Oct. 10, 2026
Countdown To Halloween! Amy & T.J.'s Comedy/Horror Pick #3: “Hell Of A Summer”
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RSS Feed Every Saturday and Sunday we are counting down to Halloween, giving you our top recommendations for guaranteed horror movie hits. There are so many sub-genres in the horror movie category, so each weekend day we’ll highlight our top movies within that category. Today’s sub-genre is one of our absolute favorites: horror comedy. Who doesn’t like to laugh and scream in the same movie? It’s the perfect balance to entertain you, and keep you in the spooky spirit of the month.
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday, October 10th, and let the countdown to Halloween begin. Well, it's actually well underway, and every weekend you are looking for the perfect horror movie. Well, we got one for you right now, and guess what? It was directed by the kid from Stranger Things. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are going to be doing themed... Days of the weekend, Robe. Today we're doing horror comedy, one of our favorite subgenres now of horror movies. This is one we actually went to the theater to see. It didn't do great, but we loved it.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: We did. And these are always the movies that we love to suggest or promote because they might not have gotten the critical love that oftentimes sends people to the movie theaters. but those are sometimes the best ones. I just don't think the critics got it, because it was really funny, and it was just, it was done, it was one of those dark, comedic horror movies that you laugh when someone dies, and you probably shouldn't, but when someone who's strumming an acoustic guitar by the campfire gets that said guitar shoved in his throat, it's funny. They're making fun of the whole Kumbaya camp, I love a camp horror movie anyway. a can't-be movie, and then add some comedy to it. It's awesome.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: And to your point, there are some true thrills and scares and kills in this movie. But it is fun because you have so many young, bright actors. A couple of them you will recognize. But the movie, which will be our number three recommendation. I would like to say, Robes, close to guaranteeing you will enjoy this movie.
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Yes. You will be entertained. You will laugh. You will jump a little bit. And you will have a smile on your face at the end. All right.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: And this one is Hell of a Summer is the name of it. Hell of a Summer. It came out in spring of last year. It didn't do great at the box office. It didn't cost a lot to make, but it made about $ 3 million at the box office. So it was a smaller release. Fine. It ends up online, and it's streaming now. Now, Robes, I said... And we'll get into this kid's name because he might be, besides Millie Bobby Brown, he maybe is the most famous person to come out of Stranger Things, isn't he?
00:02:40
Speaker 2: Yes, his face is so, so recognizable. Finn Wolfhard. And as soon as you see him, you can't help but think of Stranger Things. He is the face of Stranger Things.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: And he also, Robes, he has put together a hell of a career attached to or from things he got from Stranger Things. He's been in the Ghostbusters Afterlife movie. He was in It. That was a big theatrical release. He's been doing great, but he stars in this movie. He also is director of this film.
00:03:10
Speaker 2: And I didn't know that when we were watching it. That's very cool.
00:03:13
Speaker 1: Along with the other guy, maybe our favorite character in the movie, a guy named Billy Brick. A lot of people won't know his name or his face, but he is the other young actor in this movie. And he also... is the co-director. These two kids, yes, kids. That's awesome. So I respected even more when I saw that these two directed this movie.
00:03:33
Speaker 2: And then we have Fred Hickinger. Is that how you say his name? But he's from The White Lotus. If you watch The White Lotus, you will immediately recognize him as the son or the brother of the Sidney Sweeney character. Yes.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: Who was in the closet or whatever, sleeping.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: They made him sleep in the closet because they didn't want him to share a bed with them or be in the same room as them. But he was hilarious in The White Lotus, and he is similarly hilarious in this movie. It is so good. He's the camp counselor. He's the older camp counselor who comes back, like the wannabe camper, pretty much.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: And he is Robes. He's the star of the movie and carries the movie, I guess. But he has a creepiness to him just kind of naturally that he plays on in his characters, and he does it here again. He's fantastic.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a creepy kid who is basically the kid who always wanted to have friends but never did or could, and so he has to screw loose, and you wonder, is he going to be a school shooter, or is he going to just try to win everybody over with his love? You can't tell. He might go either way.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, in this movie, he's too old to be this excited about going to camp. And they play on that. And you said it right, Rob. Sometimes you have a camp-themed horror movie and sometimes you have a campy movie. This combines it and it's perfect.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: It's awesome. It's almost like the beginning of Friday the 13th. I love so many of these horror comedy movies or camp-themed movies will play off that original Friday the 13th. And obviously that is a classic. It is one of my favorites. It's nostalgic. It almost takes you back to that same kind of feeling. Let's give you the synopsis so you know what you're getting into before you... start to stream this and we really do hope you stream this this weekend because this is a blast the synopsis hell of a summer follows 24 year old camp counselor jason hochberg fred heckinger 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. And so, yes, hilarity ensues, and so do deaths, which is great.
