"lulled you into a false sense of security and banality before slamming you into a brilliantly dark chilling finale. You won't be disappointed. 8/10."
-Film Threat
You know how whenever your parents suggest you watch a movie, you cant help but sigh a bit in concern over there movie tastes? I'm sure when my mom wanted to watch this movie with me in 2018 i let out a rather hefty sigh, but i remember enjoying this movie anyway. Does a pre STRANGER THINGS movie like this have anything to offer other than 80s nostalgia?
Summer of 84 is a 2018 horror film directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell and written by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith. The film stars Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery, Cory Gruter-Andrew, Jason Gray-Stanford, Tiera Skovbye, and Rich Sommer. After suspecting that their police officer neighbor is a serial killer, a group of teenage friends spend their summer spying on him and gathering evidence, but as they get closer to discovering the truth, things get dangerous.
Its sort of funny how STRANGER THINGS has become a way to describe the more modern attempts at capturing that 80s synthy nostalgia, and its impossible to talk about this movie without comparing the 2. The first season of STRANGER THINGS instantly hooked me with its uniquely dark tone, where as this movie simply doesn't. The concept isn't unique, the execution isn't really anything special, and the characters just feel like lesser versions of established classics. THE GOONIES, ICE CREAM MAN, 14 Cameras, MONSTER SQUAD, all of these movies have the same premise with far more interesting things to say. If you don't feel any nostalgia when the 80s hits start blaring or any laughter coming on at the constant horniness, this movie doesn't really have much to offer at first.
But going in, i was promised a dark ending that made all of this waiting worth while. So i suppose i will sit through these kids grasping at straws and making unfounded assumptions about there neighbor for a while. The best part of this waiting for things to happen stage is getting a brief peak into some of the kids less than happy home lives, and those brief scenes really help build these flimsy ass characters. but alas they are few and far between, and mostly were just waiting in what this movie thinks is suspense. By now we are 30 minutes into what feels like an eternity, and the fact we get an off screen kill so late feels like a real slap in the face. this movie refuses to show you anything interesting on screen, and needless to say this shit is getting old fast.
so i started skipping ahead just to get to this fabled ending. If you are interested in doing the same, i recommend skipping to the 1:25 minute mark. and ya know what, to save you sitting through this mostly forgettable movie, I'm about to spoil the fuck out of this ending.
!!!!MASSIVE SPOLIERS FOR THE ENDING!!!!
Davey, Woody, and Nikki enter Mackey's home with Mr. Armstrong's video camera and explore a locked room in the basement, decorated to resemble Mackey's childhood room. They enter the bathroom and are horrified to find the missing boy's corpse in the bathtub, along with a still-living recent abductee. As they're escaping the house they see a wall of framed photographs, and they realize they're of the missing children, including a photo of Davey with his family. They present their footage to the Ipswich Police Department, who issue an APB on Mackey.
So long story short they were right the whole time. cool
no no no no no why no/10
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