Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk, and Fred Hechinger Talk Slasher Comedy in HELL OF A SUMMER
- creepykingdom
- Apr 4
- 3 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk’s directorial debut, HELL OF A SUMMER, we follow 24-year-old camp counselor Jason Hochberg (Fred Hechinger), 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.
For the release of HELL OF A SUMMER, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with co-writer and directors Finn Wolfhard (“Stranger Things”), Billy Bryk (Saturday Night), and actor Fred Hechinger (Fear Street series). During their chat, they discussed everything from their creative process and inspiration to the unique challenge of balancing horror comedy.
Thank you all for speaking with me today! Finn and Billy, what drew you both to make a slasher as your first film?
Billy Bryk: We both loved comedy movies first and foremost. We bonded over our love of comedy movies and teen ensemble comedies and wanted to make a teen ensemble comedy. Then we also really loved slasher comedies and slasher films and horror comedies. If we used the horror genre in the right way, we could elevate the comedy and push the characters and jokes to new heights.
Finn Wolfhard: It also made total sense at the time, given our shared love of these films. Making a comedy through the lens of a slasher movie sounded like a lot of fun to us.
Fred, how was the experience of being directed by both Billy and Finn while also acting alongside them?
Fred Hechinger: I felt so understood. It was a real delight. When we met, I immediately wanted to work with these two. We shared a similar disposition, and we liked the same details and the same movies. Once we started working, it was so fun, honestly. The way that they would go in and out of doing the scenes and then directing the scenes, I was really impressed by it. It’s also a practical challenge to direct and act simultaneously. I felt that you guys only used it to your advantage where you made the environment feel so playful and fun that the line between directing and acting felt not as extreme. It all felt more connected and playful.
Where did you turn for inspiration when making the film?
Billy Bryk: Horror films, comedies, dramas, action films, web series online, everything that we loved that informed our comedic sensibilities and also just from our friendship and what we found funny in real life and how we found ourselves joking around with other friends and what those dynamics became. It was so fun to explore that and write that together. Visually, so many things go into it that you take enough from everywhere else, and then it becomes unique because it’s made up of all these amazing films you love.
What do you think sets HELL OF A SUMMER apart from other slashers?
Finn Wolfhard: I feel like it’s a comedy first and foremost, and horror elevates the comedy. There’s something fun and exciting about that because I feel like there aren’t many horror comedies being made right now.
Billy Bryk: I feel like oftentimes when a horror comedy is comedy first, it’s almost in the world of parody or satire. This one is unique because it takes the kills and the horror seriously. The stakes are very real, but the comedy comes from the characters. We have an incredible cast, an incredible ensemble, led by Fred. His performance is the heart of the film and a very special one.
Fred Hechinger: Everybody that’s in this movie, how they deal with the horror elements come from who those characters are. There’s no outside snark to try and twist the movie; it’s how they would deal with anything in their lives, and I think that was a really beautiful way of thinking about it.
HELL OF A SUMMER is now in theaters.