00:05:52
Speaker 1: It's a classic camp horror movie. All the kids come to camp. There's a killer on the loose. Yes. Kids and counselors start dying. It is that central theme.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: It's awesome. And again, that opening scene where you've got this, the guy who's strumming the guitar, you know, the camp... Oh, you know, just the acoustic guitar. It's so hilarious. And just the fact that that's how the deaths begin is amazing. And so, yes, 11 counselors, I believe, arrive at the campgrounds a day early, much like Friday the 13th. So they're getting things ready for the campers. And that's when the killer starts or is let loose and starts picking them off one by one. So this follows a formula that we love. And we even talked about how horror movies have to have certain things planned. They have to have certain items to be a bona fide horror movie. And among them is to have a larger cast so that they can die because you have to start picking them off. And this follows that to a T.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: And you'll start noticing this about, and again, Robes and I watch so many horror movies. You'll start to notice this, Robes. You have to have these ensemble casts. You have to have a lot of people because in a horror movie you have to have people.
00:07:06
Speaker 2: Expendable people.
00:07:07
Speaker 1: You do. What's the one we love as well? The Final Destination movies. It always starts with 20 kids.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: And you get down to the final girl as always. Now, the runtime is always an important part of our recommendation because we like them short and sweet. And this one falls in. We love one that's about an hour 30. Isn't that the sweet spot?
00:07:26
Speaker 1: You know what? Hour 20 sometimes as well. We get excited when we see hour 20.
00:07:30
Speaker 2: You're like, I can do this.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: I can do.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: It's funny. Sometimes when I'm running, we're doing a long run, a training run, I tell myself, okay, you have to go run for an hour and a half. That's just like watching a horror movie. I actually tell myself that to manage time in my mind. That's funny. But anyway, yes, an hour 28 is the run time. And the Rotten Tomatoes score, I am so... Sometimes they just I don't agree. We don't agree. And the fact that we both loved this movie so much, not only in the theaters, but also when... We've watched it how many times streaming, just for the fun of it?
00:08:04
Speaker 1: Countless. This is one that we like so much and we do a weird thing when we work in the morning sometimes. We're working at three in the morning and working on news and you get a little tired of hurricanes and politics and death and destruction. So we put on a horror movie.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: Sound down.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: Sometimes we always laugh about this. If people go past our place at 4 in the morning, they hear a woman screaming. Like, what is going on in there? Well, it's just a horror movie. That is true.
00:08:34
Speaker 2: Because we can hear sometimes in the hallway what other people have on. I'm like, what do they think of us? You can hear women screaming in our apartment all the time. But yes. Rotten Tomatoes score 49% from the critics. 52% from the audience. I don't know if they just didn't get what they were expecting.
00:08:53
Speaker 1: You know what? First of all, speak on this. It's not that often that the critic score and the audience score are that close. This seems like Robes, both sides had the same feeling about it. Now, I saw that and I was disappointed because we love this movie so much. I was like, aw. But then I saw the critic consensus and I said, oh, maybe they didn't get it.
