Director – Cheyenne Gordon
Starring – Mary Watters (The Wicked One), Tyler Riley (The Woods Within, Campground: The Requel), and Alicia M. Clark (The Killbillies, The Hospital)
Release Date – 2017
Rating – 4/5
I’ve been writing for Horror Society for five years next month. In January of 2013 Horror Society announced that they were looking for contributors to their site. I had been writing review on my blog for a few years by that point and decided to give it a go. I emailed them and a few days later I was asked to write for them. It has been an amazing experience and I’ve met some amazing people along the way. It wasn’t long after this that I met Roman Jossart. Don’t get him confused as one of those amazing people. He’s an alright guy but amazing he is not… Anyway, way back in 2013 I befriended Roman in Facebook after a mutual friend told me he was looking for reviewers to check out his film The Campground. Roman is one of the founders of Studio 605 and since then the company has grown immensely.
Recently, Studio 605 and first time director Cheyenne Gordon wrapped on their newest slasher Scream for Summer. Roman reached out to me to check out the finished product. As always, its an honor to review a Studio 605 film. Fuck you Roman.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a group of youths attending a house party where someone is murdered unbeknownst to them. The following day the news breaks of her murder and they play it off as a one time occurrence but quickly discover that someone is stalking them one by one with only one thing connecting them all.**Spoiler Alert**
Studio 605 has released some quality films within the last few years. There has been a few that just wasn’t for me but a majority was great. I was curious to see how Scream for Summerplayed out considering this was Cheyenne Gordon’s first feature and I’m happy to say that it was another hit for this small indie production company.
The acting in this one is great. I really enjoyed everyone’s performance. They all brought some amazing characters to life which made the story flow that much better. I really enjoyed Mary Watters as the lead. She was a strong female lead that was very intelligent and convincing. I also enjoyed Roman Jossart’s performance though it did remind me a lot of his role in Don’t Fuck in the Woods where he portrayed Mac (what a stupid fucking name).
The story for this can easily be summed up as a post-Scream slasher. In fact, it’s safe to say that this film is heavily influenced by the slashers of the 90s like Scream. I typically don’t like these films because they often subtract my favorite elements to make room for teenage drama. Slashers of the late 70s and early 80s was all about sex, blood, violence, and the killer reveal. The 90s shifted gear. It wasn’t about the kills anymore but who the killer was. It removed the amount of sex was in the film and filled it with drama. Scream for Summer was like that. A little sex, some kills, some “whodunit,” and a lot of young love and drama.
Finally, the film has several kills but most take place off screen. A good bit of these kills reminded me a lot of the kills we could see in classic slashers but lacked the gore I would expect. The effects we get are minimal for the most part but they do look good which makes me wonder why we didn’t get more of the red stuff. Overall, Scream for Summer is a well polished slasher that has a great cast and a fun story. This is the late night horror film you are looking for. Check it out.
