Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut, Hell of a Summer — which he co-wrote and co-directed with fellow actor Billy Bryk — is officially out after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.

The Neon film features an ensemble cast that includes Wolfhard, Bryk, Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Pardis Saremi, Krista Nazaire, Matthew Finlan, Julia Lalonde, Daniel Gravelle and Julia Doyle, alongside Rosebud Baker and Adam Pally.

The slasher comedy delivers a twisty killer reveal — and spoiler alert: It’s not just one murderer, but two. Here’s a breakdown of the ending of Hell of a Summer and what the cast and creators had to say about the movie. Blavity’s Shadow and Act chatted with Wolfhard, Bryk, Woon-A-Tai, Hechinger, Saremi and Quinn.

What is the plot of ‘Hell of a Summer’ and how does it end?

Hell of a Summer follows a group of Gen Z camp counselors who reunite for a prep weekend ahead of summer camp. Jason (Hechinger), a former camper and the most eager of the bunch, takes things seriously — he wants to one day run the place. While the other counselors are here to party, Jason, who’s a bit older, isn’t really into the shenanigans.

Things take a turn when counselors start getting picked off one by one by a masked killer wearing a devil mask and using knives and blades as weapons. Jason is the first to discover a body and is immediately considered a suspect — partly because of the timing and partly because of his awkward demeanor. Only Abby (Quinn) seems to believe in him.

Eventually, the group ties Jason up, convinced he’s the killer. Abby frees him, and Jason sets out to uncover the truth and clear his name.

Who were the killers in ‘Hell of a Summer’?

The movie ends with the killers being unmasked. The killers are revealed to be Mike (Woon-A-Tai) and Demi (Saremi). After faking Demi’s death and staging a bloody scene to make it seem like she’d been murdered, they successfully frame Jason, who finds the scene and is immediately blamed.

Their motivation? Clout. Demi is a wannabe influencer who believes orchestrating a murder mystery will boost her profile and “cement her name.” Mike, who doesn’t seem to have his own direction, just blindly follows her lead. They don’t really have a deep or emotional reason behind the killings — they just want to be famous and remembered for something outrageous.

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai on the ‘dumb jock’ trope

“First of all, this character was so familiar because he’s [a] stereotype in [the] horror genre. He is like the dumb jock,” Woon-A-Tai told Blavity’s Shadow and Act while discussing Mike’s role. “So I knew I just needed to play that stereotype, and it’s pretty easy to play that stereotype. What I was more excited about and more interested to portray was being the killer. The little mannerisms, the whole little fun little dance that we had along with it. I was more excited about being behind the mask and trying to slash up Daniel with peanut butter and s**t [laughs].”

He continued, “So it was more that that I was just so much more interested in doing, especially when I was reading the script. At the end of the day, he’s an unlikable character, even he’s a f*****g killer. So it was not like I needed to make people like him in the beginning or anything like that. He was a d**k a lot throughout it beforehand, before you even find out he’s the killer. I was just more excited about the whole dance rhythm that we got to do. I wanted to be as much as I could be behind the mask. Not the whole time, but as much as I could be behind the mask.”

Mike and Demi’s killer dynamic

“Demi’s character also is stereotypical in some ways,” Saremi said. “She’s the mean girl or whatever, but my favorite was the dynamic between Demi and Mike and establishing that in the short amount of time we had before her kill… like she’s like a head b***h in charge, and he is her puppy dog. I thought their dynamic was so funny. He is just dumb and just listens to whatever she says, like a total tyrant, and I thought it was funny.”

“I love that they played on that dynamic,” Woon-A-Tai added. “Even in the script, Fred was trying to help her, and thinking that she was innocent the whole time. She’s like ‘B***h, I’m not f*****g innocent [laughs.’ I love that dynamic. I loved playing on this whole … Honestly this misogynistic kind of idea in film, where it was like the man is the one manipulating her and everything like that. Where it’s like, ‘No, I’m a b*h.’ I’m just f*****g just following what she’s saying.”

Why were there two killers in ‘Hell of a Summer’?

According to Wolfhard, the idea of having two killers — and making them popular, attractive counselors — was part of the creative vision from the start. But it also connected to the film’s emphasis on character depth and ensemble storytelling.

“That was a huge point of conversation when we first started writing the script,” Wolfhard said. “Especially with a slasher comedy, you want the characters to be lived in and want to get to know the characters and care about the characters as an audience member. But you also can’t fall in love with them too much to where that if they get murdered, then it’s like you can’t go back, or that’s too upsetting.”

Bryk added, “It was a pet peeve of ours when a character in a slasher film is just like a body to be killed, and we didn’t want our characters to feel like that,” he continued. “Even the ones who are on-screen for a shorter amount of time — the actors that we cast, they’re such incredibly specific, interesting people and performers. So it was really helpful to have them breathe life into the characters, and then even if they die shortly afterward.”

Bryk also praised the dynamic between the killers and the rest of the ensemble: “Yeah, I think from the very beginning, this idea of having the two popular hot counselors being the killers and having them be psychotic a very fun idea to us. And then I loved exploring the dynamic between the two of them in the writing of it. But then also on set with Pardis and with D’Pharaoh, who were so funny and so smart and so committed. It was really fun to see the power dynamic shifting — how does Mike behave in public and in front of everybody else? Then how does Mike behave behind closed doors with Demi and watching her really control him? And I just had a blast working with them.”

Hell of a Summer is in theaters now.

Watch the full interview below:

Fred Hechinger

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