00:09:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think sometimes that might be the case because, yeah, Hell of a Summer shows some promising ingenuity from its young directorial duo, but its lack of tonal cohesion also indicates some room for improvement.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: Okay. Robes, it's some teens and early 20 kids running around trying to escape a mass killer.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: It's just funny. I just... When I saw that, it's not that deep. It's the kid from Stranger Things making a movie with his buddy, and he lacked tonal cohesion. Again, we look at it differently. We just want to be entertained, and maybe they have to look at it differently. for certain parts of it, technical aspects when you're reviewing a movie, maybe. It just wasn't that deep.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: What I was thinking is sometimes people go, the audience goes and they want to really be scared and they think they have a summer camp slasher film and it's going to be serious and intense and scary and they're like, it's not that scary. I think people go in with an anticipation of something, and when they don't get what they thought they were going to be watching, they are confused and they don't like it. I don't know. I think we knew it was going to be exactly what it was.
00:10:31
Speaker 1: But you make, and this is why we're having fun talking about horror subgenres and sub-subgenres. You just made a good point. A lot of people, how many that maybe don't see horror movies a lot or maybe do see horror movies a lot, you have an expectation of what a horror movie is supposed to be. But if you go into it understanding this one's a comedy horror, this is a survival horror, this is a psychological horror. There are different types that are going to give you different things. And this is a comedy horror that gives you a very specific thing. This movie is just as funny as it is.
00:11:10
Speaker 1: Scary, there are a few jumps, but there is horror in terms of death and dread and fear. All that's there.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: I thought they did a great job of combining the two and keeping it light still, which sounds funny, I know, when you're talking about a horror movie. But I was laughing. There are the audience reviews. There are two that are back to back and they are literally almost describing two different movies. It's so funny just in terms of how people receive this movie. One wrote, this movie was amazing. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was cracking up at the comedic bits scattered across the film. It had amazing acting and was shot well. It had great transitions. Just good camera work throughout. Overall, this movie was very good. They gave it four stars. The next reviewer, not good. More like a really long middle school drama skit than an actual movie. Then Wolfhard continues to be so enamored with himself that he not only continuously plays roles of cool guys that he's not actually cool enough to pull off, but he actually keeps trying to have close-up shots of himself in poses. So it's so funny. This person was obsessed with Finn, and they didn't like him.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: It sounds like they went to middle school with him. Yep. He made it, and they didn't. What? It sounds so personal. What is that?
00:12:25
Speaker 2: It's so funny when people have feelings. They bring their own, yes, personal, whatever. I don't like him because. But then the next three are all like, don't listen to the bad reviews. Definitely recommend. Absolutely underrated film. I don't understand why good movies are always criticized. This is one of my favorites. So, yes, there are plenty of people who think or received this movie the same way we did, and we just fully encourage you all to check this out.
00:12:47
Speaker 1: Well, stay here, folks. We will tell you where you can watch this immediately, and we will tell you why we guarantee you will like this movie.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are taking over our weekend feed with movie recommendations to get you into the Halloween spirit. And today's theme Saturday is horror comedy. It is one of our all time favorite sub genres of the horror movie genre. And we are recommending coming in at number three, Hell of a Summer. And it is a hell of a good time. And we guarantee you are going to have a blast watching it. It's only going to take you an hour and 28 minutes from start to finish.
00:13:42
Speaker 1: And we do recommend this. You know what? This is how far we'll go in guaranteeing it. That if you have people over and everybody's looking for a movie, what should we watch tonight? Oh, I want a horror movie. Say, you know what, guys? I got one. Put on Hell of a Summer and we are telling you it will rock. go over well with your group.
00:14:05
Speaker 2: Agreed. And it's rated R, so that's just something to keep into consideration if you've got kids or anyone who's a little squeamish. But I actually just think it's not too gory. It's not tooâ it's nothing thatâ I mean, I would certainly let a teenager see. Have we even let Sabine watch this with us? I'm sure.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: Sabine has seen much worse than this.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it really is a massive crowd pleaser because it's fun. Sometimes, you know, these horror movies that we still love the intense ones, the dark ones, the scary ones. This one you could watch during the day. We've also said when you can watch these movies. This is one because it does go into nighttime a little bit, obviously, with some of the kill scenes. But I think this is a fun enough one that if you want a daytime horror movie, this is a perfect one to put on.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: It has good energy and life throughout. There are... I'm trying to think. Oh, you like all the characters.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: Yes. Right?
