focus for that aspect of the story to land. Chad Ridgley steals his scenes as a Detective in charge of tracking down the killer.
Slasher Days of Summer opens with an extended campfire scene to lay out the lore of the story. It also provides the movie with an excuse to start piling up its impressive body count. It isn’t the only scene in the film that leads to several characters being immediately dispatched. Like I said, kills and jokes…all the time. Now, this is a low budget slasher comedy…so the kills are often straight forward, simple affairs. Like the laughs…it’s about throwing numbers at the screen and creating an atmosphere where you can expect anyone to be next…and next to be almost immediate.
As is the case with most low-budget slashers…you likely know what the issues with Slasher Days of Summer are. It does an admirable job filling those gaps with its omnipresent comedic tone. It’s easier to accept some rougher spots when you aren’t meant to take things seriously to begin with. It does leave an intriguing premise of the camp being situated next to an “Influencer Camp” a bit underdeveloped. As someone who has watched countless influencer-based horror films in the last year or so…I was hopeful this comedic take would have something more to say about it.
Slasher Days of Summer powers through with a light, bloody tone that asks you to have a good time with it. A top-notch killer and some fun characters make that an easy ask. There are plenty of things that can be nitpicked, of course…but you know what you’re signing up for in the low-budget slasher field. The movie reaches a conclusion that would seem to suggest a possible future…but the Q and A that followed made clear one is not intended. That’s a shame…if only because we’d spend more time with The Woodsman.
Scare Value
Slasher Days of Summer knows what it wants to be and commits to the bit. It goes straight for the laugh every chance it gets. The result is a charming low budget slasher comedy made by people with a clear love of the genre. Like the best horror comedies…the jokes are rarely directed at the genre or the people who love it. This is a string of funny things happening inside of a basic slasher story. It’s effective enough that an ending based off reminding you that it’s a slasher story feels like a nice surprise.