00:15:01
Speaker 1: All these kids are worth rooting for or being annoyed by, but they all deliver. And it's funny. The kid that plays opposite Finn, the lead kid who's kind of an airhead trying to be cool, kind of the guy with the car. He is, I loved him in this movie. They're amazing. And he's the other director of this thing. It's so key or important, Robes, to go into a movie like this without an expectation of Horror movie. So because as soon as you go, this is horror movie. Oh, we're watching a horror movie tonight. And then somebody tells the first couple of jokes and you go, wait, what is this? You have to know what you're going for. This is a comedy horror. This is a sub sub genre that we love. And this is one of the few robes that pull off the comedy authentically. and the horror authentically.
00:15:51
Speaker 2: Yep, I agree. And I think the acting is phenomenal. It's deadpan in a lot of ways. And again, they don't take themselves that seriously. You shouldn't take it this seriously.
00:16:01
Speaker 1: It's a fun ride.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: I truly believe that is when critics get to a place where I am so misaligned with them because I think they go into it with a critic's mind. And when you get a movie like this, which is silly and campy and fun... Sometimes I think the intent is missed, and they're looking for something that it isn't. And I think that's part of the problem.
00:16:22
Speaker 1: They're looking for tonal cohesion.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:16:27
Speaker 1: And that's fine. We're not critical of the critics. They have a different thing that they have to look for. But it can turn you off to a movie that, from our vantage point, is just meant to sit down. Actually, this is popcorn. This is classic popcorn. Have a blast. This is just a good time.
00:16:45
Speaker 2: I agree. And so where can you watch it? You can find it on Hulu, on Disney +, so you can stream it if you have either one of those services. It is free to watch and to repeat like we do. We actually just had it on moments ago, and every time I see it on the screen, it puts a big old smile on my face, which I know is not something you can often say when you're talking about a horror movie, but that is why we love horror comedies. And number three, Hell of a Summer. So stay tuned to the feed because we're going to have our number two pick and then our number one pick in the genre of horror comedy. So keep on checking the feed throughout the day today. With that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach. That's TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday, October 10th, and let the countdown to Halloween begin. Well, it's actually well underway, and every weekend you are looking for the perfect horror movie. Well, we got one for you right now, and guess what? It was directed by the kid from Stranger Things. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are going to be doing themed... Days of the weekend, Robe. Today we're doing horror comedy, one of our favorite subgenres now of horror movies. This is one we actually went to the theater to see. It didn't do great, but we loved it.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: We did. And these are always the movies that we love to suggest or promote because they might not have gotten the critical love that oftentimes sends people to the movie theaters. but those are sometimes the best ones. I just don't think the critics got it, because it was really funny, and it was just, it was done, it was one of those dark, comedic horror movies that you laugh when someone dies, and you probably shouldn't, but when someone who's strumming an acoustic guitar by the campfire gets that said guitar shoved in his throat, it's funny. They're making fun of the whole Kumbaya camp, I love a camp horror movie anyway. a can't-be movie, and then add some comedy to it. It's awesome.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: And to your point, there are some true thrills and scares and kills in this movie. But it is fun because you have so many young, bright actors. A couple of them you will recognize. But the movie, which will be our number three recommendation. I would like to say, Robes, close to guaranteeing you will enjoy this movie.
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Yes. You will be entertained. You will laugh. You will jump a little bit. And you will have a smile on your face at the end. All right.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: And this one is Hell of a Summer is the name of it. Hell of a Summer. It came out in spring of last year. It didn't do great at the box office. It didn't cost a lot to make, but it made about $ 3 million at the box office. So it was a smaller release. Fine. It ends up online, and it's streaming now. Now, Robes, I said... And we'll get into this kid's name because he might be, besides Millie Bobby Brown, he maybe is the most famous person to come out of Stranger Things, isn't he?
00:02:40
Speaker 2: Yes, his face is so, so recognizable. Finn Wolfhard. And as soon as you see him, you can't help but think of Stranger Things. He is the face of Stranger Things.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: And he also, Robes, he has put together a hell of a career attached to or from things he got from Stranger Things. He's been in the Ghostbusters Afterlife movie. He was in It. That was a big theatrical release. He's been doing great, but he stars in this movie. He also is director of this film.
00:03:10
Speaker 2: And I didn't know that when we were watching it. That's very cool.
00:03:13
Speaker 1: Along with the other guy, maybe our favorite character in the movie, a guy named Billy Brick. A lot of people won't know his name or his face, but he is the other young actor in this movie. And he also... is the co-director. These two kids, yes, kids. That's awesome. So I respected even more when I saw that these two directed this movie.
00:03:33
Speaker 2: And then we have Fred Hickinger. Is that how you say his name? But he's from The White Lotus. If you watch The White Lotus, you will immediately recognize him as the son or the brother of the Sidney Sweeney character. Yes.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: Who was in the closet or whatever, sleeping.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: They made him sleep in the closet because they didn't want him to share a bed with them or be in the same room as them. But he was hilarious in The White Lotus, and he is similarly hilarious in this movie. It is so good. He's the camp counselor. He's the older camp counselor who comes back, like the wannabe camper, pretty much.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: And he is Robes. He's the star of the movie and carries the movie, I guess. But he has a creepiness to him just kind of naturally that he plays on in his characters, and he does it here again. He's fantastic.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a creepy kid who is basically the kid who always wanted to have friends but never did or could, and so he has to screw loose, and you wonder, is he going to be a school shooter, or is he going to just try to win everybody over with his love? You can't tell. He might go either way.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, in this movie, he's too old to be this excited about going to camp. And they play on that. And you said it right, Rob. Sometimes you have a camp-themed horror movie and sometimes you have a campy movie. This combines it and it's perfect.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: It's awesome. It's almost like the beginning of Friday the 13th. I love so many of these horror comedy movies or camp-themed movies will play off that original Friday the 13th. And obviously that is a classic. It is one of my favorites. It's nostalgic. It almost takes you back to that same kind of feeling. Let's give you the synopsis so you know what you're getting into before you... start to stream this and we really do hope you stream this this weekend because this is a blast the synopsis hell of a summer follows 24 year old camp counselor jason hochberg fred heckinger 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. And so, yes, hilarity ensues, and so do deaths, which is great.
00:05:52
Speaker 1: It's a classic camp horror movie. All the kids come to camp. There's a killer on the loose. Yes. Kids and counselors start dying. It is that central theme.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: It's awesome. And again, that opening scene where you've got this, the guy who's strumming the guitar, you know, the camp... Oh, you know, just the acoustic guitar. It's so hilarious. And just the fact that that's how the deaths begin is amazing. And so, yes, 11 counselors, I believe, arrive at the campgrounds a day early, much like Friday the 13th. So they're getting things ready for the campers. And that's when the killer starts or is let loose and starts picking them off one by one. So this follows a formula that we love. And we even talked about how horror movies have to have certain things planned. They have to have certain items to be a bona fide horror movie. And among them is to have a larger cast so that they can die because you have to start picking them off. And this follows that to a T.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: And you'll start noticing this about, and again, Robes and I watch so many horror movies. You'll start to notice this, Robes. You have to have these ensemble casts. You have to have a lot of people because in a horror movie you have to have people.
00:07:06
Speaker 2: Expendable people.
00:07:07
Speaker 1: You do. What's the one we love as well? The Final Destination movies. It always starts with 20 kids.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: And you get down to the final girl as always. Now, the runtime is always an important part of our recommendation because we like them short and sweet. And this one falls in. We love one that's about an hour 30. Isn't that the sweet spot?
00:07:26
Speaker 1: You know what? Hour 20 sometimes as well. We get excited when we see hour 20.
00:07:30
Speaker 2: You're like, I can do this.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: I can do.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: It's funny. Sometimes when I'm running, we're doing a long run, a training run, I tell myself, okay, you have to go run for an hour and a half. That's just like watching a horror movie. I actually tell myself that to manage time in my mind. That's funny. But anyway, yes, an hour 28 is the run time. And the Rotten Tomatoes score, I am so... Sometimes they just I don't agree. We don't agree. And the fact that we both loved this movie so much, not only in the theaters, but also when... We've watched it how many times streaming, just for the fun of it?
00:08:04
Speaker 1: Countless. This is one that we like so much and we do a weird thing when we work in the morning sometimes. We're working at three in the morning and working on news and you get a little tired of hurricanes and politics and death and destruction. So we put on a horror movie.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: Sound down.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: Sometimes we always laugh about this. If people go past our place at 4 in the morning, they hear a woman screaming. Like, what is going on in there? Well, it's just a horror movie. That is true.
00:08:34
Speaker 2: Because we can hear sometimes in the hallway what other people have on. I'm like, what do they think of us? You can hear women screaming in our apartment all the time. But yes. Rotten Tomatoes score 49% from the critics. 52% from the audience. I don't know if they just didn't get what they were expecting.
00:08:53
Speaker 1: You know what? First of all, speak on this. It's not that often that the critic score and the audience score are that close. This seems like Robes, both sides had the same feeling about it. Now, I saw that and I was disappointed because we love this movie so much. I was like, aw. But then I saw the critic consensus and I said, oh, maybe they didn't get it.
00:09:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think sometimes that might be the case because, yeah, Hell of a Summer shows some promising ingenuity from its young directorial duo, but its lack of tonal cohesion also indicates some room for improvement.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: Okay. Robes, it's some teens and early 20 kids running around trying to escape a mass killer.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: It's just funny. I just... When I saw that, it's not that deep. It's the kid from Stranger Things making a movie with his buddy, and he lacked tonal cohesion. Again, we look at it differently. We just want to be entertained, and maybe they have to look at it differently. for certain parts of it, technical aspects when you're reviewing a movie, maybe. It just wasn't that deep.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: What I was thinking is sometimes people go, the audience goes and they want to really be scared and they think they have a summer camp slasher film and it's going to be serious and intense and scary and they're like, it's not that scary. I think people go in with an anticipation of something, and when they don't get what they thought they were going to be watching, they are confused and they don't like it. I don't know. I think we knew it was going to be exactly what it was.
00:10:31
Speaker 1: But you make, and this is why we're having fun talking about horror subgenres and sub-subgenres. You just made a good point. A lot of people, how many that maybe don't see horror movies a lot or maybe do see horror movies a lot, you have an expectation of what a horror movie is supposed to be. But if you go into it understanding this one's a comedy horror, this is a survival horror, this is a psychological horror. There are different types that are going to give you different things. And this is a comedy horror that gives you a very specific thing. This movie is just as funny as it is.
00:11:10
Speaker 1: Scary, there are a few jumps, but there is horror in terms of death and dread and fear. All that's there.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: I thought they did a great job of combining the two and keeping it light still, which sounds funny, I know, when you're talking about a horror movie. But I was laughing. There are the audience reviews. There are two that are back to back and they are literally almost describing two different movies. It's so funny just in terms of how people receive this movie. One wrote, this movie was amazing. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was cracking up at the comedic bits scattered across the film. It had amazing acting and was shot well. It had great transitions. Just good camera work throughout. Overall, this movie was very good. They gave it four stars. The next reviewer, not good. More like a really long middle school drama skit than an actual movie. Then Wolfhard continues to be so enamored with himself that he not only continuously plays roles of cool guys that he's not actually cool enough to pull off, but he actually keeps trying to have close-up shots of himself in poses. So it's so funny. This person was obsessed with Finn, and they didn't like him.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: It sounds like they went to middle school with him. Yep. He made it, and they didn't. What? It sounds so personal. What is that?
00:12:25
Speaker 2: It's so funny when people have feelings. They bring their own, yes, personal, whatever. I don't like him because. But then the next three are all like, don't listen to the bad reviews. Definitely recommend. Absolutely underrated film. I don't understand why good movies are always criticized. This is one of my favorites. So, yes, there are plenty of people who think or received this movie the same way we did, and we just fully encourage you all to check this out.
00:12:47
Speaker 1: Well, stay here, folks. We will tell you where you can watch this immediately, and we will tell you why we guarantee you will like this movie.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are taking over our weekend feed with movie recommendations to get you into the Halloween spirit. And today's theme Saturday is horror comedy. It is one of our all time favorite sub genres of the horror movie genre. And we are recommending coming in at number three, Hell of a Summer. And it is a hell of a good time. And we guarantee you are going to have a blast watching it. It's only going to take you an hour and 28 minutes from start to finish.
00:13:42
Speaker 1: And we do recommend this. You know what? This is how far we'll go in guaranteeing it. That if you have people over and everybody's looking for a movie, what should we watch tonight? Oh, I want a horror movie. Say, you know what, guys? I got one. Put on Hell of a Summer and we are telling you it will rock. go over well with your group.
00:14:05
Speaker 2: Agreed. And it's rated R, so that's just something to keep into consideration if you've got kids or anyone who's a little squeamish. But I actually just think it's not too gory. It's not tooâ it's nothing thatâ I mean, I would certainly let a teenager see. Have we even let Sabine watch this with us? I'm sure.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: Sabine has seen much worse than this.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it really is a massive crowd pleaser because it's fun. Sometimes, you know, these horror movies that we still love the intense ones, the dark ones, the scary ones. This one you could watch during the day. We've also said when you can watch these movies. This is one because it does go into nighttime a little bit, obviously, with some of the kill scenes. But I think this is a fun enough one that if you want a daytime horror movie, this is a perfect one to put on.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: It has good energy and life throughout. There are... I'm trying to think. Oh, you like all the characters.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: Yes. Right?
00:15:01
Speaker 1: All these kids are worth rooting for or being annoyed by, but they all deliver. And it's funny. The kid that plays opposite Finn, the lead kid who's kind of an airhead trying to be cool, kind of the guy with the car. He is, I loved him in this movie. They're amazing. And he's the other director of this thing. It's so key or important, Robes, to go into a movie like this without an expectation of Horror movie. So because as soon as you go, this is horror movie. Oh, we're watching a horror movie tonight. And then somebody tells the first couple of jokes and you go, wait, what is this? You have to know what you're going for. This is a comedy horror. This is a sub sub genre that we love. And this is one of the few robes that pull off the comedy authentically. and the horror authentically.
00:15:51
Speaker 2: Yep, I agree. And I think the acting is phenomenal. It's deadpan in a lot of ways. And again, they don't take themselves that seriously. You shouldn't take it this seriously.
00:16:01
Speaker 1: It's a fun ride.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: I truly believe that is when critics get to a place where I am so misaligned with them because I think they go into it with a critic's mind. And when you get a movie like this, which is silly and campy and fun... Sometimes I think the intent is missed, and they're looking for something that it isn't. And I think that's part of the problem.
00:16:22
Speaker 1: They're looking for tonal cohesion.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:16:27
Speaker 1: And that's fine. We're not critical of the critics. They have a different thing that they have to look for. But it can turn you off to a movie that, from our vantage point, is just meant to sit down. Actually, this is popcorn. This is classic popcorn. Have a blast. This is just a good time.
00:16:45
Speaker 2: I agree. And so where can you watch it? You can find it on Hulu, on Disney +, so you can stream it if you have either one of those services. It is free to watch and to repeat like we do. We actually just had it on moments ago, and every time I see it on the screen, it puts a big old smile on my face, which I know is not something you can often say when you're talking about a horror movie, but that is why we love horror comedies. And number three, Hell of a Summer. So stay tuned to the feed because we're going to have our number two pick and then our number one pick in the genre of horror comedy. So keep on checking the feed throughout the day today. With that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach. That's TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.